Sunday, August 8, 2010

European Vacation Day 6 - Venice to Ljubljana


We left Venice early and headed into Slovenia. By mid-day we had reached Postojna caves. These caves were so much bigger than I expected. After we took the Temple of Doom-style train to the start of the tour we stepped out into a massive cavern that must have been around 50m high. The walking tour was 3km and took us through several large caves and over a bridge built by Russian POWs. The whole thing was staggering, from the natural phenomenon to the human engineering required to build the route we took.

Not easy to get good pics in the caves


After this we went straight to our hotel in Ljubljana. It is in a resort on the edge of town with a pool and beach volleyball court. Very cool! We were then taken back into the centre of Ljubljana and dropped off at the Triple Bridge. From there J and I walked along the river to the Dragon Bridge, then took the funicular railway up to the castle. We went up the tower in the castle and got some great views of the city.

Us at the Triple Bridge

The Dragon Bridge has one of these bad boys on each corner

Ljubljana was a very lovely city and the people were very friendly. We had dinner at a vege cafe and then went for a couple of beers at one of the many riverside bars. The people seem quite sporty with hundreds of cyclists and many rollerbladers. It’s all much less pretentious than the UK as well. I saw no-one in full tour-de-france style cycling gear or any big brand name mountain bikes, just normal people using efficient modes of transport. It’s a bit of a shame we can’t stay longer as we both really, really like Ljubljana.

J in Ljubljana's old town, castle tower in the background
It's a long way up to the top of the castle!

Oh, and Slovenia is almost entirely made of trees!

King and Queen of the castle

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