Maribor, Slovenia: Unruined

 ‘Curiouser and curiouser’ as Alice would say

After 2 days in Opatija, Croatia, we drove via Ljubljana, Slovenia, on to Maribor where we were going to spend a night before going on to Vienna, Austria.

The route was lined with vineyards and acres and acres of, what seems to the untrained eye, pepper vines. But were they really? These are shady plants. The greenish conical ‘fruits’ are drooping with their weight. The foliage seems dense. As they grow they cling on to ropes! 

What are they?

Acquired taste: more to experience

We did not have difficulty finding our accommodation. A series of rooms with a hodge podge kitchen in the half basement. Our host is a school teacher. She welcomes us with shot glasses of home-made yellowish wine garnished with tiny flowers from her garden. Should we have taken the shots right away? Being teetotalers and unsure of the custom we set it aside for ‘later’. 

Since it's close to sunset we simply make ourselves comfortable, quickly prepare dinner, connect to the Internet, contact our host at the next destination, preview our itinerary for the next day and then just before we retire for the night, believing that our welcome drink would be stale enough, we take sips. Our faces immediately contort. Our tongues are not ready for what we unanimously felt was unpalatable. 

The burning question 

What were those vines we saw on our way to Marbor? Hops. So says our host proudly. They are a vital ingredient in beer making. Was it beer that she had offered us the day before. Not in shot glasses! At least, that much I know.

More to discover

As usual we have a hearty breakfast and pack our picnic lunch before driving into the city centre of Maribor.  The town is very quiet. But as we find a place to park we notice a hub of activity. It is market day. Fresh vegetables laid out on simple foldable tables in rows of covered stalls . As we get closer we notice that the stalls have only the discards. After all, it is late morning. Only one stall has some fresh undamaged beans left and so we buy some to cook at our next place of stay. The fruits are tempting but we already have a generous supply.

Drawn to a curious booth we approach for an inspection. It houses a recess with a glass door. You could place a milk bottle in it under a spigot, press the relevant button and fill up to a litre of milk after having tipped the coin slot. A basic vending machine that serves its purpose very well indeed.

The Old Town

The excitement over, we begin to explore the city laid out on the banks of the Duva River, with swans gracing its banks and gliding across the waters.

The ruins of mediaeval walls and buildings are hard to miss. The plaques tell us of the squat Water Tower (that doesn't look like one), and the Judgement Tower, both built for fortification while Slovenia was still part of Austria. The Jewish tower and synagogue (second oldest in Europe) attest to the Germanisation of Austria and the consequent suffering during WWII when most of the city was destroyed. And then of course the area became part of Yugoslavia before becoming independent Slovenia (1991).

Idyllic and record breaking

The long building with a dense vine stretched over its length draws our interest. We could have easily dismissed it as a decorative creeper.  It's actually a 400 year old grape vine, the world's oldest according to the Guiness Book of World Records.. Yellow walls and red roof tiles ( same as our host's residence) and a dense dark green vine. It can’t  get more picturesque.

A greater appreciation: history and agriculture

We stroll towards the city centre to be greeted by even more ‘curious’ monuments: 

A huge wine barrel. The sign at the entrance to the building nearby tells us that this barrel is not simply whimsy. Maribor is surrounded by vineyards. The building is a wine museum with one of the oldest and  largest  wine cellars in Europe.  It has wine tasting sessions as well. It makes no difference to us that it is closed today. Now we truly understand our host's welcoming gesture. 

Another oddity loomed up: a huge rotund sculpture. It resembled a spherical head with neat swatches of hair neatly combed down the sides to conceal baldness! Seriously, it's a  monument to the monument to the nearly 700 hostages and rebels who were killed by German forces during the National Liberation War (WWII).

In the main square of the city is yet another monument.  This time it is an elaborate marble structure with intricate details to memorialize the nearly  one third of the population that died during the Plague.

Two modern and one  baroque style monuments. What next? Our ramble takes us to a Gothic Cathedral and a Renaissance style town hall. 

 

European Capital of Culture: Who would have known?

Leaving the cobble-stoned old city and its narrow alleys and courtyards we saunter into the paved modern streets in the new part of the town.  It is all so quiet it's hard to believe that Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia as well as voted the cultural Capital of Europe in 2012.  

It goes without saying that travellers like us who enjoy discovery, who want to truly appreciate the local inhabitants, get the full deal when there are few tourists of the kind who simply follow guides, arguably for a better appreciation, afraid that they might miss something they had read about or had been touted.

Trivia:

The Duava River connects Slovenia to Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary.