Cave and Castle Tour - November 2, 2024
We pre-booked the Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle Tour with Koper Tours with our Cruise Critic role call group. Koper Tours asked that we make a deposit payment. We arrived early for the 8:30 am meeting time, paid the balance, and met our guide and group. It took a little bit to leave. I think they were waiting on a group, but then moved a lady from a different tour to ours. Our tour guide was energetic and fun. She had a green Dragon on a stick for us to find her. Slovenians are very proud of their country; she noted it had "love" in the name (though Travis first guessed "oven"). She had a story about the Slovenian ruler telling God that he will take what God choses to give this country vs. other countries saying that they want volcanos or waterfalls. So, they were blessed with so much beauty. It was a very beautiful country, and everything was so green (compared to hot and dry Texas...). We got to see mountains, some fall foliage, and rocks walls on the drive to the cave -- though hard to get good pictures from the bus, so just sharing a few. Someone noted later no litter. He was right; the country was so clean. I was later disappointed in all the litter in Sicily and Rome later. I have since heard a podcast about other places to visit in Slovenia; I'm SO ready to go back!
Baby dragons that are blind and live in the cave. They are also called human fish because of the flesh color. We got to see these in the tank at the end of the cave tour. It was recommended to view them from the right side of the tank.
When we arrived, after about an hour drive, our guide directed us to the restrooms, while she went to get everyone's tickets. For the ladies' restrooms, the back restrooms were nicer. Travis thought that this was the overflow restrooms, but they were nicer and more modern. Between both, there were many ladies' restrooms. Where the restrooms were was a counter service restaurant and a bar. She recommended some local desserts. We tried one after the cave tour. We met and started talking to a lady who was a solo traveler. Then she met and was talking to a gentleman from Scotland, who was not a solo traveler, but his wife was unable to do the tour. He was a solo tour goer. We took pictures for each other and then met our guide who was passing out tickets. Don't lose the ticket because it is also for the Castle. With the tickets, we were directed to time entry and language specific tour lines. In the cave, we had a Cave specific tour guide.
Postojnska Jama (cave). The cave had a train that took us to the tour starting point. I did not get a good picture of the train; you see the yellow metal of the train behind Travis here. The other pictures were burry with movement and darkness. We did pass other trains and went around curves on the train, which was cool. After the train, our cave tour guide met us and walked us through with different stopping points to give information. The cave was large and pretty, and the guide was knowledgeable and entertaining.
At the end of the tour and cave, they kept baby dragons in a tank, so that everyone can see them. Here is one. There was also an underground river and weir, of course.
Here is the local cake that we tried, called: Gibanica. It is layers of baked apples, poppy seeds, phyllo, and cheese. Travis liked it. I did not, but I don't like cooked apples in pies or cobblers either.
Then we were back on the bus at the defined time and had about a 10 minute drive to the Castle. Before, we tried to get the Scot to recommend good things to see in Scotland, but he was not much for pushing tourism in his country. The Castle, called Predjama means Pre-Cave Castle. The Castle was built into the cave. Our guide told us to get the audio tour, included, by saying that we were in the Dragon group. The Castle in the cave. The owner was shot with a cannonball while on the loo. Someone on the inside ratted out that he was currently on the loo and got him killed.
Views from the castle. Down by the entrance, there was another counter service restaurant with a few things, restroom, and museum inside. There were also por-a-potty like restrooms outside; don't fall for these -- there are better ones inside. In addition to the beautiful view from the castle, there was a creek and goats at the bottom. The goats were popular.
Different views of the cave in the castle or cave and castle together.
This is the water collection system. From the audio tour, it sounded like this was also a way to protect the residents; by collecting their own water, they knew it was not poisoned. Sample cannonballs or catapults shot at the castle.
Travis found a local beer to try. Outside, we walked down by the goats and got some views of the castle from below.
After the castle, we headed back to the Koper main town area. We lost our front row seat on the way back. Our tour guide passed around tourist booklets of Slovenia -- way too much to look at and at one point we were talking to her, so could not also look at a booklet. The bus went back to the cruise port, but she directed us to how to get to town by either an elevator or stairs. We did the elevator. Here is a Christmas decoration that was already out and the rest of the main square. We walked around a little and went to a grocery store. We found a candy with a hard mint shell on the outside with a chocolate icing center that you had to suck your way to the icing. I chewed the first time; this was not good. It was good eaten correctly.
Back on the ship, enjoying the Great Outdoors' afternoon snack. They had cookies on this cruise, but they were not very good at all -- definitely not their usual. I hoped that it is just because people in Italy like hard cookies (this is what we saw in the grocery stores) and not the new normal to make people not eat them (I have also seen the plates full of cookies when they put them out). The cookies were hard without much favor. From the Great Outdoors, I noticed that all the cars loading onto the ferry looked the same. I looked with the camera zoom, and they were all Teslas. Where are all the Teslas going? Then a pretty (and early) sunset.
We had Cagney's Steakhouse and bottle of wine with our Sapphire status booked tonight. We had to have it early on the cruise before we got too full. Travis had the shrimp cocktail, and I had the grilled thick-cut bacon with homemade steak sauce. I was trying something new. I cut the meat off and ate around the fat; though bacon has a lot of fat. What I ate was tasty, and the steak sauce was very good. We were able to only get one side with the status voucher. I got my favorite the filet mignon with truffle fries, and Travis got something different -- the NY Strip Steak (I'll vouch that it was higher quality than the one in the MDR) -- and broccoli. For dessert, Travis had the OMG Caramel-Butterscotch cheesecake and me the seven layer chocolate cake. Everything was very good and so much food.
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