Outside the church, we just wandered around the town, looking for nice streets and building. There were more neat passageways:
The Drava river (Drau in German) cuts through town and even though it looks large, it is artificially dammed in this part of town (much like the river in Austin TX). We crossed on a high bridge to walk along the banks and get different views of the city.
Walking across the bridge we saw this old, decaying house (on the left)
When we got closer we saw it was still inhabited.
Just a regular courtyard, with a few flowers:
Back on the older side of the river… This grapevine was planted 400 years ago and still bears fruit. A sign in English said it was a world record.
They had an art exhibition in the old Judgement tower (which was actually only a defense tower). Andy liked how the newer (or at least renovated) residential building wrapped around the old tower:
The inside was the most interesting, with huge brick arches.
This charming building was right on the river, and Andy thought it should be turned into a quaint B&B.
We had pretty good pizza at this little place (with rats on the sign above), we could watch as it was cooked in a wood fired oven.
Desert at a cafe in the center of town was decadent… (somebody ordered BOTH hot chocolate with whipped cream AND chocolate cake for Leilani, and that same someone later regretted it).
Some of the small streets were really pretty. If you wonder about the big box… Leilani insisted on carrying the pizza leftovers all the way back to Austria.
There was a nice-looking museum in the old city fort, but it was still closed for mid-day break (until 3pm)
I think this was from the Tito era when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia.
Andy wanted to see the countryside and the nearby hills, but unfortunately, it was very gray and cloudy. We drove up a small mountain a few kilometers from Maribor, and when the views didn’t get any better, we walked around in the fog.
As soon as we had parked the car, out of nowhere 2 really friendly dogs appeared, very happy that someone was about to go for a walk and accompanied us for the entire walk. When we got back to the car they ran off…
Andy thought it would be good business to rent dogs to the tourists, as they should really not live in cities but it was a lot of fun to have them for a walk in the forest. (It turns out that this is already being done in Hawaii, on Maui: Rent-a-mutt)
Then we drove home on a different road through the Slovenian and Austrian countryside. It was longer but still pretty. That part of Slovenia is know as lower Styria, and it was once joined to “upper” Styria under some king or another–so the resemblence is not a coincidence.
