Showing posts with label Slovenia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slovenia. Show all posts

Monday, May 6, 2019

Return To Skocjan Cave, 2

Continuing our return visit to Slovenia's spectacular Skocjan Cave...
Steps cut in the karst by old-time explorers

A more distant look back to the bridge

Leaves and debris from the February flood (and plenty much higher up, too)

Another view of the canyon and river


Last view of one of the wonders of the world

Another swing bridge, high up on an opposite canyon wall

Forgot the name for these calcium pans, each the size of a hot tub or larger; even
after perusing a glossary of cave and karst terms (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/pdf/10.1002/9781444313680.gloss
)


Light at the end...

Exit: one of the two natural entrances to the cave (the other
is the river as it drops underground


In the distance is the river Reka, just before it plunges
underground to make Skocjan Cave and work its way to
the Adriatic

Closer up

Working our way up the gorge to the funicular

And to the outside, where spring is still going full blast

Return To Skocjan Cave, 1

We spent a rain day and an administrative day in Ljubliana, the capital of Slovenia, before preceding on to Skocjan Cave and the end of our brief Balkan re-adventure. We visited Skocjan on July 8, 2018, and pronounced it the best cave ever (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2018/07/skocjan-caves-best-ever-period.html); and thus our return. The cave was a bit mistier than in July, due to warmer river temperatures within, but the tour was pretty much the same as in July, a two hour subterranean hike, across excellent ground, half of which was the usual stalagmites and stalactites, and such, and even a couple very big rooms, and half of which was in the underground canyon carved by the torrential river Reka as it wends its way, entirely underground, to Italy and a spring near the Adriatic. We even had the same guide, Gregor, who seemed not to notice that I hung back from the crowd. What was different about this visit was that, after turning off the sound, the flash, and the screen of my iPhone, I took a number of pix, a number of which turned out pretty well, considering. See below and next post.
Preliminaries

Helpful model #14,509

At Skocjan, you can see all the stalactites and stalagmites
you'd ever need to see; unless you're a geologist or
spelunker 




But then you round a bend and climb some steps and begin to hear the roar of the
Reka; and then you begin to make out the contours of the canyon ahead; canyon,
in a cave

And are told the canyon and cave, despite their immense size,  have nearly flooded
on two recent occasions; one just last February

Be that as it may, your eyes follow the lighted trail, which hangs out over the
left bank, as it were, a couple hundred feet below

The Bridge of Khazad-Dum, as Vicki calls it

The river below


One of the older swing bridges, still hanging in there

Torrent, again

Now much further along, looking back at the trail

Vicki

Saturday, May 4, 2019

On To The Balkans; And Porky's Of Kozina

Penelope spent the 19th at the Camping Venezia playground and pool (indoor and heated, thankfully); an administrative day for the grand-parents. We reunited her with her parents the next morning, April 20th, and then we got on the road to Slovenia and Croatia. When we were in the Balkans last summer, we saw two surpassingly great natural sights: the Plitvice Lakes (and waterfalls) in Croatia and the Skocjan Cave in Slovenia. Having gotten as far north and east as Venice, we decided to do another half day's drive to see these wonders again. They're that good. Plus, on the way in to Slovenia last year, we had noticed Porky's barbeque and smokehouse, in Kozina, Slovenia, just 250m beyond the border with Italy. We resolved then that, should we ever come back, we'd eat at Porky's. We were back, and indeed ate at Porky's both coming and going. Great American-style BBQ. Don't miss it!
On the other hand, don't be discouraged; you walk in, get a
table (it's popular), and begin excitedly to peruse the menu:
only it's 10 pages of antipastos, dulces, pizzas, calzones,
primi piattis, bevandes...only on the back cover do they get to
the BBQ, and it's really only the all-you-can-eat or the ribs
plate; we went with the latter; it was wonderful, the sauce like
KC Masterpiece or similar, the pork supple and fall off the
bone tender...

Table decor

Ceiling art; making America great again

Manichaean notions of good and evil...










Well, Porky's is a hoot and the food is good, even if the place
it satirizes is not so funny anymore 


Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Slovenian Out-Takes

[To be added to and commented upon...]