Lipica

I fully admit to being a self-proclaimed “horse nut”.  I love horses.  I love everything about them.  Riding them, feeding them, grooming them, cleaning their stalls.  I really do love it all, and I miss it.  (For those that don’t know/ remember, I sold my horse in 2007 due to the constant moves with the military.)  Spending the day in a barn working with and around horses is my idea of Heaven.

So when we went to Lipica, Slovenia, I was pretty much in Heaven. 

I’m not sure I’ve seen a more beautiful place.  Lipica in the fall is ALL sorts of GORGEOUS!

You enter via a tree and white fence lined road, with a golf course on one side and a beautiful pasture full of Lipizzaner’s on the other side.

Lipica is one of the oldest Lipizzaner breeding farms in the world, and where the Lipizzaner’s got their name.  Lipica has been breeding Lipizzaner’s since 1580.  This breed has avoided extinction numerous times, after they were evacuated from their farms in various countries when those countries were invaded.  They’ve been used as war horses for many, many years, and there are only 3000 registered Lipizzaner’s world wide.  They are also Slovenia’s national animal.

  We were able to watch a training session while we were at the farm.  They put on shows on Friday’s and Sunday’s, but we were there on Saturday so we didn’t see it.  However, I’ve seen them perform in the States 3-4 times and their show is amazing.  What they can get these animals to do is nothing short of a miracle.

Lipizzan’s are trained in classical dressage, and at Lipica, they start their training at the age of 4.  It takes about 6 years for them to complete their training.  Although they ride the mares (females) here, in their shows they only use the stallions.  The horse below is doing a “piaffe” which is basically trotting in place – one of the most advanced dressage moves out there. I would love to be able to ride here, and they do actually have week long courses that you can take, where you ride the Lipizzan’s every morning and then stay in the hotels at the farms in the evening.  (Rachel, you need to get your butt out here so we can do this!!!)  That would be a dream come true for me.

Everything about this place was beautiful.  I could have spent 3 weeks there. We took a carriage ride around the grounds.  It was 20E for 30 mins for all four (and a half including Abbie) of us.  Pretty cheap considering how absolutely gorgeous it was.  I’m not sure we could have picked a pretty time to be there.  Enjoy the pictures!  (It’s pretty hard to get a clear picture when you’re bouncing along in a horse-drawn carriage, but we managed to get a few.)

This is the oldest building on the grounds and is the barn for the oldest stallions on the farm and the ones they use in their shows.

This guy was 26 years old and still beautiful as ever.

Lipizzan’s have gray skin.  They are born black and gradually turn white around 6-8 years of age.

You weren’t supposed to touch the horses, but I couldn’t help myself.  I can’t be around that many soft horse muzzles and not touch at least one of them!  Abbie was afraid to touch them.  She’d reach out to touch them, but as soon as the horse would look at her she’d pull her hand away.

There is a Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, that trains the Lipizzaner’s.  So that’s next on my list of places to visit!  It was great having Mark’s mom and brother along to join in the fun too!

Lake Bled

Lake Bled is a very popular tourist attraction in Slovenia.  I think lots of people go there to camp and for the beautiful scenery.  We went to check out the castle and the town.

Here are Mark and Ryan on the way up to the castle.  Luckily you could drive most of the way up and only had to walk a short distance.

This is the castle that they have turned into a museum.  It’s not at all “castle-ish” on the inside since it’s been completely renovated.  It looks like a modern museum inside, which was kind of disappointing.

The views from the castle were amazing though, despite the fact that it was raining and foggy.

Here’s the view of the town of Bled, from the castle.  Lake Bled is a glacial lake located in the Julian Alps.

You can see the castle we toured on the right side of this picture, and on the left is the only natural island in Slovenia.

We’d like to go back sometime when the weather is a little better so we can see more of the surrounding areas and take a bike ride around the lake.

Predjama Castle

Predjama Castle is over 700 years old and was built into this cave for maximum protection.  Apparently it was inhabited by knight Erazem, who was a “robber baron” and the caves behind it connect somehow with the Postojna cave.  You can take a tour of the cave but you start below the castle and end above the castle and I’d already climbed enough stairs the previous day in the basilica bell tower in Aquileia.  Next time we go, we’ll do the cave tour, because I think it would be fascinating.

 

Views from inside the castle.

Us at one of the look-outs.  (Thanks for taking all the family pictures for us Ryan.)

This was a passage way thru the cave up to another look out.  The steps were uneven, big, and if you noticed, wet (which meant slippery).  When we were at the top of this, there was a family of 5 up at the top.  The mom went down first, followed by the oldest 2 kids, and then the dad, who was wearing flip flops, put the youngest, who’s probably 3 or so, on his shoulders to go down the stairs…  Uhh..  That might not have been the brightest decision he’d made in his lifetime.  Luckily he made it down safely, but I was nervous for them.  Mark turned away because he couldn’t watch.

Those steps go down to the entrance to the cave. 

Ryan, Mark and Abbie at another look-out.

This is one of the cave portions in the castle.

They sell wine at the castle.  Mark wanted to buy a bottle, and they even let you bottle it yourself.  So here’s Mark (and Abbie) filling the bottle, putting the cork in, adding the tag and the stamp, and then he dipped the neck of the bottle in hot wax.  It was pretty neat.

I told the guy I only liked sweet alcohol (he was only selling dry wines), and they had some honey bourbon for sale that he let me try.  It was definitely sweet, and it warmed you up pretty quickly.  Mark, Ryan and I split the taste of it.  It was good, but I didn’t buy any.  =)

 

And here’s the prettiest thing in Europe that I’ll never get tired of seeing (or taking pictures of).