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| Predjama Castle, listed as the world's largest cave castle by Guinness World of Records 2015 |
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| With the owner of Vila Lemic, Postjona |
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| What a bummer! The owner had arranged for all 11 of us to visit the castle by van but at the eleventh hour, the transport company said we needed 2 cars and wanted to charge more! We refused on principle and decided to ride to the castle instead. However, some of the team members bailed on us and hired the same crook to take them to the castle and back to Trieste |
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| After another day of pushing up steep slopes, we finally arrived in Bukovje. |
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| Ecstatic to finally see the castle |
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Predjama Castle is thought to be built in the 12th century but the 1st recordings of the castle is from 1274.
Euro 17.50 entrance ticket |
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| The drawbridge is the only official entrance to the castle. However, there is a network of secret tunnels, used by the knight Erazem on his plundering expeditions. |
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| Views from the castle |
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| Inside the castle |
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| The castle is built around the limestone caves |
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| The caves |
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| The caves |
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| The castle incorporates the cave walls as part of the building |
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| Outside again |
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| Another view from the drawbridge |
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| We did not get access to the floors below the main building. |
Our second attempt to Predjama Castle was a success! We rode 16 km from our hotel to the castle then returned to Postojna to take the train to Sezana and onwards to Trieste to avoid yesterday's gravel trails. Moreover, while we had pushed our way up the famed 3.9km of mainly 11% gradehill out of Trieste yesterday, coming down the same slopes will be treacherous! Another alternative is to take the normal vehicle roads but from yesterday's experience, traffic can be heavy with zero road shoulders thus the idea was shelved as well.
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| Postojna train station |
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| The station was located on a hillslope |
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It was not easy buying tickets from the ticket machine as everything was in local language but a kind passerby helped us!
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All smiles when we finally got to our platform
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| No time for proper lunch! |
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| Comfortably in our trains...and then we realized, we can also buy the tickets from the train conductor as she walks down the aisle to check or sell tickets! |
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| Spacious, comfortable and clean! |
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| Sezana train station |
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| We were so worried we had missed our last train and kept asking the train officials who became very frustrated with us! |
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| Finally our very much delayed train arrived and we were ready to go! |
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| Cargo space to keep our bikes |
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| Compartmentalised |
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| Happy to be back to Trieste |
Whilst there're many trains from Postojna to Sezana (almost every 45 minutes at a fare of Euro 4.30), there're only a few trains running between Sezana and Trieste Centrale. Based on our timing, we could only catch the 3.31 pm train. This train was delayed several times but finally arrived at 5 pm. The 45 minute journey was supposed to be Euro 3 but we were not charged as the conductor did not come around to collect.
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| Nomago bus taken by Kenny. He abandoned the ride halfway and did not make it to Predjama Castle |
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| He managed to catch the last bus from Postojna to Trieste |
Another alternative is to take the Nomago bus from Postojna to Sezana for Euro 4.70. This service runs almost every hourly. Thereon, there's a bus from Sezana to Trieste for Euro 2.70 but with limited service. This second leg of the journey is only 30 minutes
Another possible option is taking the train from Postojna to Sezana then hop on the next train to Villa Opicina.
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| The red line follows our train journey from Sezana to Trieste |
The bus journey from Postojna to Trieste is faster than the train as the bus could use the winding road passing by Terrazza Bellavista "Conconello-Ferlugi" to Trieste. This is not possible for the train as it is a challenging feat to build the rail road across the mountains. Hence the train had to go north, past the mountains before heading back south to Trieste, following the coasts. Therefore, we found our train travelling parallel to V.le Miramare and we were again rewarded with sights of the Gulf of Trieste and Miramare Castle!
