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(S): Slovenia, (C): Croatia,
(M): Montenegro, (B): Bosnia-Herzegovina |
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1. Departure,
Lake Bled, Postojna Cave |
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Saturday, October 3, 2009.
Our couple left home in Urayasu City at 6:00 early morning, and were going
to spend the whole one day mostly in plane until the destination, the hotel
near Lake Bled, Slovenia, including the waiting time for a connecting flight.
Due to the flight of Lufthanza, our air route was from Narita via Frankfurt,
Germany, to Graz, Austria. Then there by bus to the destination, Lake Bled,
Slovenia. So, we left our footprints in the three countries in one day.
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After our jumbo jet plane took off from Narita Airport and for a while,
a movie began on the screen.
What was the title of this movie "Fast & furious" in Japanese?
I had seen it at Ikspiari in Urayasu City before, but I decided to see
it again partly for my study of English.
Before the end of the movie, I took out the iPod. It is my favorite with
120 giga-bite hard disc, which I never fail to bring during travels. The
contents are mostly classical musics and rakugo, and also my voice reading
in my homepage "Viva, Seniors!". I decided to listen to my reading,
"Nowadays in autumn, 2009" for checking anything wrong, which
takes a little more than one hour.
After lunch, I watched another two movies.
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| Near Austria |
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Our tour members got on the bus waiting in front of Graz Airport, Austria,
in the evening. The bus was new and large with 42-passenger capacity, made
our 32 members relaxed.
Mr Jacob was going to drive this large bus all the way touring around the
four countries until back here on the ninth day.
The bus ran 220 km to the south for a little over two hours, passing the
country border from Austria to Slovenia on the way and viewing the harvest
moon.
It arrived at Hotel Krim on Lake Bled just at 9:00 p.m.
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Lake Bled, Slovenia
October 4 |
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The morning call woke me up at 6:40.
Getting back to the room after breakfast, I was surprised at the CNN TV
reporting on the death of Mr Shoichi Nakagawa, former Finance Minister
of Japan. Listening with strained ears though half understanding, it seems
he may have commited suicide. It also reports, "If so, it would be
the suicide of two generations."
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It is fine with no wind. Though wearing a jacket for now, I feel it unnecessary
in the daytime.
The wharf of Lake Bled was 10 minutes by bus from the hotel.
 Separated to two groups, we get on a manual boat.
A muscular young man firstly arranges the left/right balance by moving
us little by little, and finally begins to row with two oars.
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The surface of the lake is bright green. The views from the boat are like
elegant paintings under clear blue sky.
Captivated by Bled Castle on the cliff across the lake before us and the
mountains with Mt. Triglav (2,864 m) as a peak on the background, we arrived
at small Bled Island.
We went up 99 steps and entered St. Maria Church of Baroque Style. It was
built between 8th and 9th centuries and the present architecture was rebuilt
in 17th century.
 We gazed at the appearance in fascination and was soothed by St. Maria
statue, decorations and wall paintings inside.
What about the famous bell ringer? Yes, we did it once each. And then what
about the answer to us? Surely, the travel of satisfaction!
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We also entered the neighboring parish church in Neo-Gothic style, rebuilt
in 1904. The chandeliers of white grapes were beautiful.
We spent the mornig time until noon easily and relaxed mostly around the
garden facing the lake in Bled island.
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Lake Bled is surrounded by an esplanade of about six km, which is said
to take around three hours on foot. They say there are sightseeing trains
and carriage services. The guidebook says the views on them appearing one
after another are enjoyable. To our regret, not time.
We could also not visit Bled Castle just across the wharf. The view from
the castle is said to be marvelous. The guidebook refers to its view rather
exaggeratedly, making us feel more regretful.
It is honestly difficult to visit this spot again, but if so, I would like
to stay here for a couple of days.
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Postojna Cave, Slovenia
October 4 |
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After lunch near Lake Bled, our bus ran for over one hour and arrived at
the entrance to Postojna Cave. It is located 80 km south from Ljubljana,
the capital of Republic of Slovenia, where we plan to stop by on the last
day.
I was amazed at this limestone cave famous for the largest in Europe. The
total length is 27 km. It is strange not to be qualified as a World Heritage
site yet, but they say this artificial access is an obstacle.
We drove the truck down two km. It was thrilling with fast speed. In the
middle, the mysterious worlds, where such a big talk like earth-shaking
scenes can frankly be allowed, are flooding into us one after another and
are leaving away quickly.
After getting off, we experienced a big underground nature with the history
of 100 thousand years for 1.7 km, overwhelmed with emotion. I took only
several pictures due to the limitation of photography to my regret. But
I really experienced the natural creations etched on my eyes the most.
Stalactites of various shapes are each called like a camel, an arrigator,
a turtle, etc, but on the other hand, what captivated me were the thin
and delicate white ice pillers called "spaghetti" and the white
"brilliant"with smooth and slippery surface, and also the "curtain"
being able to look forward through it.
I heard that it takes ten to thirty years for the stalactites to grow one
mm. I was overwhelmed by the eternal nature.
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Looking at the irregular stalactites, Sagrada Familia was doubled in my
head, which I visited seven years ago. It is the church of the holy family
in Barcelona, Spain, still under construction even now after more than
120 years.
It is unknown whether Antoni Gaudi, the original architect of this church,
ever visited this limestone cave or not, and even did not, I seriously
thought that his architectural idea was related to this kind of cave.
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It was when we were at the wide underground square called "Concert
Hall". We saw strange flesh-colored living things with the shapes
of lizards in a water tank. They also looked like eels. They are said to
be anthropoid fishes living in Dinaric Alps.
There are considerable numbers as large as two to 20 cm.
They are four-footed, squatting or crawling. They are said to be blind
amphibians born as eggs. Some of them live until 100 years old.
No photography.
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After the impressive experience in Postojna Cave, we drove 70 km south along the seacoast. There was a simple country border on the way from Slovenia to Croatia, and after a while we got to the resort place called Opatija at 7:00 p.m.
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| Part 1 Reading: 13' 18" |
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(S): Slovenia, (C): Croatia,
(M): Montenegro, (B): Bosnia-Herzegovina |
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