From Postojna to Kodreti

May 30^{th -} The first order of the day was a visit to Predjama Castle. This amazing castle, perched in a cavern above a stream and with an extensive (13 km known) cave system below it, is only 9 km from Postojna Cave. We arrived early enough to have the castle mostly to ourselves.

The first castle was probably built in the 12^th century, but the most famous inhabitant was Erazem in the 15^th century. Erazem was pursued and his castle under siege for over a year because he didn’t support the Emperor Frederick the III of Austria, and because he robbed merchant caravans. Because of the cave system, he was able to keep the castle supplied in food, and even had roast bullock and freshly-picked cherries delivered to his would be invaders.

Predjama Castle

This karst region was one of the earliest known prehistoric settlements in southern Europe with archaeologic finds from 150,000 years ago. And much more recently, was part of the Roman defensive chain known as Claustra Alpium Iularium. Ho hum, human history…

A cave part of Predjama Castle

From the castle we began a long downhill through a steep valley. This valley has fierce winds in the winter, and all the tile roofs had stones on top to help weigh the tiles down!

Stones weigh down the roof tiles

As the valley became more gradual, vineyards began dominating the landscape. We continued mostly downhill and finally ended our 8 km coast with a rise up towards our final destination for the day. Another downhill into a valley with more vineyards and we arrived at Hiša posebne sorte – Special House of Sorte, where we spent the night.

A husband and wife team, the Sortes, built this beautiful home, four extra rooms, and a restaurant beginning in 1990. They worked on it slowly and it was completed in 2007. First they built a local stone restaurant area with a curved stone ceiling. The craftsmen built the new building to have the look of the old stone buildings in the area. Each of the rooms has an open arch in front of it so you can see across the covered walkway to the forest beyond.

View from the front

One of the most enjoyable aspects of traveling in Europe is seeing buildings that have survived for centuries; built with solid materials and skilled construction. To see that quality continued today is remarkable. And at Hiša posebne sorte the quality extends to the wood furniture in each room and to the quality of the food and wind served.

View from the back

Foody Alert! Incredible dinner and special wines described below:

We were the only two people in the restaurant and we were still served an amazing meal. We began with a salad topped with warm shaved turkey and berry “dots” around the rim of the plate for extra flavor. Followed by fresh asparagus soup. The main course was a bed of mashed potatoes and a slice of celery root, topped with four layers of fried trout fillet with a cherry sauce. It all just melted in my mouth. Dessert was a plate of three tastings, a chocolate-orange cake slice, a bite of strudel, and an ice cream-like dessert that was more icy than creamy. All delicious. Dinner was served with the very local Rebula wine from the husband’s brothers vineyard.

Melt in your mouth trout

After dinner we had three other varieties of wine in a tasting room, and these were now from the woman’s brother’s vineyard. We first tried a very special wine, Zelèn, made from a unique variety of grape. This wine is only produced in this valley and it has to meet certain standards to get a special bottle. We would have loved to buy a bottle to bring home and share, but we will be carrying backpacks after the bike trip ends…

What a wonderful evening!