{"id":2189,"date":"2018-05-06T12:39:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T17:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/?p=2189"},"modified":"2024-06-17T18:52:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T22:52:31","slug":"180506-tired-and-abandoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/180506-tired-and-abandoned\/","title":{"rendered":"180506-Tired and Abandoned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knowing I needed to be up in time to arrive for the 10:00 am tour of the caves, I slept horribly. I didn’t need to worry about it; when the sun hit the campground valley the wildlife came alive, and woke me up. At 5:30 am. I managed to go back to sleep until 7:30, but I still arrived at the ticket office by 8:30 am. Ticket sales didn’t even start until 9:30.<\/p>\n

The \u0160kocjan caves were impressive, if overly tourist-engineered. A river runs through the center that screams First Descent. And then everyone would die; the whole thing keeps dropping into sinkholes only to emerge at a later point. The tour was over 500 steps. Not ADA-friendly.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

After grabbing a quick bite to eat I returned to pack up camp. My laundry had been blown all over the place, but at least everything dried. <\/p>\n

I headed to Castle Prem, much of that trek in the wrong direction, and away from EV9. I expected more of yesterday. Instead I spent most of the day next to water with gradual climbs. Castle Prem was well worth the redirection, placed at the top of a mountain manned by a lone ticket agent. A castle that had migrated from fortress to manor house, while still expanding the castle walls – darned Ottomans!
\n\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

From Prem I reversed course, and the earlier up converted to down. Another 20 km of cycling brought me to Postojna. Much to the certain regret of my wargaming friends, I passed by the Park of Military History, but I stopped long enough to take photos of some of the tanks outside.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the day was still mostly downhill, but tired and saddle-sore I’m taking a well-deserved break and spending a couple of nights here in Postojna. The IYH runs the hostel; while missing some of the hostel character, everything is sparkly and new. This hostel also serves as residential living for a nearby secondary and university education, separated by floor. Clearly a full-fledged hostel, with kitchen, laundry, and common area, although I’ve failed to interact with anyone but the host. <\/p>\n

Tomorrow will at most be a light cycling day. The Postojna Caverns are only a kilometer outside of town. More importantly, Predjama Castle stands on a mountain about 10 km outside of town (and in line with the Postojna Caverns). I choose this route because of Predjama, so I think I’ll go there. Still 20 km round trip through mountains, but leaving my gear behind makes a big difference in my endurance. <\/p>\n

That means on Tuesday I should arrive in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. After that Croatia, although I’m not quite certain how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knowing I needed to be up in time to arrive for the 10:00 am tour of the caves, I slept horribly. I didn’t need to worry about it; when the sun hit the campground valley the wildlife came alive, and woke me up. At 5:30 am. I managed to go back to sleep until 7:30, … Continue reading “180506-Tired and Abandoned”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2489,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/2489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}