City of Maribor

My train ticket between the Austrian/Slovenian border and the city of Maribor cost only Euros 2.50 so I knew Maribor must be close. It was. Once the train started again after its extended border stop we rolled down the hill and were there in no time.

Maribor is an industrial and university city of something over 100,000 people, about the same size as Dunedin and with the same friendly feel. The surroundings are lovely, vineyards and distant blue hills and the city sits on the banks of a the River Drava. Postcards show city reflections in blue water but during the ten days of my visit the Drava was fast flowing and muddy brown. An ornate monument to victims of the plague dominates the town square. People don't congregate there but in the many cafes and ice cream palours in a smaller square a couple of blocks away. In fact Maribor is full of cafes and ice cream parlours which appear to be an essential part of the social fabric as all of them are very well frequented. White coffee is served in a variety of imaginative forms. The townsfolk are reserved but friendly and very helpful. If you speak German and English you can converse with everyone as older residents speak German and the younger ones English.