Birthday trip: Day 6

On Day 6 we left our lovely place in Bled and headed for the coast. Along the way, though, we stopped to tour a couple different caves and a castle before making it to our next AirBNB in Izola, Slovenia.

Our first stop was Postojna Caves. Apparently, it's the leading tourist attraction in Slovenia. We rode a little train into the caves. Along the way, there was randomly a chandelier room...

(no idea why...no explanation was given, lol)...and then we continued on until the train stopped and we got out to venture on foot with our guide.

The pictures can't really convey how cavernous these caves were. It was awe-inspiring. We walked through amazing cave features and learned along the way from our guide (who was also one of the cave explorers). (We're guessing each train held about 120 people (grouped by language)...that made up one tour guide's group. Our guide was great.)

Apparently, these two features are the stars for Postojna and appear on all of their marketing.

Just after this, we learned about the olm…a cave salamander that is found here. They’re nicknamed “cave dragons” and are fascinating. We got to see some during the tour! (No pictures, though, as they don’t like light.)

The tour finished in this concert hall. They actually have concerts here and it holds 3000 people. Pictures can’t relay the scale. (In the bottom left, you can see people heading into the gift shop.)

From the gift shop, we boarded the mini train again to ride back out of the cave system.

We ate a quick lunch at Postojna Caves then hurried over to Predjama Castle (about 15 minutes away). It’s a castle built into the mountainside, that utilized the cave network for storage and escape and such.

Because we had specific timed entry tickets at both caves, and based on Rick Steves’ guidebook recommendation that the castle tour wasn’t necessary, we didn’t actually listen to the audio tour but just fast walked our way through the interior. We disagree with Mr Steves and wish we’d allowed enough time to learn more while we were there. This was one of many shots inside the castle...

From Predjama Castle, we navigated our way to Skocjan Caves. Photography wasn't allowed along the tour. We figure it was mostly to keep tours moving in a timely manner because it was so spectacular that people would be stopping along the way to take photos everywhere. It was just wow. Seriously. Go look at pictures online. There was a river along the bottom of the cavern and a bridge crossing over and hundreds and hundreds of stairs along the path.

Here's our group as we're exiting the cave...

From there, there were three options for returning to the visitor center, all with varying numbers of steps and estimates of how long it would take. Given our givens that day, we had to opt for the shortest route. This is looking back at the exit as we continued on the path to return to the start...

We took a minute to rehydrate and then continued on our way to our next AirBNB, meeting our host in Izola. We settled in and got a load of laundry started then walked to get some dinner...catching the sunset along our way...

We returned to the AirBNB so I could hang the laundry to dry and edit photos and such. Nathan headed back out for gelato and reconnoitering. While he was out, I plugged in the kettle to make tea and the electricity went out in the AirBNB. Lovely. I managed to call our host, though, who promptly came with her husband. He flipped the breaker to get things working again and they left with the kettle (which was determined to have been the cause of the outage). (They brought a new kettle the next day. :) We actually, though, had a travel kettle with us so used that from then on.) Whew.

Birthday trip: Day 5

On Day 5 we finally explored Bled. It was a day with a lot of walking. We started by walking to the lake and to the row boat rental spot nearest the island. Nathan then rowed us out to the island...

...where we each rang the wishing bell inside the church...

We then also climbed the church tower. (There was a mesh over the openings so none of the pictures were very good.) And, these are the 99 steps that it's said grooms used to carry their brides up in order to prove they were "fit for marriage." (We did not attempt any carrying of anyone, lol.)

We then treated ourselves to some potica. These two were hazelnut and fig potica (near) and carob and pear potica (far). Yum!

After that, Nathan rowed us back to the shore, and we decided to walk the rest of the way around the lake. It was a gorgeous day. Here's a shot of the island with the castle up on the cliff (at the edge of the lake) in the distance...

We stopped along the way for lunch and trying the famous Bled Cake...

...and then finished our circumnavigating of the lake and walked back to our AirBNB for a bit of an afternoon break. Rehydrated and with phones charged, we then headed out on foot again...walked back to the lake and up to the castle (it was a bit of a climb but there were stairs). We were just in time for a beautiful sunset...

This was the courtyard of the castle...

...and that's Triglav National Park (Mt Triglav is the highest point in Slovenia) in the distance...

We also enjoyed some of the exhibition/museums at the castle before trekking back down all the steps to the shore of the lake. Here's Bled Island in the distance...

...and the castle lit up in the evening...

We then stopped for dinner before walking back to our AirBNB to pack up for the morning... 

Birthday trip: Day 4

Day 4 was packed! We got out the door a little bit ahead of schedule on our way to our tandem paragliding experience. We quickly realized something was off and discovered a flat tire. Fortunately, we found a spot to pull off (honestly, this was actually pretty fortunate...there weren't many such spots in our travels) and, while I was communicating with our paragliding people, Nathan executed a very quick tire change, grateful to discover that our spare was actually better than the tire it was replacing. 

We then hurried to continue to the paragliding meet up and arrived with *maybe* a minute to spare before they were going to leave us. We literally jumped in their van and raced off to the gondola station to catch the impressive gondola...

and then a ski lift...

...and then a bit of a walk to the launch site. There were three of us (and the three paragliders)...us and a lovely Swedish man celebrating his 70th birthday. The Swedish man went first, then me...

...and then Nathan.

Fortunately, Nathan didn't drop his phone. ;) And, because his instructor knew that Nathan's been taking paragliding lessons, he even let Nathan control the flight for a bit!

It. Was. Gorgeous. We definitely lucked out on some beautiful weather and fully appreciated it! (Technically, our booking for the experience listed a few days we were available and then our guides decided this was the best day, weather-wise. We'd planned interchangeable days while we were in Bled for this purpose.)

We were in the air for about 30 minutes, did some wing dips and spirals and landed on the other side of Lake Bohinj. Yay! 

The van was there to return us to our starting point where we picked up our car and got a recommendation for somewhere to fix our flat tire. We were then able to get the tire fixed surprisingly quickly and affordably (hooray!) and then stopped for lunch...

We had a lovely lunch at the base of this giant slab where they were also doing some rock climbing experiences then got some gelato and walked a bit along the lake...

From there, we drove to the nearby Slap Savica (slap means waterfall) and climbed the 560 steps and trail to enjoy this sight...

After climbing all those steps back down and getting to our car, we drove to another nearby area to hike a portion of the Mostnica Gorge inside the Triglav National Park. There were MANY photos taken. :)

The photos really couldn't capture the depth and drama of the hike. It was amazing!

From there, we said goodbye to Lake Bohinj...

...found some dinner and dessert and then drove back to Bled for our evening photo editing and catching up. Whew. 

Birthday trip: Day 3

Day 3 of our trip had overcast and rainy weather so we decided to drive to the Tripoint...where Italy, Slovenia and Austria all meet...and then into Austria for a bit.

The Tripoint was pretty remote, with a rough dirt/gravel road to get there. When we finally arrived, there was only one other couple there. They'd hiked from the nearest Slovenian town and headed back down while we were still up there (about a 2-2.5 hour hike, they said).

Here's the first marker we saw...

There were a couple more markers also but the winner was the view. Here's looking into Austria...

They also had this metal topographic map which was cool...

During a break in the rain (a gorgeous sunny few moments), we enjoyed a picnic lunch. 

We'd already tucked in a good bit before we remembered to take a photo, sorry. Our AirBNB had a flyer for this local business that would pack you a breakfast basket or a picnic basket...filled with lots of yummy food in appropriate serving sizes and complete with the basket, a blanket, a cutting board, etc. (I know I'm forgeting things but our basket had a loaf of fresh bread, butter and jam and honey, sausage and cheese, yogurts, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit, peach nectar juice, milk, and a little potica!) They delivered it to our AirBNB and then the next day we just left the basket and blanket back out by the door and they picked it up. Yay!

While we were eating, a truck from Villacher brewery surprised us, arriving to pick up some tables and such that had been left at the site after a recent gathering. We got on the road down before the truck and headed into Villach, Austria where we ended up parking in a lot directly across from the Villacher building...

...and as we were walking away from there toward town, the very same Villacher truck driver honked at us and rolled down the window to say hi. :) 

We saw this cool street/alley along our way...

...and, of course, climbed the 239 steps to the top of the church tower.

There was actually a section of the climb with a red and green light to control the direction...because it was too narrow for passing...

(We came upon other climbs on our trip that could have used a system like this, fyi.)

Then we ventured next door to the actual cathedral. It was rather plain looking from the outside but fascinating on the inside. I've not seen another ceiling like this, and I've been in a rather lot of churches and cathedrals in my travels.

We stopped and got afternoon tea and coffee plus dessert and then walked along the river a bit before returning to the car, figuring out yet again how to get out of the parking lot, and driving back to Bled for dinner and a quiet night. 

Birthday trip: Day 2

Day 2 was spent in Ljubljana, Slovenia. We drove the 40 minutes or so from Bled (where we home-based), found parking and started our wander...

Had to take a picture at Dragon Bridge...

...and in front of the pink church that Ljubljana is somewhat associated with...

Then we climbed the hill to the castle and took a photo inside the courtyard...

...before climbing the viewing tower and looking out...

What goes up must come down...so then we climbed back down the hill...

(parts of the path were made up of many steps and parts were a more traditional trail)

In our wandering, we also found this. It's an odd river of bronze faces in Locksmith Alley...

There was a fountain at the top so that water actually flowed down. And here's a close up of some of the faces...

Then we had lunch and wandered more before meeting up with our food tour. We find that it's a lovely and useful idea to take a food tour at the beginning of trips...not only are they usually delicious and fun but they teach you what to look for in a new country's foods. This food tour did not disappoint. It was fabulous and filling and educational. We had six different stops and had a lovely time for about 3.5 hours. This was our second stop...a lovely chicken soup and some local beer and sausages...

I'm pretty disappointed we didn't take a group photo, though. It was our lovely guide, us, and two other couples. One of the couples was from Australia and one was from South Africa, so we were quite the diverse group and had some great conversations. I don't have photos from each of our stops (was too busy enjoying the food!) but we ended with these adorable personal-size poticas...

My dad's grandparents all immigrated here from Slovenia in the late 1800s so potica is something that our family has made and celebrated at least annually (definitely at Christmas and sometimes other times as well). It was wonderful tasting home along the way. :)

After our food tour, we parted ways and wandered past Butcher's Bridge (which we'd been at or past numerous times already)...

...and then found our car again, battled with figuring out how to pay and get out of the garage again, lol, and drove back to our place in Bled.