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| Beautiful Lake Bled |
Day 16 (Friday September 16, 2008)
Continuation from Ljubljana, Slovenia
After checking out of my hotel in Ljubljana, I walked a few blocks east in order to reach the car rental office where I picked-up my rental car. Although I had reserved the cheapest option possible through
Gemut Auto Rental, I ended up with a small white Mercedes, which was a pleasant surprise!
I have rented cars several times during previous trips to Europe. Even though I always had directions printed out, I would inevitably get lost. To help prevent this from occurring again, I purchased a GPS system before I left on the trip so that I would have a much less stressful driving experience. The GPS system worked flawlessly, each time bringing me to the correct destination in the shortest amount of time. Had I not had the system, I’m sure I would have gotten lost numerous times.
From Ljubljana, I headed southwest to
Lipica Stud Farm, which was located just two kilometers northeast of the Italian border. The farm was started in 1580 to breed and train horses for the courts of Vienna. The Austrian Archduke Charles wanted to create a breed that was light in color and of a more elegant stature. It took nearly 200 years for the mix of local horses from the Karst region in Slovenia to combine with the Andalusian horses to evolve into the famous Lipizzaner breed that can be found today.
I arrived just in time for the 11:00 English tour, which took me all over the farm. I learned that the Lipizzaner horse is not white when born but actually a dark gray. Over the course of five to ten years, they slowly change into the beautiful white color. However, I was also informed that one percent of all Lipizzaner horses born never turn white and instead remain a gray color. Today, the farm houses about 400 Lipizzaner horses.
Unfortunately, I was only able to see a few of the horses up close in the stables as the rest were out grazing far away in the pastures.
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| Lipica Stud Farm |
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| Lipica Stud Farm |
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| Lipica Stud Farm |
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| Lipica Stud Farm |
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| Old carriages at Lipica Stud Farm. |
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| Lipica Stud Farm |
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| Lipica Stud Farm |
From the stud farm, I drove to the nearby
Skocjan Caves, which was located in the Karst region of Slovenia. This area of Slovenia is filled with many limestone caves, a few of which can be toured by the general public. I chose Skocjan as I had read that it was less touristy than some of the other caves and not as easily accessible, thus the reason why less people visit. I arrived about 45 minutes prior to my 13:00 tour. While I waited, I walked up to a nearby lookout point that provided a beautiful view of the deep river valley, including a town capped by a baroque church in the background.
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| Beautiful view near Skocjan Caves. |
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| Beautiful view near Skocjan Caves. |
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| Beautiful view near Skocjan Caves. |
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| Beautiful view near Skocjan Caves. |
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| Beautiful view near Skocjan Caves. |
When the tour finally began, I walked from the ticket office with the guide for 500 meters down a path along the main road, which eventually led to a gravel path that took the group to the main entrance of the tunnel. The temperature inside the caves is a constant 12 degrees Celsius so it was quite chilly, although I stayed warm due to the extensive hiking and climbing of stairs. To give a little background as to how the formations are created within the caves: as water seeps down into the limestone caves, the calcium carbonate that dissolves from the water dripping from the roofs creates stalactites and stalagmites. Sometimes, as the stalactites grow down from the roof and stalagmites grow upwards from the floor, they eventually meet together, creating what is called a column. I learned that the formations grow only one centimeter over a period of 250 years; some of the formations I saw were over 250,000 years old! Due to the high humidity in the caves, the ground is quite slippery and I was glad to have worn my good hiking shoes. I was blown away and mesmerized by the countless beautiful formations I saw in each of the cave sections.
Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take any pictures within the caves; I assume this is because the unnatural light of flash photography causes problems within the delicate ecosystem of the cave. However, I was unsure as to why they did not allow photographs without the flash. I was a bad visitor and managed to sneak in few shots of the first cave called Paradise, although to my defense, I did not use the flash! The entire tour took about 90 minutes and was much more physically strenuous than I had realized. After climbing several hundred stairs and walking uphill through many of the caves, I was quite tired by the end.
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
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| Skocjan Caves |
From Skocjan, I headed to the Slovenia coast on the Adriatic Sea to the Venetian city of
Piran. The closer I got to the coastal region, the more apparent the Italian influence in this area of Slovenia became; I saw countless vineyards and red tiled roofed homes that filled the landscape of beautiful, rolling hills. This region was actually part of Italy until WWII ended, when the borders were redrawn and it was given to the former country of Yugoslavia.
As I arrived in Piran, I was immediately brought back to the time I spent in Italy two years prior. The entire environment was complete sensory overload for me; beautiful ocean views, crumbling pastel colored buildings, and the overall “dolce vita” atmosphere of the town was all quintessentially Italian. The warm and sunny weather helped to further my already happy travel experience. I parked the car and walked into the central part of town, eventually wandering around the backstreets. I bought some gelato and later some pizza for an early dinner at a restaurant called
Riva, which had gorgeous views of the sea. I would have loved to spend an entire day in Piran as it would have been wonderful to spend the night in this atmospheric city. However, I had plans to drive further on into Slovenia and end my day in Lake Bled. I begrudgingly left, knowing that it would be years before I would be able to see Italy again. I say Italy because I truly felt as though I was in Italy and not Slovenia; this town was one of the highlights of my trip!
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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| Piran |
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