We have been in Slovenia less than 24 hours and we thought “what could be a better way to get over jet lag than taking a ten-hour van tour?” We are staying in the capital city of Ljubljana for the first five nights, then spending the rest of our time driving around the Julian Alps in the north. So for today we booked a guided tour that would take us to some of parts of the country that we don’t plan to see by car. The photo above is the port city of Piran from the old city walls.
But Piran was actually the last stop on today's tour. The first place we went was to the Postojnska Jama, or “Postojna Cave” — “jama” just means “cave” and “Postojna” (pos-TOY-nah) is the name of the town. This cave is one of the top three tourist attractions in Slovenia, and tourists have been coming to the cave since 1818. This part of the country is comprised of karst limestone and is very porous, allowing for the formation of caves shaped by underground rivers. In Postojna’s case, the Pivka River has been carving its way through the limestone for millions of years. Slovenia has over 15,000 registered caves, and between 100-200 new caves are discovered every year.
Tourism in the cave really picked up in the 1870s when rail tracks were installed. At first the guides pulled cartloads of tourists by hand, and then a small train was added. Nowadays, a fleet of electric trains are constantly ferrying visitors in and out of Postojna. The cave itself is enormous — 15 miles long (24km) — but the train only goes in as far as 3.5 kilometers. It goes at a pretty good clip, and there was no safety briefing. I guess in Slovenia if you are dumb enough to stick your arms up you deserve to lose a limb. Wheee!
After a hair-raising ten-minute ride, you disembark from the train and a guide takes you through the next kilometer of walkways, pointing out features and formations. The cave interior is immense, and this is by far the most impressive cave I’ve seen in all my travels. The variety and number of stalactites, stalagmites, columns, shields, and other formations is remarkable. Also remarkable is one of the cave’s permanent residents, the olm -- a small, blind, aquatic salamander that can live for 100 years. We got to see them in an aquarium but it was very dark and no photos were allowed. The temperature inside the cave hovers around a constant 50 degrees, so even though we only saw a small portion of it during our 90 minute tour, at the end we were ready to hop on the train and ride back into the sunshine.
The next stop was a self-guided audio tour of Predjamski Grad, or Predjama Castle. Its name in Slovenian means “castle in front of the cave", and you can see in the photo that is an accurate description. A castle has existed on this cliff cave since at least the 1270s, although the version that we saw dates to the 1580s and has been heavily restored. Although it is called a castle it was really built as a fortified stronghold, not as a place for royal lodging. There were no kings here — for most of its history Slovenia was ruled by dukes or monarchs from other nations (like the Habsburgs who ruled the Holy Roman Empire).
The castle interior is not very remarkable, it was definitely built for defense and not comfort. The most interesting part was the upper level where the castle connected to the cave interior. The castle’s most famous inhabitant, Erasmus de Luegg, used the cave network to keep the castle supplied when it was under siege by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Through the natural cave window you get a glimpse of the Lokva Valley below.
Today was a day of depths and heights, and once we reached the coastal town of Piran we added even more heights. At the hill above town we stopped for a brief chance to climb the old city walls and take a few photos of the stunning views of the Adriatic Sea below us. Slovenia only has about 30 miles of coastline, with four main seaside towns wedged between the Italian border to the north and the Croatian border to the south.
Piran originated as a Roman settlement and had a strong economy for centuries thanks to its access to sea salt pans. It had strong ties to Venice, which is just across the Adriatic sea, and from the 1200s to about 1800 it was actually a part of the Venetian Republic. We only had a couple of hours to explore, but we definitely felt that the city had a more Italian atmosphere and architecture than other parts of Slovenia. The Italian influence is especially strong in the Tartini Square, named after the violinist and composer who was born here.
We had just enough time to explore a bit on foot, have a nice lunch at a seafood restaurant on the waterfront, and try one of the famous local desserts: Š'torta (SHTOR-tuh). The dessert is named after a native olive tree that grows in the Istria region of Slovenia. It consists of sponge cake and layers of olive-flavored mousse over a central layer of salted caramel. You drizzle a small capsule of rich olive oil over the top. It sounds like a bizarre flavor combo but somehow it all works together and is heavenly!
