The Postojna Cave Experience and Predjama Castle (A Slovenian Castle In A Cave!)

When I asked my four-year-old what his favorite part of the day was, he replied, “I got to see Batman’s cave!” Today, to break up the drive from Ljubljana to Piran, we first stopped at Postojna Caves and then at Predjama Castle.

Postojna Cave is Slovenia’s largest (discovered) cave, and while it is for sure a tourist trap, it was still a pretty jaw-dropping experience. Before you ever go into the cave, there is a little (kind of lame) exhibition where you view the weird, eel- Gollum-like ‘human fish’…. a fish that does not eat the first eleven years of its life and can live for over a hundred years.

When I heard there was a butterfly exhibit, my spidey senses went on high alert! Thankfully they were dead! (For those of you that don’t know, I am inexplicably, slightly terrified of butterflies.)

The actual cave experience takes an hour and a half. It’s COLD down there, so even though it was a 25 degree Celsius day, we bundled up in long pants and coats. No flash is allowed so my photos really do not do justice to this massive cave. The best part of the experience for me was the ten minute, Indiana Jones type train ride down into the cave. Wyatt got a video of some of the train ride. On the way back up, the kids got to ride at the front.

 

Once down there, our guide Greggor toured us around the almost 2 km tourist part of the cave. Stalactites and limestone columns that have taken millions of years to form tower around you.

Ummmmm……and then we got stuck behind an elderly, slow-moving couple in one of the longer narrow passages and got completely separated from our group……and thought we might be setting up camp in the cave!

 

I am writing this blog from our apartment in Piran, so obviously we found our way out!

After the awesome Potojna Cave experience, we drove 10km up the road and were greeted by Predjama Castle, the largest cave castle in the world.

The castle juts 123 meters into the sky off the cliff face. They give you an audio pack in your language of choice when you first enter. If the four and six-year-old had not been keeping me busy, I would have learned a lot.

After a fantastic day discovering the caves and castles of the Karst region of Slovenia, we made our way to our Airbnb in the coastal town of Piran. We were not disappointed. Here is the current view from our apartment balcony.

Ahhhhhh! Time for a glass of vino while I soak all of this up!