Postojna Cave with its 24km of galleries, tunnels and magnificent halls makes it one of world’s best known tourist caves. It is the only cave with an underground double tracked railway and it has been a tourist attraction for 200 years!
Postojna Park layout and attractions which includes Postojna Cave, Proteus Cave Vivarium, Predjama Castle and other caves. Actually Predjama Castle is 9km away from Postojna Cave. So I decided to visit the cave first.
Pivka River is the river which created the cave.
The river flowing into the cave.
A combination of different attraction packages were offered for different price. Attraction No. 1 is Postojna Cave, No. 2 is exhibition hall, No. 3 is Proteus Cave, Vivarium where one can see the “baby dragon” (olms) and No. 4 is Predjama Castle. We chose the package 1 + 4.
The tour package personnel explaining the tour packages to me.
After we bought our tickets, there’s still some time left before our guided tour began. So we hanged out at the restaurant and ordered some drinks.
Walking towards Postojna Cave.
Passed by some souvenir shops.
Postojnska Jama or Postojna Cave. More information of cave can be found at their official website at www.postojnska-jama.eu/en/
My tour to the cave started at 4pm. During the main season or should I say summer, tours are held every hour. During other seasons, there are only 3 to 4 tours daily.
The audio guides are available in 15 languages (Slovene, English, Croatian, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Russian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. We joined the English guided tour which has a large group.
Preparing to board the train.
And our adventure began! The ride took about 10 minutes into the cave.
In 1872 railway lines were laid in the cave and electricity arrived in 1884. Only in 1957 were these battery powered trains were used. Before that, petrol powered trains were used.
After getting down from the train ride, we have to walk to continue exploring the web of underground passages.
As mentioned before, the guided tour are available in 15 languages. The guided tour took around 90 minutes.
As expected, the English tour is the largest group of all which isn't a good thing.
The temperature in the cave is around 8-10°C. So a warm sweater and comfortable shoes are recommended.
The formation of the stalactites and stalagmites were amazing.
There are over 10,000 caves in Slovenia and Postojna Cave is the second longest cave system in Slovenia.
Unlike the nearby Skocjan Cave, the Postojna Cave is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it is the most popular cave in Slovenia.
Before electric lights lit up the cave, candles were used to guide tourist.
Taking photos with flash is not allowed in the cave. Shouldn’t have any problems as the cave was very well lit.
We were surrounded by calcite formations, stalactites and stalagmites in a variety of shapes, colours and age. And the view is breath-taking.
Descending further into the cave.
My son fell asleep though due to the cool temperature which was a welcomed change in the hot summer.
Crossing a steel bridge.
The tiny calcite formations hanging from the ceiling like spaghetti noodles.
My son still having a good nap.
Marvellous, shiny white limestone formation towering at both sides of the walkway.
The path through the cave is relatively easy to walk.
The most beautiful stalagmite in Postojna Cave is aptly named “the Brilliant”. It measures five meters high.
The formation behind “the Brilliant” shaped like a giant ice cream cone. What do you think?
Of the 24km length of the cave, only about 5km is opened for tourist.
Souvenir shop inside the cave.
The Concert Hall known for its exceptional acoustic has sufficient space for 10,000 people.
Our tour ended here and we took the train back to the exit. This time, we managed to grab the first seat.
The driver checking if we are all good to go.
Traveling at the speed of light.
Don’t stand up or put your hand up. You might hit the roof of the cave.
It was really fun taking a train in an underground cave. But most of all, the glistening stalactites formations was what captured my heart and imagination.
No comments:
Post a Comment