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...

Aquaventure Waterpark

When we made the decision to go back to Dubai, we also decided that we would make this a truly fun and relaxing vacation.  We love to see history up close and personal but in the past few months (maybe years) we have seen a few too many churches and museums.  Especially for the girls tastes.  This time it was going to be a true getaway - fun, sun, and too much junk food.  So we picked Atlantis as our hotel because it was a one stop shop that included all of those things and more.  Located on its grounds are a waterpark, private beaches, pools, an aquarium, over 30 restaurants, kids club...need I go on?  Think a Las Vegas Hotel that has been moved to the beach and then they added a Schlitterbahn and Sea World to boot.  Paradise for the little's and if I'm being truly honest, for the bigs too.  Exactly what the doctor ordered!

We got in too late the first night to see anything other than the sunset but that just allowed us to recharge our batteries and hit the waterpark first thing in the morning.

Since we were guests of the hotel, our entrance tickets were included in our stay.  The better part though was that since we were concierge guests (I highly suggest this as it will save you a bunch) we also got to skip the line and enter the park without waiting.  Which was fantastic seeing as the lines seemed like they were miles long and the girls (and B) were really eager to get their feet wet.  Literally.

Thankfully, those lines at the entrance did not translate into lines at each of the water slides.  We had collected the inner tubes we needed (doubles for us) and headed to the Tower of Neptune to try out their slides...

A huge thumbs up from both girls and a bit of silliness while we waited for the next ride...

Our next slide down took us through a tunnel underneath the shark tank.  We had fish (and people) staring at us from all sides...

We did a quick tour of the kid's playground where water seemingly spurted out at you from every which way...

And then we headed over to the other side of the park and the Tower of Poseidon.  Here we left our tubes behind as they put us in huge family sized floats to navigate these waters!  These rides were a lot faster, much steeper and we got a few more screams from the girls (and B).

No kids were hurt in the making of this video...And Stinkerbell truly did love it; it just shocked her, especially when we hit weightlessness.

The kids had worked up a hunger and a thirst so we stopped for a treat - snowcones...

And then went back to it.  We hit the lazy river (all 2km of it) and its rapids more than once.

And finally, at the end of day 3 (yep, I am putting all 3 days in here at once because it is just the same old same old each day so why write it separately?) B and I finally braved the Leap of Faith.  Dropping you 9 stories in one second, shooting you through a tunnel in the shark tank and landing you in a pool a mere 5 seconds after you started it truly lives up to its name.  But was oh so fun!

At this point, we all looked like this...

So we called it an adventure and headed to the beach/pool.  Yep, every day we left the water park so we could go play in the water...

Voted the 3rd Best Waterpark in the World (and #1 in the Middle East), Aquaventure surely lived up to its reputation.