Slovenia

We entered Slovenia from Italy and headed straight to Postojna.

Postojna Cave is the largest cave in Slovenia 24 km of underground tunnels. It has a very long standing 'tourist tradition'; we visited in 1981 and today it is one of the most visited natural landmarks in Slovenia. Visited by approximately 1500 people per day!

More than 5 km of tunnels are open for tourist visits; you move into the cave by a little train and then proceed on foot with a guide. Stalactites, stalagmites, and underground halls and other rock formations are truly amazing.

Carved by the Pivka River it presents at 3 levels; top, oldest, dry and uninteresting; middle, damp, interesting and open to tourists; bottom, where the Pivka flows today, very interesting, difficult and dangerous, and open to specialist guided tours. I climbed thru caves as a University student, but I was fitter and slimmer then, so we chose the middle level.

The Cave has a constant temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius and almost 100% humidity.

We were told that around 100 animal species live in the cave! The main attraction is the proteus, which was at first mistaken for a baby dragon, and is now marketed as the symbol of the cave; a 'pink earth worm'!

This animal is completely adapted to total darkness in its underground habitat. Their eyes are undeveloped, leaving it blind, while its other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are acutely developed.

It also lacks any pigmentation in its skin so appears pink.

The Castle in a cave has received increased media coverage of late after decades of neglect. Built in stages from deep in a cave, it's purpose was to be impregnable. Even in its latest, most modern stage in the mid 20th C., it was considered cold and uncomfortable.

Interestingly it stands at the watershed between the Adriatic and Black Seas.

The fortifications withstood a 1 year siege with multiple caves providing access to supplies.

For me the Integration between rock and building was the notable feature.

Pictures left: Far left: The old entrance before a new entrance tower and draw bridge were built.

Top right: View down to drawbridge, from where rock, hot oil etc could be dropped.

Bottom right: Items from the armoury.

Our B+B was in a small village just outside Postojna. It was purpose built by a young couple and very comfortable, with the breakfast room set up to be functional restaurant. The 5 rooms in the establishment were each named after the 5 ancestors who once lived on the site.

 

The village had many wells although the village now has reticulated water, including this one in the middle of the road. The water table is very close to the surface and many people use well-water in their gardens.

In the morning while at the caves I noted a couple of jets manovering over head that looked like F16s, and a couple of times the buz of cannon fire as they dived towards a ridge line. Later in the day I was able to confirm that there was week long, multi country NATO exercises, and the USA had contributed F16s.

We visited an excellent military museum not far from Postojno. In addition to X Soviet equipment there was a range of US equipment; eg a Shermon and Patton tanks.

I had not realised that Austria-Hungary was active in submarine construction (pre WW1) and post WW2 Yugoslava continued design and construction of medium size vessels in the original A-H locations.

 

 

Photographs, clockwise from top left: (1) F-86 (later version with radar) and F-84 Thunderbird (in background, tanks below), both ex-Yugoslovia A.F. (2) Slovenia army picket who asked us not to proceed into the NATO exercise area. (3) The very green tank outside the Military Museum. (4) A local private garden plot, with a man on his mobile.

 

We notices many garden plot being actively worked by family groups, especially in the long summer evenings.

We loved Ljubljana. Stylish, on a river, not too big, and easy to get around.

Always in the corridor from Central Europe to Adriatic, it has a five thousand year history including, the remains of the Roman city of Emona. The old city centre has a medieval castle, Baroque and Art Deco façades, decorative portals and street cafes.

We started with a river cruise which was made by the young guide who impressed us with his linguists skills. He spoke to us with a London 'Estuary Accent' with a touch of Sloane. He asked the Italians which city they came from, so he could speak with the correct accent, and would seamlessly switch into German and Slovenian for those audiences.

In addition to city history and espousing his nationalist pride he told us that Ljubljana had 60,00 University students and an average age just over 30!

He also told us one story behind the cities dragon symbol. It relates to a local dragon and the Greek hero Jason, his mighty Argo galley with a battle-hardened crew of warriors and a barbarian sorceress in tow. Jason was on the run from King Aeetes after he had won the Golden Fleece. He sailed the Argo up the Danube river, then into the Sava, and then finally up into the Ljubljanica river, as he tried to make it back to Thessaly, Greece, any way he could. He killed the Dragon, and carried the dismantled Argo over land to the Adriatic. Some of his crew stayed behind to establish Ljubljana. (Wow! This story has everything.)

Dragon Bridge

Clockwise from top left: (1) The three bridges and square.

(2) Art Deco façade.

(3). Castle on the hill.

European Smoke Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student art

Lake Bled railway station was once a jewel in the Austrian Hungary railway network. Now it accepts 3 car regional passenger services, and their bikes. I am not sure about the paint job!

The area still has great charm!

 

Semmering

We were drawn to travel to Semmering after viewing the historic railway on television; in particular the BBC's Great Continental Railway Journeys with Michael Portillo.

The Semmering railway was constructed between 1848 and 1854 by some 20,000 workers under the project's designer and director Carl von Ghega.

We started our railway tour at the Semmering Railway Station which includes a 'media centre'. Assisted by a most helpful local lady, we planned our day and then purchased return local tickets to Payerbach, on the local electric service. The 2 car unit was similar to one that we had travelled on in the Pyrenees of France. It was an approx. 30 minute trip along this scenic and engineering marvel of a track. We then had a light lunch before it was time for the return journey.

The line is quite busy with intercity and regional passenger trains, mix freight and dedicated new-car trains. All the new cars heading west, probably from Slavakia.

The construction features 14 tunnels (among them the 1,431 m vertex tunnel), 16 viaducts (several two-story) and over 100 curved stone bridges as well as 11 small iron bridges. The stations and the buildings for the supervisors were often built directly from the waste material produced in the course of tunnel construction.

In 1998 the Semmering railway was added to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

When the Semmering Railway was completed in 1854, it brought many tourists from Vienna. An era of large and grand Hotels continued until WW1.

Today, tourists are fewer, but more than 100,000 overnight stays are still recorded each year.

There are now plans to construct a lower Semmering Rail Tunnel emulating the road which goes under Semmering in two tunnels. The twin-tube Semmering base tunnel will be part of the Baltic-Adriatic railway corridor and is one of the most important large-scale infrastructure projects in Central Europe; linking Southern Poland and Northern Italy.

Once completed, the 27.3km-long tunnel will become one of the world's longest railway tunnels at a cost of €3.3billion.

Below, clockwise from top left; the large two level viaduct (they do look like Roman aqueducts); the station name at Payerbach-Reichenau; a grand historic hotel at Semmering, partially renovated; the 2 car regional train that we travelled on.

Close to Semmering is the small town of Maria Schultz with a grand church for such a small town. We had an enjoyable light lunch at the popular hotel and Lenore did a little shopping for presents.

 

Vienna: what a capital!

 

The Hofburg Palace is a magnificent structure from all angles. We love the architecture of Paris, and parts of London, Rome and St Petersburg, but for mass exposure to structured (dare I say Germanic) architecture, there is nothing like Vienna.

And it is so well maintained and clean at the macro and micro levels. Many Buildings had clearly been cleaned in recent years, scaffolding and cranes were up working on others. When we walked out for breakfast on the Monday morning there was a army of workers cleaning seats in squares, scrubbing fountains and generally making sure everything looked great.



So different from some many other capitals and cities.

We attended a ballet performance at the Opera House on the Saturday night. The first item was classical in nature; see bottom picture. There was then a 10 minute interval when we were able to walk out onto a balcony high above the street and I snapped the equestrian statue at close range in the fading twilight.

The second ballet item was a 'large cast' modern ballet which I though was very clever in design and excursion. Another interval and the final item was modern dance in style; I didn't really get it, apart from they were trying to blur the distinction between genders.

St. Michael's Church is one of few remaining Romanesque-buildings in Vienna and is located near St. Michael's Gate at the Hofburg Palace. St. Michael's was once the parish church of the Imperial Court.

 

This is a very old part of the city, and in the small square between St Michael's and the Gate, Roman ruins we discover in the 1990s (top left pix)! They are part of a much larger known Roman city.

The high alter piece is late Baroque in style. In the centre two angles hold a painting. The four gospel authors sit either side and two saints stand on the sides. St Sebastian (left) is spared the ignominy of having multi arrows through him. He holds a single arrow in his left hand to assist recognition.

 

 

While we were visiting on a Sunday afternoon an organist was practicing.

The top photo is part of the front facade of the Parliament House.

Below is the front of the Vienna Rathaus. As Austria was playing in Euro2016 that afternoon, a large public viewing area had been set up in front of the Rathaus; a fan arena. The architecture of sides and back of the Parliament and Rathaus are almost as impressive as the fronts.

 

As a nod to history we rode the Wien Wheel one more time.

 

Bratislava: capital of Slovenia

Bratislava has its quota of fine buildings; concert halls, churches, city hall etc. In addition to the grandeur there are unkept parks, foot paths in need of maintenance and graffiti a plenty.

It is impossible to completely compare cities, but we did buy similar items in the same supermarket chain in Bratslavia and regional Austria, and Bratslavia was considerably cheaper. The same applied for coffee shop and restaurant meals.

 

The Church of St. Elizabeth is known as "The Little Blue Church" because of its colour. The Catholic church is built in Hungarian Art Nouveau style.

Certainly cute and different!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many tourists see Bratislava as a half day city tour from the huge river Danube River cruisers. The Danube flow is very fast and we saw river barges and Russian built hydrofoils (the same 50 year old models as operate in St. Petersburg; below, left bottom picture) struggling against the flow. Any trip up stream must be very slow!

From our appartment we climbed a steep hill through a rich villa quarter including embassy residences (close to the centre of Bratislava) to a park known as Slavin. It is the burial ground of thousands of Soviet Army soldiers who fell during World War II while liberating the city in April 1945 from the occupying German Wehrmacht units and the remaining Slovak troops who supported the fascist government.

The cemetery includes 6 mass graves, and 278 individual graves of 6,845 Soviet soldiers. The centre piece is 50m high and can be seen from most of the city.

World War 2 German "pill boxes" remain in the park. The monument is in Stalinist architecture and reminded me of many in Russia and other former Soviet countries, complete with the happy dancing maidens bearing garlands of flowers and ribbons proclaiming their nationalistic fervour.

Devin Castle's historic significance is indicated by its appearance on Slovak money and postage stamps. It has a commanding view of the confluence of the two significant rivers that form part of the country's borders, the Danube and the Morava.

It's river-side location was historically strategic for travellers, and major trade routes; north- south and east - west. The Castles medieval history includes several empires, undergoing multiple makeovers including the building of a well in the central courtyard. A cup of water took 7 seconds to splash!

 

Napoleon ordered it ruined, as part of his military neutralisation of the region in 1809.

The way it was then and now! We used the old ferry crossing over the Morava to cross back into Austria. When the Soviets left Austria in 1955, this was a front line crossing between east and west for several decades. The Austrian check point had to be perched high over flood levels. Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia and very much a puppet state in the Cold War, had its control point located on the high opposite bank of the Morava.

Just outside Bratislavia and close to Austria is a very large VW factory. I have not seen larger.

In the pix an Audi SUV is transported from one area of the complex to another. Volkswagen, Skoda, SEAT, Audi, and Porsche Models are produced.

Peugeot /Citroen and Kia Motors also manufacture in Slovakia. Capitalism is now the force!

 

Rijeka to Postojna: 5 June 2016

 

Sometimes the direct route is not available to you. In this case due to the very high cost of a one-way car rental across a national border; something that I hope the EU will act upon as they have with mobile phone rates. Today we returned a rental car in Rijeka (Croatia), took a bus to Trieste (Italy), a second bus to Trieste Airport, picked up a rental car (which we will return in Milan, Italy) and then drove to Postojna in Slovenia.

The first bus trip was with the Autotrans company that we had also used between Split and Trigir. Again an efficient service; left on time and arrived early. The Rijeka, Trieste and Split bus stations are all very well located in city centres near rail and ferry terminals. The fare for the 2 hour journey from Rijeka to Trieste was about AUD11, plus about AUD 3.20 for each item of luggage stored under the floor.


Autotrans has a good on line purchase and payment system but you then have to print the e-ticket to give to the driver. Even Ladrolinija ferry just scan the e-ticket on your phone.

The departure bay for the Airport bus was only a few meters from our arrival bay, but we had to wait an hour before the 50 minute trip. Fare E4.05 (AUD 6.25) and no charge for luggage; not that the drive ever looked at our tickets; that him (top pix) talking on his mobile phone as he drive the bus with the other hand.

The bus top centre of pictures, is the shutter bus from the car park at Motovun; about AUD 5 return.

 

Istria

 

Istria is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, and is a distinct area of Croatia, with a strong Italian influence in its character. Public signs are in Crotian and Italian. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic with the the Gulf of Trieste to its west. Directly to its north is Slovenia. We entered, and left the region via Rijeka (1) to its north east, and used Pula (2) in the south as a base. Pula and Rovinj in the west include well preserved "old towns" while Groznjan (4) and Motovun (5) in the north west are hill top towns and share characteristics with Italian hill towns.

 

June 2016: Hill top towns of Istria

 

 

Groznjan

 

Motovun

In 1278 it was taken over by Venice and surrounded by solid walls which are still intact today, and used as a walkway with unique views over the four corners of Istria. The towers and city gates containing elements of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles, and collectively are a typical example of Venetian colonial architecture.

Below the hill is the famous Motovun forest, an area of about 10 square kilometres in the valley of the river Mirna, of which 280 hectares is specially protected. This area differs completely from the nearby forests, and is home to the rich and prized-black-and-white truffles. Since this fungus grows underground, it is gathered with the aid of specially trained dogs.

 

 

Plitvicka Lakes National Park: 30 May - 1 June, 2016

The Plitvicka Lakes National Park is another UNESCO site; Croatia has so many, and described by "Lonely Planet" as possibly the most beautiful place on earth. The National Park is very well managed with 3 entry points, and electric boat and automobile shuttle services that link the various segments of the park.

It's known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon.

 

The boats and specialist 'bus trains' assist access, however in 2 days we covered 25,000 steps and 75 'flights of steps' in exploring them.

 

The "Big Fall" is 78m high.

Rough sawn local timber is extensively used for boardwalks.

At this time of year about 3,000 people per day visit the park. In peak season it is 13,000 per day.

 

We discovered that one of the worst experiences is to arrive at a photo point at the same time as a Japanese tour party.

We spent 3 nights in these holiday appartments within the National Park.

The Park, including around the appartments is noted for its sink holes. The sheep are grazing on the side of one near our hire car, and there is another near the clothes line behind the appartment.

Over time clusters of small sink holes tend to join, so one day we may see on TV "Croatian holiday appartments disappear into sink hole!"