But first things first – dinner! See, after our evening exploring the picturesque city of Maribor (Slovenia’s second-largest city), we’d worked up quite the appetite and there was no better place to quell said appetite than the delightful restaurant called Rozmarin – one of the best restaurants in the city (also home to a rather impressive wine cellar).
Seriously, it was course after course of delightfulness – much of which I’d like to go into much more detail but I really want to tell you more about the beautiful town of Ptuj.
I will say this though – the venison (which I had for my mains) was absolutely amazing! I have such a great appreciation for venison when it is cooked to perfection (all venisons are not equal) and this was one part of the evening that most definitely stood out!
Anyway, dinner was great – totally recommend it… bla… bla… bla… 😁 (no seriously though, if you’re in Maribor – you should definitely make the time to eat in Rozmarin, even if just once).
The next morning (also our final morning on this trip to Slovenia), we headed off to Ptuj in search of more wine! (As I already mentioned in this post here, this was very much a ‘wine trip’ 😉 )
We started off with a little jaunt around the town which, considering how much it gets overlooked for the shinier cities of Ljubljana and Maribor, is an absolutely delightful and colourful gem (*yes, I know I’m quickly hitting the limit for how many times a person can use the word delightful in one blog post but it’s the best word to describe this place).
I’m a sucker for colourful streets so I was very much in my element here.
To add to that, we headed off to the Ptuj Wine Cellars, a place that is still home to wine that is probably even older than your grandparents (the oldest wine here is from 1917!).
We wandered through the wine cellars taking in the history of this place and how it managed to hide the wine during the war a time when many vineyards, home and businesses were pillaged and left with nothing.
Next up though, and my favourite part – the wine tasting. I know you’re supposed to spit wine out when you’re tasting it but I just can’t bring myself to do this. 🙂 Of course, the end result of that is a merry Yaya wandering through the streets of Ptuj, skipping and singing in utter delight (yes, that word again! 😀 ).
We set off to explore more of Ptuj…
…before heading up to the castle, a spot which offers the very best view over all of Ptuj!
We ambled slowly through the castle, taking in even more of the history of the oldest town in Slovenia (albeit in a wine-addled haze) before heading back down to Kobal Wines for even more wine tasting (though by this point, I was back to being fairly sober).
Wine tasting done with (and a couple of bottles grabbed to take back home to share with friends), we headed off on one last gallivant around Ptuj before heading back home.
That’s the thing about trips like this – you never quite know what you’re going to find and boy am I glad we got to discover Ptuj, even if just for a few hours… 🙂
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
