Day Four
4 June 2012
Weather: cloud, rain later. 12-21
Cat count: 1
T-shirt count: 0
Oh, it’s so nice to sleep in! I woke just after seven and
opened the curtains to see 315 somewhat perturbed felines. I let them in and
they romped down the corridor to the spa.
I don’t expect to see them again till tomorrow.
Right after I get the bill.
I went down to breakfast. It had the usual fare but the
scrambled eggs have to be the best I’ve had at a hotel. The croissants were
warm and delicious. Not the heavy, flakey type either.
At 9, we followed Gasper out to the bus for the Alpine
Jewels and Lake Bohinj optional. This is an optional that you don’t want to do
on a rainy, foggy day. You simply wouldn’t see anything. We lucked out. Gasper
had checked the forecast to find it would be dry for the morning, so he decided
to leave the caves for the afternoon.
After all, you don’t mind visiting underground caves when
it’s pouring rain outside.
Oh….wait.
So, we head off for the Julian Alps. They were named for an
ancient ruler in the area.
Gasper puts on some polka music and the Australians up front
want some entertainment to go with it. They call on Gasper to dance for us.
He declines. And blushes just a slight rose.
He says that he doesn’t dance but would be willing to take
off his clothes if it will make us happy.
(I think he was trying to say that he’d give us the shirt
off his back).
That didn’t dissuade the Australians. They wanted to see the
hidden treasure.
Okay. Now he’s a mauve rose.
One says it would be fine. The windows are tinted.
Now a deep rose.
Another asks if he would do it if we collected all the
cameras.
Beet red. LOL
I think he’s going to exile the Aussies to the back of the
bus tomorrow.
I think I’ll go to the back of the bus too. The Aussie are
always the most fun on tour.
After Gasper got everyone to quiet down and take a deep
breath, he told us that Triglav National Park is the only NP in Slovenia and
was one of the first in Europe. It’s 880 sq km and occupies 3% of Slovenia.
It’s not a long drive to Lake Bohinj. The Lake is 4 km long and sitting between
two ranges. We take a cable car up to Mount Vogol to some great views of the
Julian Alps and the lake. The sun was able to peek through a few times to
brighten up the scenery.
Gasper brought us around to a viewing point where there was
a sign of a stick figure falling off a cliff. He made sure to tell us the sign
was real. That it wasn’t a joke.
Oh yeah. But we all still had to walk to the edge and look
down.
Then he took us to the lodge where he arranged for a shot of
schnapps for everyone.
After a shot, the falling stick figure sign just might seem
like a joke.
As he got the schnapps, he said there was a special schnapps
that the woman at the lodge had made especially for the women in the group. It
was called Wild Boar Blood.
I opted for the regular, non-red, schnapps. As a non-drinker, it hit me pretty good.
So, I stayed away from yellow sign with stick figure falling
off cliff.
We took pictures...
...and then made our way back to the cable
car.
Do cable cars spin?
Oh…wait.
I really need to lay off the schnapps.
We went down and drove to the community at the head of the
lake. Gasper showed us a statue of three men who had helped open the area up. (Didn’t
catch the whole story). Then he showed us the church, but it was closed (as he
expected) and we got 20 minutes to look around. There was a fly fisherman just
below the bridge where the Lake empties into a river.
We crossed the bridge and
looked down to see hundreds of trout just swimming around at the base of the
bridge.
We all went back to the other side of the bridge and yelled
out to the guy that the fish were on the other side.
Don’t think he understood.
Nearby there were some outdoor bars including one that had a
set of steps going down into what looked like a river overflow canal. There
were tables attached to the side of the walls.
We asked Gasper and he said that it was for the bar. I asked
what about the water. He said no problem.
They only get a lot of water once or
twice a year.
Yup. Buy your beer, take your chances. Will there or won’t
there be a flash flood.
They really should have a sign.
I headed for a small store to get a Coke, but didn’t get it.
The woman just didn’t seem interested in selling me anything. I left it at the
cash as the time was running out.
We left the community and headed to the town to see the hay
stacks without hay. The most entertaining part was watching Boris, our driver,
navigate the bus down extremely narrow streets without scratching Trafalgar’s
brand new bus. It earned him a round of applause.
We got back to the hotel by 1 pm and had an hour to recover
before proceeding to the Postojna Caves optional. There’s a small mall right
across the street from the hotel, so I ran over to grab a donair and went back
to the room to deflate.
And recheck the website to make sure this was an At-Leisure
tour.
LOL
No sign of the cats (which is never a good thing) and I go
down to the bus. Gasper needed 15 to do this optional. He got 18. So, 8 people
stayed behind to walk the trails and enjoy Lake Bled.
As we hit the highway, it started to pour out of the
heavens!
Yup. Really good afternoon to pick to do an optional in an
underground cave.
Oh…wait. Again.
As with the other optionals, Gasper doesn’t enforce the
rotation rules. This is the first time I’ve come across this, but I prefer the
enforced rotation. The same people are taking the front seats and while I don’t
care (I prefer the second seat when I’m that far forward), I know there are
others who’d like a chance.
The front seat in this bus has an added disadvantage besides
the lack of leg room. There’s a decal on the outside of the bus that cuts right
across the window of the front seat. It’s not there for the second seat.
Heh.
As we drive, Gasper tells us that the Postojna Caves are 21
km long but we will only see about a quarter of it – part of it on a little
train and part of it we will walk (about 1.7 km). He says photos are fine
without a flash.
The caves have a unique inhabitant. It’s called the human
fish, but in reality, it’s a salamander that lives in the dark so its skin has
no pigment and looks a lot like human skin. It also doesn’t reach maturity
until 16-18 years of age and can live to over 100 years.
It can also go a year without food.
Quite the pet. Feed it once and you don’t have to lift a
finger for it for a year.
The salamanders are endangered and it’s believed that
scientists are to blame as they are the ones removing the salamanders from the
caves.
Gasper also notes that we are near Lipica where the Lipizzaner
stallions are bred. So, they’re bred in Slovenia, housed in Austria, trained by
the Spanish and Gene Hackman thinks they’re from Portugal.
We arrive in the pouring rain at the caves and we’re early –
as planned. It’s about an hour’s drive. That gives us time to shop, get a snack
and that. I saw a great t-shirt but I wasn’t willing to wear green – the only
colour it’s available in.
I do have my limits.
Gasper shows us to the entrance for the 4 pm train into the
caves. There must be 200 other people or more. We go through the gate while
Gasper waves goodbye to us.
Is there something he knows that we don’t? Like what happens
in the caves when it rains heavily?
We walk down to the trains. There are two on either side of
a platform. The train is just a platform with three benches per “car.” No
sides. Just the floor and benches.They’re really cool.
As we drive through the
caves, I start recording snippets. We’re going too fast for a snapshot.
We must have went five kilometres. Felt like it. Took like
10 minutes. We got off at the end and are directed to a sign for English
speakers. About 50 or so people gather for the English guide and he says hello
then tells us that no electronic devices are permitted. No ipods. No computers.
No cameras. No camcorders.
Say what?
He flicks his flashlight around and tells everyone to turn
off their camera and put it in their bags. Then he starts his spiel, but the
man next to me didn’t hear and had his camcorder up. The flashlight lands on
him and the guide says “turn it off.”
Yup. That’s how they enforce that rule.
They put the light on you and shame you into compliance.
A few of us from the tour will not be so easily intimidated.
The guide gives his introduction, telling us how it takes
100 years for the stalactite to form a single centimetre. I didn’t hear much
more. There was a kid hanging around me who seemed more interested in keeping
himself entertained vocally.
Hearing aids. Don’t leave home without them.
The guide starts to lead us around a flat and somewhat
slippery concrete path. That’s why Gasper insisted on good walking shoes for
this optional. With it raining outside, the paths are getting wet from the
drips.
The un-intimidated group hang back and bring up the rear of
the group as we…<cough><cough>…take some pictures.
I think they prohibit photos because if they allowed
cameras, too many people would take pictures with their flash no matter how
many times you tell them to turn them off. With the salamanders in the caves, I
think they want to prevent the flashes….and know those of us who know how to
turn off the flash are the ones who will sneak a photo here and there.
At the risk of the Light of Shame.
It certainly wasn’t a way to sell more postcards or books. I
never saw any at the cave’s gift shop.
Or maybe they were sold out.
It was the last tour of the day, after all.
We walk for almost two kilometres along fairly flat ground.
The cave is amazing. Even if you’ve been to a cave before, I doubt you have
been to one this large.
It is huge.
And like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps on going and
going.
This optional was well well worth it. I’d take this optional
over the Alpine Jewels and Lake Bohinj hands down.
Near the end, the guide points up to a section of the roof
that has obviously collapsed leaving tons and tons of rock below. He said we
have to be careful since it just fell the other day.
Wide eyes greet that news.
Then he starts laughing and says no, it likely fell
thousands of years ago.
Everyone is a comedian.
Now I don’t feel so bad for taking some pictures. LOL
We board the train and ride what feels like another 5 km
back to the entrance. As we walk up the ramp from the train, I see three
employees accosting people.
I panic! OMG, they’re checking the photos on our cameras!!
LOL.
Turns out that the Japanese can’t take the guided tour so
they are given headsets with an audio tour and they were collecting them.
I walk by whistling.
Gasper…
And I’ll have you know that every time I type his name, I start
typing Casper.
…meets us outside and directs us to the bus while he waits
for the couple on the second train. I dropped into one of the self service
spots on the way to get a sandwich for dinner and like the woman at the other
shop, I felt like I was imposing myself on this guy. I mean, I got the heavy
sigh and everything. I took the sandwich and an apple strudel (that got two
sighs) and walked down through pouring rain to the bus.
Well, we didn’t get swept up in a flash flood, so I imagine
we got the better deal this afternoon. I imagine the other eight ended up
indoors.
Cause they certainly couldn’t have used the spa. It was
otherwise occupied with 315 demanding guests.
We got back to the hotel at 7:30 and the night was ours.
And you know what I’m doing.
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