I have fallen in love with the Czech Republic in a way that I didn’t expect to. From the beautiful towns and cities, to the rolling countryside and lakes, we have had such a great time. As you approach the border with Austria, the landscape becomes more Alpine and the views are stunning. We’ve seen lots of wonderful wildlife on this trip, but I was particularly excited when I saw what I’m pretty certain was an eagle!
We realised that the reason E has pretty poor geography skills is because her parents do too. As we approached the Austrian border, we had a brief debate about which country we were actually about to drive into. Once in Austria, I was reminded why I Ioved it so much last year. The scenery is breath taking and spectacular. There is just something magical and beautiful in the towering mountains, pine forests and green fields. The driving was fun too! Twisting and turning up and down mountain roads and accelerating through the fields.
Eventually we entered Slovenia and found our cabin in the woods. We are staying in a two-story wooden cabin situated in a campsite. We are set back right in the woods on the edge of the site. Last night there was an almighty thunderstorm and I sat quivering in bed, convinced that lightening would strike one of the towering trees above us. When I eventually lay back down again I heard a scuttling, scratching noise very close to my head. There was some sort of creature either on the roof or even worse, in the cabin. I hissed at S, who had also heard it but was becoming increasingly irritated with my fussing about storms and creatures. I have no idea when I fell back to sleep but that was not the most restful night ever.
Today we woke to cold and rainy weather but it didn’t matter as we were visiting the Postonja caves, a 24,340m long cave system. The caves were amazing, eerie, cold, wonderful, alien like and awe-inspiring. We travelled into the caves by train and then walked through the caves on foot, before travelling back through the cave tunnels by train again. Formed almost 2 million years ago, the mind boggles as you gaze at the stalagmites and stalactites.