To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to expect of Slovenia and so, even though I arrived fairly open-minded, I was genuinely pleased to see nothing but beautiful rolling hills, cows (surrounding their respective farm houses) and a fair selection of vineyards as we cycled our way through the countryside (just outside of Maribor).
After, picking up lunch and our electric bikes (sorry, there’s no way I’d be cycling uphill in a proper bike – uphill cycling is definitely not my forte), we pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon roaming from vineyard to vineyard, tasting wine as we went along and eating everything present on every charcuterie board in sight!
I’ve gotta say, there’s nothing quite like a bit of sunshine to help make a brilliant place even that little bit better.
Cycling done and appetite whetted (and worked up), we headed for lunch in at Jarenina Castle (which is also home to a vineyard) and is a rather impressive building to see in and of itself.
There’s also a veritable selection of wines here so if you were planning on ‘going crazy’ on the wines when you visit Maribor – this is probably the place to do it. 😉
Fed and energised, I headed back to the hotel for a quick freshen up (and a little snooze if I’m honest) before venturing out on a tour of Maribor city.
A little stroll around Maribor and learning more if it’s history along the way definitely made me realise Maribor is one of those cities that you never really think to visit but definitely should. Even if your mind went to visiting Slovenia – you’d probably think first of the capital city of Ljubljana and Maribor has such a lot on offer here.
It’s pretty, compact and very sociable – which, by the way, is my excuse for getting ‘lost’ in several of its pubs to try on the local brews on offer.
In fact, as soon as the tour was over, we all made a bee-line for Postna ulica which is a street you wanna be in if you’d like to get a drink and a bite to eat while enjoying a night out in the city.
We may have arrived slightly late for our dinner reservations but hey – those Slovenian beers weren’t going to drink themselves! 🙂
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