Wednesday, May 24th, Piran, Slovenia

Greetings!

Two bridges, a castle in a cave, and the second longest cave in Slovenia.  Bridges in Slovenia are important because there are so many river gorges.  With steep craggy bent and twisted limestone mountains standing side by side, travel for the past thousand years hasn't been possible without bridges.  The largest stone bridge in the world is in Slovenia.  Bridge diving is a local sport, for enough tourist money.

With limestone mountains you get caves with stalactites and stalacmites.  Almost 11,000 such caves in the country.  The second largest, and number one tourist attraction, is Postojna Cave Park.  Together with the Predjama Castle Cave, the experience was unique.  Predjama is a 12th century blend of cave and castle which was home to a notorious robber baron, Ezarem, who held out for a year in it while under attack from local authorities.  Defying their attempts to starve him out by using a secret cave exit to gather food from atop the cave, he was finally betrayed by a servant who lit a candle in a window when the baron used the adjacent toilet building near the entrance.

The Postojna Cave is simply amazing.  Nearly a million visitors a year enter the cave to board a train for a twenty-minute ride deep into its depths.  Led by language-specific guides, and an anti-slip floor, they then walk three kilometers through some of the tallest stalactites and stalacmites in the world.

We end the day out on the Slovenian coast at Piran, a beautiful resort area with warm water and fresh fish dinners.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Wednesday, May 24th, Piran, Slovenia.