Predjama Castle
With sadness we said goodbye to the Celica hostel and the fabulous Claudia.
I actually stayed in the prayer room.
As a parting gift this was going on outside the hostel.
Brekky & beers
We had tickets to the castle (they came with our cave tickets,) but we didn’t find the time to go that day. So we wanted to get back to there but we didn't want to give up seeing the Lipizzan horses at the Lipica stud farm. So we planned based on opening times, tour times and distances and found a way to hurry and do them both. Storming the castle gate the moment it opened, we did an abbreviated but satisfying tour (with English-audio device) of the castle. Gorgeous views!
The drive up the hill to the castle.
A market near the castle.
Gift shop
Its part elegant castle, part raw cave.
Dummy
Another dummy
Off to the car. Driving as fast as possible to Lipica, we arrived with 15 minutes to spare before the noon tour of the farm. (I might have driven too fast.)
Old carriage trails - they lead to Vienna and Trieste.
Our tour was conducted by a lovely English-speaking guide. The horses seem happy and well-treated but here are things that I think they are covering and things that I really don’t like. Still, for the most part, very friendly contented horses with a lot of staff working hard and in an organized way to care for them. They keep about 360 horses. Complex breeding guidelines to make sure they have five families represented by 3-5 broodmares, then stallions whose lines are carefully tracked. We did not witness any training nor demonstrations. They do shows on Sunday, but alas it was Saturday. During the summer they have outdoor training which tourists can observe, but we are here too early in the spring for that. Still fascinating. I didn’t know that the babies are born black!
See pics.
Many pregnant mares together. The one on the right here seemed ready to go.
Not old enough to be white.
This brown mare stayed brown. She is a great auntie to all the others.
One of the stars.
Another star of the show - he is black but it doesn't matter,
he's well trained, has the heart and mind for it.
The newest stars
Baby sees outside world.
One of the stars - resting on his laurels.
We were able to complete the tour (we allowed the hour for the guided tour) then dash to the car and drive to Trieste – about another 45 minutes. Or it should have been...
It turned out that my iphone cable had failed and my phone died. Tried to do it without – Jan gets mad at me for being ‘dependent’ on google maps, but honestly her map didn’t show the airport and we didn’t know what road we were on. My argument is that you can try to wing it if you have at least one of those information points! Turns out she had an ipad cable and we swapped to that and made our way to the airport.
The airport to train station walkway was long and difficult for Jan, so I dropped her with her luggage and my suitcase at the train station, drove to the rental car place (had to circuit three times before I got that right … precious minutes!) Then dropped the car “Okay, can I go? Can I go? Is that all? Can I go?” Then slung on my backpack and hit the stairs at a dead run. I mean a dead run the ¼ mile to the train station. I was coming down the stairs to the platform, trying to let Jan know I’d made it (we would have to wait an hour if we missed that train!) she couldn’t hear me because of the train, but I made it close enough to her that she saw me, jumped up, I grabbed my bag and she grabbed hers and we ran straight on to the train. Fairly close call, you think!?
We travel in first class on the trains because it’s not much more money and it is often the difference in getting a seat and a quieter area. Often with power. And Jan has a first class rail pass. The power connector was weird though and our standard euro style adapters would not fit. Extremely attractive and kind Italian conductor loaned me a usb/power port that worked. Why didn’t I take a picture of him? We settled in to charge my phone and watch the vineyards out the window on our way to Venezia Santa Lucia.
Hopping off the train and dropping our luggage at the convenient storage place (close by, fast and cheap! So many advantages of traveling with this veteran of the world, Jan.) We wandered out into the wildly crowded streets of Venezia where everyone is different but all the same.
Wandered quite a ways but I talked Jan out of dinner at a place she wanted to show me because it would be too tight / long walk back. So, we moseyed back closer to the train station and popped into a little place she frequents whenever she is there. Vegetable lasagna and a Moretti Weiss.
Then, of course, we had to stop for gelato on the way to the train. I’ve been pretty good about treats, but come on, I must have gelato in Italy at least once!
We retrieved our baggage and parted company – Jan on her overnight train to Paris, me to the bus station to catch the bus to the airport.
I planned to walk to my guest house from the airport, so I’d be sure to know the way in the morning, but Camilla, the lovely landlady insisted on picking me up at the airport. Fantastic place to stay and literally I walked 10 minutes to my ticket counter in the morning!
