Postojna Cave: best cave system we have ever visited

Although Phillip and I have been in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for over 48 hours now, my first post from here has to describe the Postojna Cave tour we took yesterday. Postojna Cave is Europe's largest cave adapted for tourism and the Cave system was hands down the best caves we have visited, ever. We've been in caves in Texas; karst caves in Halong Bay, Vietnam; salt mine caves in Poland; underground river caves in the Philippines; and others. Postojna Cave was the most spectacular for its diversity of formations, cavern after cavern after cavern of formations, and layout of the tour experience. 

Postojna Cave began with the gradual dissolution of limestone rocks by acidic water, giving birth to vast underground chambers and intricate passages.  The cave was first described in the 17th century by a geologist, although graffiti inside dated to 1213 indicates a much longer history of use. During the 19th century, Postojna Cave gained international recognition and became a popular tourist attraction. With the construction of walkways, Postojna Cave officially opened its doors to the public in 1819. In 1872, cave rails were laid along with first cave train for tourists. At first, these trains were pushed along by the guides themselves. Later at the beginning of the 20th century, a gas locomotive was introduced and after 1945, the gas locomotive was replaced by an electric one. We rode the train over a km into the cave system and then back out after walking 1.5 km (over a mile) on twisting paths thru the cave.

on the train at the loading area

The cave comprises several chambers adorned with breathtaking stalactites, stalagmites, and other unique formations.  The cave system is 24 km long, with only 5 km open to the public. We traversed, on the train and on foot, the 5 km of the public cave system. 

We saw stalactites, stalagmites, spaghetti and curtain formations and the largest dripstone formations in the world (50 feet). We had an audioguide, but after the first two audio stops, we didn't use it consistently as we were just awed by the formations we were seeing and couldn't hold the audioguide and take pictures.  Here are some of the pictures I took, but they really don't do the caves justice, 2 x 3 inch images of the immense caverns that filled our entire field of view during the experience. 

This was the "spaghetti" chamber. Notice the spaghetti-like stalactites coming from the ceiling. 

pool of water with limestone building up along the edge

Although our tour group only included fifteen people, we went into the caves with about 50-60 other people as a larger group led by a park employee. Phillip and I worked our way close to the rear of the group, where it was less crowded as we took pictures. At one point, however, we tallied too long and got too far behind the big group. The lights are on a timer, set off by the first motion of the group and the last motion does not turn the lights back on if they have timed out. Yes, we had to scurry along the trail in the dark at one point to catch up. That only happened once. A moment of panic ensued for me that kicked my feet in gear to stay closer to the group, even though we could see the lighted area in the distance.

We've seen other Slovenian sights, but Postojna Cave was so much our favorite that I made a post solely on it. More of Slovenia to come.

Trieste, our final Italian city

Tomorrow, we leave Italy for Slovenia. The past several days, we have been in Trieste, an Italian town that is only 5 miles from Slovenia and 20 miles from Croatia. On the Adriatic Sea, Trieste had been part of the Roman Empire and a Hapsburg port as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as fought over by the Ottomans from the east, Napolean from the west, and Hitler and then Tito from the north. It didn't become part of Italy until 1954. Like most European cities, it has plazas, ruins, and a castle to visit. 

Roman theatre ruins (1st century AD)

Yesterday, we walked to Piazza Unita, Trieste's central square and the largest sea-facing plaza in Europe. However, there was a foot race in town and this plaza was the finish line, so we couldn't actually walk on the plaza. 

One race was a 2k, the other was longer

We strolled along the sidewalk at the edge of the water, going out on a long stone pier

and past boats in the harbor.

Lots of sailboats in the harbor

After visiting those Roman ruins, we walked up the hill to find the Castello di San Giusto, Trieste's 15th century castle and fortress. 

statue on the castle hill

While we were walking around the grounds, the bells tolled in the bell tower. Phillip and I decided, since the very loud bells had just rung, to take the opportunity to head up the stairs to see the bells before they rang again. Phillip made it all the way to the top and got pictures of the bells.

On first glance at the following picture, it may seem like it is a picture looking up a stairway towards a door. It is not. Phillip took it looking down the stairs from mid-way in the bell tower. That's a glass floor on a section of the stair way. And the arrow is pointing to me as I would not (could not) cross that glass to continue up the stairs. 

After the bell tower, we walked outside to the Lapidario area, a collection of pieces of ruins that formed almost a garden of relics and artifacts.

broken pieces of old statues

We walked back down the hill away from the castle, a much easier hike. Statues abound throughout the town, including this one of Irish author, Jame Joyce. He lived in Trieste from 1905 to 1920.

Trieste suffered some damage during WWII, but mainly to the shipyards and its nearby oil refineries. I didn't notice any statues or memorials to WWII, but did see several memorials for WWI. It appears to have claimed more Trieste citizens and had a greater effect on the city. 

honoring WWI soldiers, statue between Piazza Unita and the harbor

Today, we walked back Piazza Unita and found most of the race stanchions and barricades had been removed. 

As you can see by the cloudy sky in the picture, we have had off-and-on rain today. We only walked 8,000 steps today instead of the 11,500 steps a day that we've averaged since we got off the cruise ship.  With rain and the promise of more rain, I've gotten caught up on pictures and posts so I'll be ready when we get to Slovenia tomorrow!

More Tivoli and Bologna, Italy

 

Picking up where I left off in Tivoli.... After spending a few hours in Villa D'Este and its garden, we walked to Rocca Pia, a 15th century castle in town. It is only open to visitors on weekends, and we were there on Wednesday, so the best I could do was an outside picture.

walking around the Tivoli castle, Rocca Pia

Our third stop in Tivoli was the most breathtaking, the Villa Gregoriana. It was a park and waterfall, with ancient Roman ruins. The Park was founded in 1832 when Pope Gregory XVI wanted to contain the continuous flooding of the Aniene river. Its waters were channeled into a double tunnel dug into Mount Catillo, giving life to the Cascata Grande (the waterfall). The latter, with its 120 meters of jump, is second largest waterfall in Italy. Once the water diversion into a gorge was completed, Pope Gregory created the park, which today bears his name.

The remains of a Romas villa

We could walk into the ruins

The waterfall from near the ruins, looking across the gorge

Near a grotto, about 1/3 the way to bottom of the gorge

We walked behind these windows when we went up
on that side of the gorge

The waterfall close to the bottom of the gorge

At the bottom of the gorge

It was easy to get to the bottom of the gorge, but every step we took down meant we had a step back up to street level. Fortunately, park benches were available at each switchback on the climb out.  We loved seeing the waterfall from many different heights.

And, my reward was to visit a wine store! We passed this store on our first evening in town, but we didn't stop. Today, we stopped. In Italy, it is very common to buy "house wine," local good stuff, but not in bottles. It is in these stainless steel vats with measuring spigots and is sold by the liter. 

The store owner fills up a plastic bottle. I bought my liter of red wine from her, after tasting a few. 2.60 euros, under $3 for a liter (wine bottles are usually only 3/4 liter) of tasty wine! 

my liter of house wine, cup of it at my left foot

After Tivoli, we rode the train for two nights in Bologna, Italy. Bologna wasn't on my "must-see" list, but it was 1/2 way between Tivoli and Trieste, and it did have a UNESCO World Heritage site. Unfortunately, our hotel will be memorable for us because the bathroom had some kind of sewer leak or drain issue. We told the front desk after our first night, but it was never fixed and the smell only got worse. Shutting the bathroom door did keep it localized in the bathroom, but we did have to go in there during our stay. Bad reviews for them, which is a shame because the rest of the room was quite nice. 

Somewhere.... a sewer smell from in here.

We only had one full day to see Bologna, but that was actually plenty of time. Famous statue (Neptune), leaning towers (actually more common in Italy than you'd think), and the UNESCO-designated porticos.

Naked Neptune on one of the plazas

the leaning Asinelli and Garisenda towers on the Plaza of Porta Ravegnana

Bologna has 38 kms of porticos (covered porches/walkways) in the city center and 60 km in the town. It has the world's longest portico, over 4 km (2.4 miles), which we began to walk, but had to walk over 2 miles to get to the beginning of the 4 km measure, so we probably only did about 1/2 mile of this famous portico before we decided that seeing a fancy long porch wasn't worth it to us. We stopped and turned around right before the route would have involved a great many portico-covered stairs ending at a church. 

most porticos looked like this

some porticos were more ornate

We left Bologna this morning and took the train to our final Italian city, Trieste. It is near the Slovenian and Croatian borders. Three nights here in a hotel with no sewer smells emanating from our bathroom. I'm happy about that. Nice hotel with one English-language channel. That's one channel more than we've had since we left the cruise ship. Phillip is happy about that. 

Ground travel in Italy: Rome, Tivoli

A summary of our Italy travel: Rome: crowds, Tivoli: everything is uphill; train travel is wonderful; the USA has no real ruins. 

After the cruise to Europe, Phillip and I spent three nights in Tivoli, making a day trip from there into Rome. Thirty minutes on the train put us in the crowded city that is Rome. The masses of people reminded us of Paris, with lines for everything. We really weren't interested in spending time in lines, so we saw the outside of the iconic locations that interested us.

the Colloseum in Rome

Our first sight was the Colloseum, the largest ancient amphitheater ever built (started in 70 AD, completed in 80 AD). It is still the largest standing amphitheater. 

We walked to the Trevi Fountain, but didn't stand in line with about a thousand of our friends to toss a coin into the fountain. We were able to snake our way close enough for a decent photo.

Trevi Fountain

After the hike to the Fountain, we decided to get a Metro card and ride the subway to our next stop, Vatican City. Even though the Pope's funeral was April 26th and the conclave had not started yet to select the next Pope, the crowds were definitely still there. Significant portions of the plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica were still cordoned off, awaiting the new pope's selection.

Arrow points to Pope's balcony

During our bus ride thru Rome from the cruise port, the driver mentioned the Circus Maximus, so we visited it as well. Not as spectacular as the Colloseum, but actually older, it was a chariot racing venue. Started in 494 BC and added on thru the centuries (Julius Ceasar added seats all the way around), it could hold 150,000 spectators for the races. 

Circus Maximus ruins

We took the train back to Tivoli, intending to eat dinner there. However, as we were walking from our bed and breakfast to a more commercial area, the skies open up and a strong storm moved in. I had our umbrellas with us, but the wind threatened to blow them either away or inside out, so we collapsed them and and just got wet. Also, the restaurants, most of which had their seating outside, closed as we walked up because their patio covers were in danger of blowing over. We ended up back at our room, wet and still hungry. Fortunately, we had snacks. 

The next day, with beautiful weather, we stayed in Tivoli and visited the UNESCO World Heritage sites there. We walked to Villa d'Este, a villa and garden completed in 1572.  The fame and glory of the Villa d'Este was established by its system of fountains; fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. Unfortunately for us, the water was not running that day. The ticket lady said staff was working on it, but no fountains were working. We toured and took pictures anyway as this was our only chance to see it. Villa D'Este was spectacular even without the fountains working.

Artwork on the walls and ceiling depicting the hunt

Artwork on all the salon ceilings

An inside niche like the garden grottos

After walking thru the Villa's decorated salons and hallways, we went outside to the gardens:

Pegasus fountain

The Fountain of the Bicchierone

The Oval Fountain, visitors can walk behind the waterfall

The Hundred Fountains, a walkway where water would come out of those heads

The Fountain of Neptune

The Fish Ponds

More photos from Tivoli and some from Bologna in my next post. We are enjoying our traveling!