Friday, September 26, 2008
Had our final breakfast at the Abram farm and paid our bill 150 Euros for 3 nights plus all breakfasts and dinners and wine, water, and cokes!!! Can you beat that?? Packed up the cars, bid farewells to farm and Italian friend, Ricardo (his wife drank too much wine the night before and was a bit under the weather) and drove for the last time DOWN the mountain.
Headed directly to Predjama Castle/Cave built into the side of mountain. Toured the castle and was able to walk up into the rock as far as we could offering great views of the valley below (although limited with just a small opening for Erasmus’ (the castle’s owner) safety while on the run). Truly an amazing structure complete with a chapel, a torture chamber, a prison, and a balcony over which the friar could watch the torture (what’s wrong with that picture?). We had lunch at the café on the grounds and encountered our first rude waiter (guess that occurs in all countries) treating us like we were the most stupid people he had ever waited on. I had grilled mushrooms with cheese but it was so overly salty it was ruined. From the castle we drove to the well known Postojna caves. Dot opted to stay in the car and the rest of us raced up the hill, at Carol’s urging, to make the 3 PM tour. Took a train about a mile into the bowels of the cave (sort of like a Disney ride, only the real thing) to start the tour. Our tour guide rushed very fast up a walkway to start his narrative – the rushing was half to get us ahead of the next group and half to warm us up since the cave was very cold, but we were worn out from that! He walked the group through a mile of cave, starting off over a bridge built by the Russians during the war. Words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of the caves, truly something to behold. The tour lasted an hour but by the time we got to the car it was 90 minutes. Dot read and took a little snooze while she waited for us.
We then put Bella to work to get us to Dregatus and our next farm. After several miscues (mine not Bella’s) and a traffic jam (our first) we made it in 3 hours. Without the miscues and traffic the trip probably would have been 2 hours. One miscue caused us to be driving on a dirt road literally through rows of corn. The thing about Slovenia is if you miss a turn its not like you can take the next turn and box it back to where you should be and with Judy following it was more difficult to correct errors. I know, making excuses for my errors!!!
The fun started when we arrived in Dregatus at the “farm” which isn’t really a farm at all but an inn with a restaurant located in the middle of a town (with a red clay tennis court, I might point out). As soon as we pulled up we were greeted by Rena in front of the place with hand gestures saying “sleep”. We said yes but then rubbed our bellies, saying “hungry”. Rena went and got her English-speaking daughter, Mika, who informed us we couldn’t eat there but would have to go to a restaurant. She explained further when we showed our confusion, the Rena only cooks by reservation and since we hadn’t told her we’d be there for dinner…..no dinner for you!!! However, things changed when we told Mika we were related to Oton Zupancic. All of a sudden Rena would make us a salad!! We were led into the Oton Zupancic room where pictures of Oton and his family lined the walls and his books on the room’s book shelves. They closed the door and we were expecting to be served a salad. First came the waitress for our drink order (can you guess what I ordered?) then came Rena, first with a huge platter of French fries, then came a salad, and then chicken with cheese and onion sauce over it, alas no dessert. Our first encounter of fame at the mention of Oton’s name. Unbelievable, but it wouldn’t be our last!!
While we were standing outside waiting to find out what our dinner fate would be, a young man began playing an accordion on the bar’s porch and everyone on the porch started singing along. Just like in our youth….Slovenian music…..all of us felt the urge to polka!! Then down the street comes the town drunk singing along and tripping the light fantastic. Judy caught sight of a person coming our way and thought it was Rena coming to show us our room and she waved at him with a big smile. I think he thought she wanted to dance!!! Got a good chuckle out of that.
After that great meal, Rena led us to our rooms which were the most beautiful of the trip and more than we expected. The heat in Carol and Dot’s room wasn’t working but Rena fixed it immediately. The rooms and baths were all very spacious. To bed!!
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