Travel Slovenia: An Excursion to Maribor

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• published: 24 Aug 2010
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The weather had warmed up nicely on June 5, 2010 and it was a perfect day for visiting the market in my home town of Weiz. Fresh local produce, farm-fresh eggs, rye bread with a crisp crust and various smoked meats and sausages were on display on the main square of Weiz. People on foot and on bicycles were moving about town, doing their shopping. At 11 am we set off for today's out-of-town excursion: our destination was Maribor in Slovenia, about 80 km away from my home town Austria. Today Slovenia, formerly a part of Yugoslavia, is a small country of only about 2 million people and a member of the European Union since 2004. Passport checks at the border crossings are no longer necessary to enter this charming country. Maribor is not far from the border and is the country's second largest city with about 105,000 residents. Its Austro-Hungarian roots are easily recognizable in the many baroque buildings throughout town. We started our walk in the city's central park and hiked up into the vineyard-covered hills overlooking the city, past picturesque ponds, through meadows and forests. From the top of the hill we had a panoramic view over the city that is bisected by the river Drava. Back in the city our walks took us past the baroque city center and the open-air market to the banks of the Drava where we sat down for some coffee and ice cream in a cool bar with an outdoor terrace overlooking the river. In the late afternoon we drove back through Slovenian Styria into the southern part of Austrian Styria which is characterized by rolling hills full of vineyards, a region often referred to as the "Austrian Tuscany". We stopped at a store to pick up some wine and a local delicacy: Styrian pumpkin seed oil, a dark green salad oil with a definite nutty flavour rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. We capped off the evening with a nice Austrian meal in the garden, surrounded by the serenity of the Austrian countryside.