Slovenia

Lipica

On our way to Ljubljana Slovenia, we made a stop in the little village of Lipica. Close to the border with Italy, (in fact, we accidentally entered Italy for a short while), Lipica is home to the famous stud farm that carries its towns name. Lipica is the origin of the Lipizzan horse. The Lipizzan breed as known today was fully developed in the time of Maria Theresa of Austria, whose husband was very interested in horse-breeding. Today the Lipica Stud Farm breeds the finest horses for "haute-école" riding. We had the opportunity to watch the horses and their riders during one of their training sessions. we then spent a little time in the Lipikuum Museum which is dedicated to various aspects of the stud and the Lipizzan breed.

Postojna

After our visit to the stud farm we continued our journey on to Postojna where we visited the largest and most naturally kept cave I have be ever visited. First a 10 minute rail ride took us deep into the cave. Postojna Cave is the best-known cave in the world and is the longest system of chambers in Slovenia. It is also the best tourist attraction in Slovenia and one of the world's largest karst monuments.

Although the cave was first described in the 17th century, it was a local citizen, Luka Čeč, who actually discovered the cave in 1818. In 1872, cave rails were laid for moving in equipment and for transporting tourists to inner chambers. At first, these were pushed along by the guides themselves. Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, a gas locomotive was introduced. After 1945, the gas locomotive was replaced by an electric one.

Chilly conditions in the cave led to wet rainy skies as we departed the cave. A little gelato, which made me colder, and we were back into our cozy bus for our final destination of the day - Ljubljana.

Ljubljana

Arrived late afternoon to the M Hotel. Not very impressive name and a less impressive hotel. The room was a smoking room which I didn't really notice until getting in bed. Later the room smelled like sewage from time to time. I suspect that bathroom sewage in other rooms caused odors to enter our room through the drain system. The room was cold because the door had been left open. The heat could not get set above 69 but the temp did not get nearly that high. We had to turn off the system and close the door. This resulted in the room getting too hot.

So much for the negative side of this story. We went to the city center where we got a short tour with a wonderfully presented history and current condition of Slovenia and it's neighbors.

The next morning we hoped on our bus, spent2 1/2 hours on the road, and found ourselves in Austria. On the we made a pit stop for bathroom breaks and coffee. 2 cups of okay coffee was $9.50. Beside its beautiful Baroque buildings and a river with several bridges crossing, that flows through this city, Ljubljana can boast of a most impressive castle on the slopes of a steep hill. There’s been a human settlement around there since at least Celtic times, but the oldest structures these days date from around the 16th century, and were built following an earthquake in 1511. It’s free to ramble around the castle grounds, but we had to pay to take the recently installed elevator to the top and back.

In 1905, the castle was bought by city of Ljubljana with a plan to establish a city museum in it. The plan was however not carried out. Instead, the city decided to settle poor families into it. The residents stayed there until the mid-1960s, when preparations for renovation of the castle began.

At the end of the 1960s, the long and extensive renovation works started. The whole renovation took more than 35 years. In the 1990s, the use of the castle as a place for weddings and cultural events began. Now it is a place for mostly tourists to enjoy. We did.

The next morning we headed toward Graz Austria.