Postojna - Tuesday

Yesterday when we arrived in Postojna our host showed us our room and muttered something about changing rooms if we want.  But why change?  It's a beautiful room with a nice big patio looking across at a big church with two bell towers.  What could be a quieter neighbor than a church?  What indeed!  The chimes we heard every fifteen minutes all day, continued all night--and sounded as though the huge bells were right out on our patio.  We'd barely get to sleep and 15 minutes later be woken up by the infernal bells!  It was a long night.

But this morning we found enough energy to walk down to the Postojna Caves--one of the biggest tourist attractions in Slovenia.  We had heard about the "cave wars," and need to judge for ourselves.  Some cave aficionados say the Postojna caves are best and some say the Skocjan caves are .  We'll see the Skocjan caves tomorrow.  Then we'll tell you.

After seeing the caves, we took a taxi to the Predjama Castle.  (Have you noticed how almost every word in Slovene has the letter J in it?)  I wasn't excited about going because I've seen a lot of castles and often find them a bit boring--too many old portraits of guys with double chins and a lot of old china and weapons.  Well, this castle got a 9 from me.  A labyrinth of  spooky rooms, a torture chamber, holes to pour boiling oil down on the enemy, and a great story behind it.

The castle was started in the 1100's but was expanded through the centuries.  One owner, Erazem, a robber baron in the 1400's, made the emperor mad so was besieged in his castle for over a year.  Erazem wasn't fazed.  He sent down gifts of roast bullock and cherries to his besiegers.  Turns out he had a secret exit through the mountain his castle was built into.  That's how he kept supplied in cherries.  But the emperor won in the end.  Erazem's servant betrayed him and showed the enemy the room where his lord had gone "where even the sultan must go alone" and Erazem was hit with a deadly missile while his pants were down.

Top picture:  from the Postojna cave

Bottom picture:  In front of Predjama Castle