Jef Claes

On software and life

07 Sep 2014

Tolkien's inspiration

The next morning we woke up to another rainy day. We caught up with the rain in Austria and we have been following it ever since. Or the other way around. Even the locals can’t seem to stop talking about how much rain is falling.

Between showers, we were able to hike the Vintgar trail. The one hour hike takes you along dangerous rapid waters, bringing you to a big waterfall. If I ever wondered how J.R.R. Tolkien came up with inspiration for his famous novels, now I have a good idea.

On Tuesday, exploring the Postojna cave system by train and on foot offered similar enchanting images.

After exchanging the Slovenian scenery for that of Croatia - still raining - we visited the Plitvice Lakes on Thursday. The non-stop rain had caused a big part of the park to flood. If you didn’t mind getting wet up  to your knees, wading through the lakes that were now on top of the trails was definitely an option - one that we took.

We’ll spend our last few days in Croatia along the coastline, hoping to at least warm up a little after our wet and cold experience in the national park.