Another Day in Slovenia

The beautiful country of Slovenia. It is really a fabulous place. A few days ago we spent one night in Ljubljana in a hostel. We enjoyed a really hot day walking around the city. Then we picked up our next rental car and left the "big" city. (280,000 population)

A view of the city from the tower of the castle. The castle was nice looking from the outside, but not as cool from the inside, that is why you won't find any pictures. 

Once we got in the car, we were off! Not a Mercedes-Benz this time sadly. Just a little cheap car. First stop: Predjama Castle.

This castle in the picture was first built in 1570. Right into the mouth of a cave for better protection and less access. 

There is a big Renaissance fair every year here. Horses, jousting, costumes, archery and more! How fun would that be? Here is the view from the castle walls. 

Speaking of archery, here is my husband, showing me his talents. Two bulls eyes out of five arrows, pretty good. And below, his teacher for the five arrows.

The following day, we went to a large cave system in Slovenia. The Skocjan Caves. Our new friend, Tinkara (our host for couch-surfing) came with us on this trip. The caves were huge! Massive canyons underground. And we even followed a river for a section of it. No pictures were allowed. I tried to take pictures in secret, but it didn't quite work. But here are a few.

You can see a bridge in the background of this photo, well this bridge was 500 feet above the river! It really was a huge canyon! All underground.

The picture below is my husband. And more attempts at being a secret photo detective. If you want to see actual pictures of the cave, google it. There are a lot of good pictures on the internet. 

The picture below was our exit point from the caves. 

 Here is after the caves, we went outside and walked on a trail for a bit. The hillsides are scattered with churches and towns. The countryside reminds me of Oregon at times, until I see the buildings and then I am reminded, oh right, I'm in Slovenia!

Our first couch-surfing experience was wonderful by the way. We stayed with Peter and Tinkara, a couple our age who live outside the city of Ljubljana with their one year old border collie. We had a great time getting to know them, we had our own room to sleep in and I even got to do some laundry. It was really a good time. Our next couch surfing is in one week, once we get to Prague.