July 16 Trieste, Italy

 July 16, Saturday- Trieste, Italy

Here we are back where we started. When I booked our cruises, the first cruise was for 19 days. I did not know that it was compromised of a 7 day cruise followed by a 12 day cruise. So, today is the end of the 7 day cruise and about 1000 people will be leaving. 

Rather than spend the day in port we opted to do a shore excursion to the caves of Postamia. We first learned of the caves while on a high school orchestra tour in the late ‘80s. We had a stop in Opatia which was then in Yugoslavia. It is now in Slovenia. While there, we saw ads for the caves but we did not have time to go there. Since then we have seen many itineraries that included them but this is the first time we are actually nearby. 

We consulted with shore excursions and were assured that the walk was not too strenuous, the wet walkways were intermittent, and that there was a train that would take us in and out of the caves. The walk sounded similar to what we experienced with Sean when we toured the Lourie (spelling) caves last fall. We booked excursion. 

We left early and avoided the bustle of passengers disembarking and embarking. The ride into Slovenia was very pleasant. On the coach our guide explained the procedure. We would ride the train into the caves and use audio sets to listen to recorded narratives at numbered locations as we stayed with our guide. 

The train took us quite a distance into the caves where were met by our guide. We received strict instructions not to leave the group. We started off and listened to the first 3 narratives while sticking together. That is when we encountered a high steep incline that was very wet. Alice feared slipping angry falling. I feared for her. Thank God there was a railing. She made her way up slowly. I guarded her progress. This was not what had been described to us by the excursion desk. 

We continued on, doing the best we could and falling farther behind our group. We gave up on stopping to listen to the audio and still we fell farther behind. The rising and falling of the path continued. The wet walkway did also. We were soon passed by another group. We eventually made our way to the train and out. We were very disappointed. 

We have visited caves before and have always managed well. What we dared to see of these caves was impressive for their scale. But Lourie Caverns far exceeded them in beauty for their colors, structures and path conditions. 

The ride back to Oosterdam was uneventful. Back onboard we did the required check in at our muster station and prepared for dinner. It was fun watching the newly boarded find their way around the ship. We tried to help whenever we could. We went to attend Mass before dinner and found that there was no priest for the next week. Another disappointment. 

I used WhatsApp to contact Ivor and let him know that we would be back in Split tomorrow. He responded with some good places to visit including some bars and restaurants. 

We retired early, tired from a busy and somewhat disappointing day. 

Here are some pictures from the caves.