Following our longer stay in Italy – we ended this European trip in Slovenia. My husband’s mom was Italian (from Trieste) and his father was from Slovenia. We started the Slovenia part of the trip just over the border in Piran with a couple of days enjoying the beach and decompressing, doing laundry and taking a short breath before the final stretch.
One of our favorite stops was to Predjama Castle. Generations before of his family could have walked this country-side. What a fun place to visit!
The castle looks like something from a Fairtytale. It sits carved into the side of a mountain and on top of a cave.
The path to it now is charmingly lined with flowers, but when built over 800 years ago, you can imagine that it was a very safe place since there was only one place that enemies could enter from.
{vineyards are everywhere!}
The tour of the castle (we did not do the cave tour) includes an audio tour that gives a great historical account. While it looks like a fairytale, the thought of living inside – brings you back to reality rather quickly!
Some of the rooms have been restored to look like they might have when they were being lived in.
One of the things you notice right away is that it can be hard to tell where the cliffs end and the man made walls begin. This is especially true in the inner and older rooms of the castle.
You wonder as the years went by and people built their houses near to the castle, how it feels to have this be the sight outside your window!
Slovenia is a country associated with Dragons. This is especially true in Ljubljana, but you find them everywhere, as you see here!
There are several theories on why there is there connection between dragons/Slovenia, but one that seems to be most popular is due to the Chapel in Ljubljana containing a mural of St George battling a dragon. The mural dates back to the mid 1400s.
Then, there is the cave just down the road from here (which I will do a post for later as it was our next stop!) where they BREED little “baby dragons!” So, there is that, lol.
The temperature inside the castle on the day we were there, lovely!
But, it was a warm and sunny summer day outside. Depending on the time frame of the part of the castle, some windows are just little holes into the outside. Others, like this, are true windows.
All have stunning views!
LOL – when your audio “tour” isn’t having you look at the same thing at the same time!
The “newer” castle rooms are charming – I didn’t add any pictures of the old or torture rooms. They were dark, cold and depressing.
You can see why the pictures are much darker as the “hallway” here to the inner and older rooms gets narrower and much more rustic!
If you are interested in knowing more about the history of the castle and of those who inhabited it, you can do a quick web search to learn more.
OR – add Slovenia to your travel list. It remains one of the cheaper travel destinations in Europe. We visited Slovenia for the first time in 1990 when it was becoming the first to gain independence from what was then Yugoslavia. It has kept the small, European charm that some of the other countries no longer have.
It’s safe. It has the Alps (I mean, really!). It has the beach. It is a short drive and you are in Venice!
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