Caves n coast
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2012
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4
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Trip End
Oct 20, 2012
Piran, Piran-Pirano, Slovenia
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Postojnska Jama is a network of 21 kms of passages, galleries and chambers which is
the largest cave in the “classic karst” and the most visited show cave in Europe. In 1872 railway lines were laid in the cave; so you can admire the size and splendour of the underground world through tunnels and arches opening up into huge halls and caverns.
So after a fun train ride through the subterranean we got off and were herded round in groups to view the calcite formations, stalactites and stalagmites abounding in a variety of shapes, colours and age. It was fascinating as we dove further into the cave systems and had some areas of red formations, black and brilliant dazzling white depending on the soil composition of the grounds above. We also noticed a lot of streaky bacon looking bits and some spaghetti, but most noticeable was a lot of 'nik naks' appearing rocks (as in the crisps)
The caves are also home to 99 different species of creatures- mainly spiders, beetles, louse, butterflies, snails, bats etc which we viewed in the Vivarium Proteus. But by far the most noticeable is the 'Human Fish' or proteum. This little creature is very weird looking, kind of see through and looks a bit like a baby dragon (which is what they used to believe it was) or a snake sort of thing with little legs. Around 30cm long, its blind and the only European vertebrate living exclusively underground.
Once we were sufficiently weirded out by all the odd cave creatures we then made our way to Predjama Castle which is just down the road. This magnificent and impregnable castle has been perched in the middle of a vertical 123m high cliff for more than 700 years. It looks pretty cool as it is actually set into the cliff face.
We then drove a bit further down towards the coast and had a beautifully scenic drive from Kocep along to Piran, very mediterranean-y and a perfect sunny day. That's what we found so great about Slovenia; you could be in the mountains where its foggy and raining one minute, and then in 2-3 hours we were on the coast in glorious sunshine peeling off all our layers.
So we wandered around Piran for a bit through the narrow cobbled streets in the old town and then along the sea front. Had a pretty awesome black chocolate icecream here too before driving back to our base in Bled.
We ventured back into Bled town for some dinner, choosing Pizza Rustica to satisfy our bellies.
