Friday, June 2, 2017

Caves and Castles

 Having explored the Dragons of Ljubljana, we decided to head about 40 km southwest and explore the dragons of Postojna.  Unlike the mythical dragon we saw all over yesterday, the cave dwelling "dragons" in Postojna are rare and unique to a minuscule part of this region. We were all excited to see if we could find a real one (Stinkerbell quickly found the toy one).

 Two different kinds of dragons from Slovenia.

We entered our first cave of the day to see if we could find the Proteus (Olm).  It was completely dark, save an infrared light or two to help keep us on the path as we wound our way through the dozen tanks.  Each had a small light you could push to illuminate the waters and see if you could find the various cave dwelling amphibians.  We were lucky to find quite a few and were awed by their sight.

The Proteus is the only exclusively cave-dwelling species in Europe, specifically southern Slovenia, the northeast tip of Itlay and Bosnia/Herzegovina.  They are entirely aquatic - eating, sleeping and breeding underwater - and because they don't ever see the light of day they are albino and blind, but its other senses are acutely developed to make up for this.  But why do they call it a dragon?  Back in the late 1600's heavy rains washed the olms up to the surface and the people who saw them thought them to be a cave dragon's offspring.  

Out in the sunshine once again, we lined up for our entrance into the caves.  We are no strangers to cave tours having done Salt caves, ice caves, and gold mines.  This one was different for the fact that we would be transported almost 4 km into the cave by train and then cover another 2 km on foot while learning a bit about the formations.  I won't bore you with it all (it was an hour tour after all), but some of my favorites are below...


 Watch your head!


A small bit of the train ride in.


 

 This is Brillant.  It is the symbol of the caves and is well over 50,000 years old.
   

Cave curtains...named because of their resemblance to window curtains.

 Looks like a church on a hill...

 Peering at the Proteus with a camera feed - no pictures are allowed of the Proteus.
   


 The concert hall - known for its acoustics- can seat over 10,000 people (and does).
  
 We exited into the bright sunshine and headed to our second stop of the day, the Predjama Castle, a Renaissance castle built into the mouth of a cave by Erazem of Predjama back in the 13th century.  It holds the Guinness Book of World's Record for the Largest Cave Castle in the World.  I had no idea that there even was such a thing or a World Record for it.

In the 15th century, the castle's most famous owner moved in, Erazem Leuger.  Erazem was a knight and a robber baron.  According to the legend, Erazem killed the leader of the Imperial Army and got on the bad side of the Habsburgs.  Not the side you wanted to be on at the time.  He was arrested and taken to Ljubljana castle (which we saw yesterday) where he awaited trial.  But before he was sentenced he managed to bribe a guard and escape back to his castle.  Why go home?  Because his castle was almost unpenetrable and almost impossible to reach, being as it was built into a cave and had the advantage of being able to see whoever was approaching.  There was only one fatal flaw - the bathroom tunnels.  The least enforced part of the house it was where the attacking parties finally caught up with Erazem and killed him.  Today, the miles of cave tunnels are still able to be climbed but you need special exquipment and a steady foot to do so.  We just stuck to the tour route.

 Notice the doorway looking hole above the left side of the castle - yep, still part of the castle.

 Looking down below the castle on the left-hand side you can see the old entrance.

 Everyone was interested in this unique castle.


 This is where they would pour boiling oil on you fro if you were not welcome and somehow made it to the front door.  On the right is the fateful toilet...

 The dichotomy of the man-made castle and the natural cave was apparent in many places...



 Look at the thickness of those walls - 2 1/2 Stinkerbell's wide!

 The Valley church where Erazem is buried can be seen from the castle walls.

 We couldn't enter the church (I took the picture through the window) so we had ice cream instead...


Touring done accomplished for the day, we were ready to get to Lake Bled and relax for the next day or so.  And we did!  We walked about 400 meters to the lakeside restaurant by our hotel and had a drink and some dinner, followed by the famous Bled cake.  I think we were all just happy enjoy the sun, the water and the company.

 Gotta love a good restaurant hammock.


 and a good local beer.

 and Bled cake.


 It was getting late so we wandered the lake front back to our hotel and called it a night.  We were very excited for what tomorrow would bring...
























No comments:

Post a Comment