Art and Abart

A quick visit to the Rhine River on the way to Frankfurt airport. Just time to have one good sleep, a walk along the river bank and a beer ...

How wonderful it is to be in an opera house where you can hear well from every seat. I saw Madam Butterfly from the very back row of the Pa...

Octoberfest officially started yesterday and the streets of Munich are full of Dirndls and Lederhosen. Shop window Inside the shop  ...

I had not expected to be travelling with the Syrians yesterday, but life sometimes delivers the unexpected. Earlier in the week railway st...

Tara Simincec Jaka Stadler Richard Tognetti The Maribor Music Festival is almost over for another year. As always, it was a...

Isabella's Isabella's is a cute little cafe/restaurant down a side street near the cathedral in Maribor and it serves the best c...

Satu Vänskä plays violin Satu Vänskä's The Woman Project  was packed full of very diverse work and the performers were as diverse a...

From left:  From left: Richard Tognetti, Satu Vänskä, Polina Leschenko, Nathan Braude, Jaka Stadler Tonight's concert at the Mari...

Meow Meow with 'helpers' from the audience Meow Meow is the most extraordinary performer. In Maribor she had her audience in t...

Hidden courtyard Maribor on the River Drava Maribor is picturesque and around every corner is a new surprise, a hidden courtyard, a...

Group of smokers outside the Hotel reception One thing you really notice here in Slovenia is how many people still smoke. Public squares...

Satu  Vänskä plays We have heard some wonderful playing this week at the Maribor Music Festival, not least Satu Vänskä who played us a v...

Musicians in rehearsal The Maribor Music Festival is in full swing and I am making lots of sketches of musicians and of Maribor town. ...

Maribor Castle Maribor is such a pretty place, particularly the old city. The Maribor Castle (left) was built between 1478 and 1483 and ...

Oil and beer at the Anchor Restaurant, Maribor.

I'm back among the brick red rooves!

Looking towards Graz Looking towards Maribor I arrived at the border crossing between Austria and Slovenia by S-Bahn this year and...

On the way south in the train from Hamburg to Slovenia I occassionally took out my sketch pad as the landscape whizzed past the window. J...