It was a nice cool morning after yesterday’s very hot weather. We got organised and booked the Postojna caves tour at 12.30. Arriving at the car park there was a large traffic jam getting in as they were running out of space. It didn’t take too long until we were put in a field. It was then a short walk with the hundreds of others to the cave entrance past the restaurants, souvenir shops and Hotel Jama above us.

We arrived at 12 in good time as well had to be there by 12.15. Lisa and I went to the ladies as we were going to be in the cave for nearly 2 hours. There was a queue of about 30 ladies with only 5 toilets – a major miscalculation in planning with hundreds of people visiting the cave every hour. We got back to the queue just as it started moving.

We then boarded the electric train that would take us for the first 3.5 km of the trip into the cave. We then walk 1.5km before returning the same 3.5km on the train. It is 10 degrees C in the cave so we all had our jumpers on.

We went through some very small tunnels just tall enough above our heads. At one point we went through a cavern with a huge chandelier and other lights – too fast for a photo – so here’s one I found elsewhere. The caves were the first place in Slovenia to have electric light in 1884 – even before Ljubljana.

The caves were discovered in the 1700s. The first major visitor was Archduke Ferdinand in 1819 when the caves became known as a tourist attraction. In 1872, cave rails were laid along with first cave train for tourists. At first, these were pushed along by the guides themselves, later at the beginning of the 20th century a gas locomotive was introduced. It was then changed to electric in 1945.

We arrived at the walking part and were amazed by all the different stalactites and stalagmites.

We walked along with the large group of people through the generally large walkways and through the massive caverns. In no way did you feel claustrophobic.

The only bottleneck was the bridge that Russian prisoners of war in WWII had been made to build.

There was so much to look at during the 1.5km walk.

There was a post office and gift shop in the last area where you can send a postmarked postcard. I’m afraid I didn’t.

The last huge cavern hosts concerts as the acoustics are so good. You can just about see Glenn in it.

We then got onto the next train back up to the surface.

The last caverns were black. We found out later that the Germans in WWII had stored fuel here that was blown up by the Slovenian resistance.

It was very bright when we got out into the daylight. The weather was very cloudy and cool.

We needed some sustenance so went for coffee and cake. I had the traditional apple and hazelnut layered cake served warm – very good. I was obviously enjoying it! Glenn and Sean had apple strudel. Lisa had the traditional custard and cream cake.

We felt renewed and ready for the next part of the day.

We then went to see the Secret Rooms in the Jama Hotel. It was built in the 1970s with the back end set into the caves.

We were given an audio guide and a room key. By tapping the audio guide on certain spots we were told about the hotel and where to go.

We went up to a certain room number and went in. This looks like a 2 way mirror.

There were several seats with fluffy headphones where you could connect into different recorded conversations shown in English on the screen.

The ones I listened to were obviously in code talking about how the snow would stop in 3 days and then they could meet up. There was also an interrogation going on in 1.

Many international and particularly prominent and political visitors visited the caves here during communism – so there was a lot to listen to.

After independence all rooms in the hotel were checked out. A door with a large padlock was in the basement but no key was ever found to fit it. Once it was cut open these rooms were found.

On the next instruction we were told to go into the phone box which had a different door.

We then went down a previously unknown concrete staircase that went into rooms at the bottom. There was a row of 4 old offices covered in dust with many communication devices. – mostly Yugoslavian who were experts in this area. They were left as they were found. All telephone wires for the hotel came through this area so they were obviously being tapped.

The exit was from an obscure door at the back of the hotel. There were apparently other escape routes from the hotel through the caves.

It was a very entertaining tour – and well done. There was no one else on the tour which made it extra special.

We got back to the campsite and after dinner played 5 Crowns. After a bad start by Sean he emerged as the winner as the rest of us had some bad rounds.

That was a big day!!