Croatia/Slovenia

Today, we got to journey to 2 of Slovenians' most memorable sites. Our 1st stop was at the Predjama Castle, a Renaissance fort built into the mouth of a cave. A natural tunnel connects the castle to the top of the mountain, in the middle ages, this tunnel served as a secret supply line to the castle during times of seige. We got to learn about the legend of Erazem Lueger, a robber baron who called this castle home. It ranks amongst the top 10 most fascinating castles in the world. It was featured in the Jackie Chan movie Armor of God & Season 3 of The Witcher.

Then we headed to the Postojna Caves, a 24km long cave system. Cave tours take about 1 1/2 hrs during which we got to see about 5kms of the caves. Part of the tour is done by train and just over 1 km by foot. The cave has a constant temperature of 10°C. It took nature millions of years to create and was hollowed out by the Pivka River. There is a vast array of stalactites from the top and stalagmites from the bottom, forming all kinds of shapes and colors. It takes 100 years to form 1 cm of these. The deepest part of the cave we went to was 120 meters, equivalent to a 36-story building.
Olms or "baby dragons" are found in the caves. They live in the dark, have a constant temperature, are blind and can go 10 years without food, and have a life expectancy of 100 years. Due to their sensitivity to light, we were not allowed to take pictures, but we did get to see some.

We then had a bit of free time and tried some traditional Slovenian desserts. Burt had Kremsnita...cooked vanilla cream, whipped sweet cream, and sweetened top sheets of puff pastry while I tried Gibanica.. layers of cottage cheese, eggs and preserves. Both were very good!

Our group supper was at the restaurant Sokol. A mushroom truffle soup in a bread bowl followed by sausage, potatoes, and sauerkraut (🤮)
followed by more Gibanica... but this was not as good as the afternoon.Okumaya devam et