[GG] From the Castle to the Cave

Ljubljana

Lake Bled was so pretty and there were still so many places to hike and things to explore that it was hard to leave. On her last evening in Lake Bled, Bee painted a sign for a coffee bar, alerting patrons to their new menu, which for the first time included food. It was Bee's legacy to Lake Bled, surviving our visit long after we have gone.

3 + 3 = 6. Six passengers is the minimum number to hire a taxi-van to take us to Ljubljana from Lake Bled. So we gathered up a few fellow passengers and jumped in the van, making our transit from Lake Bled in half the time than it would have been by bus or train and minimally more expensive. Our driver expounded on the good old days and how difficult it is now in Slovenia for people to make a living. It is the capitalist against the worker. Time for a revolution, but Slovenians only talk, they don't do. This was the philosophy presented by our driver. His “good old days” were under Communist rule and Slovenia has only had its independence since 1991. He rambled on about the high unemployment and unhappiness of the people. He told us how he and his wife struggle financially and how poor his business has been this year. It was only a 20 minute ride to Ljubljana but a very long story.

Hotel Allegro greeted us with warm smiles, cold drinks, and a beautiful room. It was absolutely the finest place we've stayed on this trip and we would highly recommend it to other travelers. They offered us schnapps, coffees, wine, struddles, whatever we wanted upon arrival each day and their breakfasts included pastries, fresh fruit, olives, and a variety of meats, cheese, yogurts, cereals, eggs, and fresh squeezed orange juice. The breakfast room was in cellar of this 3-story historic home turned boutique-hotel, located in the medieval portion of the city, on a quiet side street near the castle, cathedral, three-bridges, and dragon bridge. An ideal location.

Up, of course, was the Ljubljana Castle giving us a beautiful panorama of the city. Then down to St. Nichlas' Cathedral, past Triple Bridge area, across Dragon Bridge, through the open air market with a stop for cherries and raspberries, through the flower market, and past racks and racks of bicycles for rent. Window shop, stop for a cold drink, people watch, then Sushi.

Skocjan Caves, about an hour by train south of Ljubljana, is a UNESCO site. It has a fast flowing underground river and a small siphon, such that the chambers flood after heavy rain fall, causing the river to rise as much as 300' inside the caves. The largest chambers are certainly the largest in Slovenia and count among the largest cave chambers in the world. We chose to visit the caves for 3 hours, the first half on our own in a newly opened portion of the cave and the last half with a guide. Slovenia has built an elaborate dimly lit, steel walkway system in the cave, following the Reka River. Twists and turns, across bridges, up steps, down steps for more than a mile. We emerged very impressed by what we saw. Lunch and then joined our tour guide and group of about 15 people for our tour of another portion of the cave, about 2 miles in length. This portion of the cave was even more impressive. The caverns were beautiful and filled with stalagmites, stalagtites, columns, calcium carbonate pools, and the river. I have seen lots of caves in my lifetime and these were, by far, the largest and most impressive.

A night with lightning, thunder, and rain gave way to a cloudy and lightly drizzly morning. We caught the early afternoon train to Zagreb, our first stop in Croatia.