Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia, but you would not believe it. It is small, sitting in a narrow valley on the Drava river and backing directly into the vineyards.

I was here pre- covid, found Slovenia to be a delightful country to visit and so I have returned this time with CAMarchand to take another look. There is a wonderful Unesco recognized train ride down from Vienna to Maribor that I suggest to you. I planned to take it but found that it had stopped for the season before we arrived.

The countryside around Maribor is beautiful.

We have had a fine visit. Nice restaurants. Nice old town. Walks along the river and in their beautiful city park and in the hills around town. A few days is enough though, the town is small. Some photos.

This is wine country. For a start they have the certified oldest vine in the world, somewhere over 400 years old.

The hills around Maribor mainly to the North toward the Austrian border are full of wineries. Mainly very small ones set in villages in the countryside. They are concentrated on making small quantities of excellent quality white wines.

We have been touring and tasting. One day 18 wines. Someone has to do this.

At one winery we sat with the vintner in his family dining room and talked about how he made the wines and tasted them. The amazingly low prices you see in the second picture are in Euros which at the moment is almost equal to dollars.

Tomorrow we are off to the oldest town in Slovenia to see some Roman ruins. It just happens to be in another important Slovenian wine region.

Thanks for coming along.