Awesome God

We took a random road right up into the country behind our Penzion this morning, mostly to satisfy our curiosity.  For it seemed that our penzion was down a long driveway but then there was a sign pointing to a township, so of course we had to explore.  It was so pituresque.  We drove through beautiful farmland and countryside surrounded in the distance by majestic mountains.  After we wove our way through the country, we headed back to the town and drove around Lake Bled.  The road was very curly and narrow.  It all felt very quaint and postcardish.

We then began our journey to Croatia.  I had previously held concerns about travelling to this part of Europe, but I no longer had any worries.  It's funny how preconceptions can be totally wrong.
As our trip was a 'take it as it comes' kind of trip, we turned off into a town called Postjna.  It was boasting a giant grotto and we couldn't resist.  Especially as Mike vaguely recalled a friend of his mentioning massive caves in Slovenia.   We arrived at the grotto park.  It was so tourist.  Heaps of stalls selling expensive memorabilia, American style food bars and outdoor cafes etc.  We had a slice of luke warm pizza then lined up for the cave tour. 
We were seated on a mini train.  It was a steady 8 degrees celsius and some tourists had donned Lord of the Rings Elvin cloaks to keep warm--for an extra cost of course.  I pulled up my hoodie and sat back for who knows what. 
Wow.  We journeyed faster than I thought possible through a two kilometre tunnel into the heart of this massive, massive cave--the biggest of ten thousand caves in Slovenia incidentally.   It is one of the most beautiful and awesome (as in awesome God) places I've visited.  I would put it right up there with the Grand Canyon.  The lighting was so well done and so minimal that we felt like we were in a whole new world like a fairy kingdom or something equally bizarre.  The stalagmites and stalactites were so beautiful.  Then when the guide tells us that they grow one centimetre every one hundred years (aprox) it's unbelievable to imagine how old this cave is.  My favourite stalactites (hanging from the ceiling) were those which were on a slant so looked like big wafers or poppadoms.  Very, very cool.  We eventually left the cave just in time as it was starting to feel too cold and I was sick of being cold!!!  We unfortunately were unable to view the famous 'Human Fish' as they were building a new enclosure for it. 

We side swiped the Italian border, so popped into Treiste (naturally) for a real Italian coffee and a hot chocolate.  They didn't have soy milk, but I forgave them because it tasted delicious!  Eventually, after not too many turn arounds, but many stops for toilets, views and playgrounds (who would travel with boys) we arrived in Porec in Croatia.  We hunted down a half decent place to stay right on the beach.  Then we headed into the cobbled town centre for a look and a meal.  We ended up at a blatantly tourist Grille with outdoor seating.  Well, I had the most DELICIOUS steak EVER.  So tender and melt in your mouth. Yum, yum, yum.  Martin had a fish platter with two whole fish, prawns, mussels and yummy calamari. It came luke warm though so not as stunning as it could have otherwise been. 

We struggled once more to find a bar because it is approaching the winter season and places are closed early I think.  Anyway, we sat and had a Hoegaarden at a very empty (we were the only patrons) but groovy little place on the edge of town.  Then the bartender called us a taxi and we headed home.  Another great day!