I didn’t want to leave Slovenia without seeing one of their cave systems.  There are many.  We were planning to rent a car and drive from Lake Bled to the caves and on to the coast.  Paul also thought that we could take public transport.  When we asked locals how to do that, they laughed.  They said, “Do you have all day?”  The caves are hard to get to.  We asked our friends if they’d join us, so we hired a driver with an 8-passenger van and headed out to one of the caves.  The traffic on the highway was fierce!  School started on Friday, so the people without kids or those who decided to spend one last family weekend together were heading to the coast.  Fortunately, our driver knew when enough was enough.  He scooted off the main highway and took the back roads to the caves.  We made it just in time for our 1:00 admission.

When we got there, people were divided by language groups for tours.  I really saw the value in English being universal.  I have often felt negatively about my job, teaching English.  Why should everyone learn English?  The language groups were mostly European languages, so the Arabic and Mandarin and other speakers joined with the English speakers because they could understand English.  It simplifies things at tourist destinations, I guess.  That’s a good thing.

 Boarding the little train to take us into the caves: 
The caves were immense!  We drove in on the train for 2 km, then walked in the caves for 1.5 km, and then took the train for another 2 km to the end.  Postojna Caves are one of the biggest cave systems in the world.  We were so small compared to the stalactites and stalagmites.  The formations were of different colours and grew in different ways.  Some even looked like sheets of fabric!  Photos just don’t do it justice.

These next ones are very reminiscent of our basement ceiling when we first moved in!      

These are like huge ribbons      

These are massive — much larger than trees.  

You can see the railing, which is waist-height to get a sense of scale.  

Were we glad we stayed an extra day in Slovenia?  You bet!

The slogan of Slovenia is:  I FEEL SLOVENIA

At first that looked weird, until I noticed “love” was bolded.  Oh yeah!  I feel the love!