We went to Maribor (Marburg in German) and took a lot of photos. The most fascinating was the contrast between old and new. I hope Andy will write most the comments…
Comments updated by Andy :-)
Why Slovenia? Andy hadn’t been to a new country in 11 years, and it’s only 45 minutes from Gleisdorf. They are part of the European Union and use Euros since 2007. All we had to do was buy a highway permit sticker for the car and go.
It was fun to be in a truly foreign country. For example, I’m mostly familiar with western european languages and can pronounce most words. But this was definitely Eastern Europe, where the consonants have accent, and where none of us had any idea how to pronounce them. Fortunately, most people spoke English.
This year, Maribor was chosen as the European Culture Capital. I remembered that Graz was chosen back in 2003 when I first went there.
The old city wall, which ended up in the courtyard of a redeveloped building. There were a lot of old buildings, but some of them were just preserved façades, and in back was a “modern” building from 10-20 years ago.
We found this one painted passageway connecting the old plaza with the newer building behind it.
We had to visit the church on the main plaza. It wasn’t much from the outside (at least having just come from Paris), but had some nice features inside. Oddly, it was full of Austrian tour groups who walked through non-stop, so it felt just as crowded as Notre Dame. We wondered if they weren’t pilgrimage groups of some sort, as they stopped to hear about all the statues of saints and bishops. Pope Jean-Paul II also visited here, and they stopped to see the commemorative plaques and window.
One of the first things Leilani needs to do in each church we visit is buy a candle and light it:
As everywhere else in Maribor, stark contrast between old and new…
The modern stained glass windows are strange, but sometimes pretty
Sometimes more strange than pretty
And I spare you the really ugly ones…
