Back to Croatia - Opatija - Day 5

Back to Croatia - Opatija - Day 5
Up and out in the morning and drove about an hour to the Postojna cave. This is a cool cave where the remnants of the Ljubljana river dives into the rock to cut a channel. We took a little tram about a mile in, and began to walk. Never having been to Luray, this was quite impressive to me. The caverns were huge and the thousands of stalactites and stalagmites were very cool. The lights inside were strategically placed to highlight them well. We walked for about an hour. I took a bunch of pictures that I hope will come out, since I was pushing the ISO and speed to the limits of my camera. No tripods or flash allowed.
After lunch at the cafeteria, we went back across the border to Croatia. We got to the little town of Opatija which is not exactly a resort, but more of a spa town. The Austrians would come here for the air and the exercise of walking. We are doing a bunch of that. Luckily, the rain has mostly stopped, and we have even seen bits of sunlight! There were Benedictine monks here in the 14th century who set up an abbey. The word "abbey" comes from the name Opatija, which in Croation, means "abbey". The word in Italian is "abezzia". You can see how the etymology works. (Thank you, Bart).
A famous son of Opatija is Leo Sternbach, who invented benzodiazepines, which gave us Librium, Valium, klonopin, and Dalmane. (Look up "Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Chemicals That Changed History") We are having problems now with the misuse of "benzos", but it was really an important discovery. Also, a famous surgeon, Theodor Billroth, spent time here and died here. My surgical buddies will certainly know that name.
We spent the afternoon walking around the town and through the large Angiolina Park in the center. Lots of different plants and trees, including Sequoias. Down by the water is a statue of the "Maiden with Seagull". This was a replacement for a Madonna that was torn down by the Communists in the 50s. They are trying to promote this like the Little Mermaid of Copenhagen. The problem is you can't get quite so close, and the girl faces the sea rather than the shore where you can see her better. Nice try.
Dinner at the hotel and another walk by the water, and I'm pooped.

Ann's additions:

Even though I visited Lurray caverns years ago on a school field trip with Harry, I was equally impressed with the Postojna caves. But I was also impressed today with some of the recent history we learned about Slovenia and Croatia. Slovenia became a member of the EU in 2004, but thanks to Slovenia's efforts to block Croatia's entry into the EU, Croatia did not become a member until 2013. Although the Slovenian and Croatian people generally like each other, as we learned from our tour leader today and vacation in each other's countries, they are not always in sync politically. The major reason Slovenia blocked Croatia's EU entry is that Slovenia needs access through Croatia to make full use of its coast. It took years for the two countries to reach agreement on this issue and when they finally did, Croatia modified its opposition to Slovenia's EU entry. Not surprisingly, Slovenia, as a long time EU member uses the Euro. Croatia is not yet on the Euro and still uses the kuna.

Although our tour leader told us that the immigrant crisis was not really affecting Croatia because the immigrants weren't coming to this country, recent news reports tell a different story. In February 2016, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia all announced that they would each restrict the number of immigrants entering their countries to 580 a day. Their announcement followed Austria's clampdown on immigration.