Day 10: Mon 19th - Postojna Caves & Piran - Slovenia

Sunrise 6:45am – Sunset 7:07pm

Weather Forecast:    21 & showers        

Steps:  10,024     6.91 km

I was awake before the alarm went off today, after a fairly good nights sleep. Karin told us yesterday that there has been a hotel change. We were to stay at the Piran Hotel but we will now be staying at the Grand Hotel Bernardin.  

The Piran is within the city, of Piran whereas the Bernardin is a 3 minute bus drive away.  Just means that I might be getting more exercise tomorrow afternoon, as I'm not doing the optional.

We got away on time and were out of the city by 8:10.  Very cloudy today and it started to rain around 8:20.  According to the buses temp gauge, it was only 15c at that time of the morning.  The countryside changed very quickly from agriculture & villages,

to forested and hilly. 

As we climbed, it became very misty, with the low cloud.  The temp was down to 14c shortly after 8:30.

We left the highway and passed through the narrow streets of Veliki Otec and other villages, on our way to the Predjama Castle

which is our first stop of the day.  We were there sometime after 9. The castle was very interesting. It is a medieval castle, with quite a few rooms.

The torture room.

 

We eventually went into the cave.

but not very far into it.

Apparently Predjama means "castle in front of cave".

We departed there at 10:30 heading to our 2nd stop of the day, Postojna Caves.  We arrived there just before 10:45.

We had an 11 o'clock entry to the caves.  It was a large group following the English guide.  First up was a train ride for about 2 kilometres into the cave,

then walking for about 1.5 km, then another 1.5 back to the entrances via the train.  All this took 1.5 hrs.  The cave system is massive and very easy to walk. 

There are no stairs, only ramps.  The guide was saying that a person in a wheelchair could get around.  I just don't know how they would get to the start point in the cave, as they wouldn't be able to use the train. After the tour finished we had just over an hour to grab a bite to eat and be back on the bus by 1:30pm.

Next stop on our way to Piran, was the town of Koper.  Karin took us to the main piazza,

which is called Piazza Tito. Koper is on the Adriatic and very close to Italy. The old part of Koper is something like Venice, minus the water.  There was an Insight flourish of gelato for all.  
We had gone from a cool showery morning, to a warm, sunny but thundery looking afternoon.

I had a walk through the old town to another square

and then met up with everyone again at the coach, where we continued on to our hotel just out of Piran.  All of the rooms have a view of the ocean, so as I'm have a free afternoon tomorrow, I'll just sit and look at the view.

Most of us took the coach into Piran

for a walk around

The Lighthouse

and then had dinner there. 

A pretty beach town, although it is virtually closed during the winter. 
There was some crazy tv race happening.

People were trying to sell their food to others for a €. Sounded like a challenge on the Amazing Race but we have no idea what show it was for.  
We were back at the hotel shortly after 8:30.  I opted to have an early night and was hoping to catch up with my blog on Tuesday but it is now Wednesday 21st and I've just managed it.