Grape vines near Maribor, Slovenia, home to the world's oldest producing vine
Mr. Jones can run. Fast! This was witnessed today by Mrs. Jones enroute from the hotel to the train station. We were making a day trip to Maribor, in the northeastern part of Slovenia, south of Graz, Austria. Mrs. Jones was a little slow and we left the hotel at 8:20 for an 8:30 train.
No problem, the train station is only a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Well, maybe 7 minutes if the lights are red (they were). And then, the train to Maribor was on track #4, another 5-7 minute walk. We walked fast. Then Mr. Jones made a flat out sprint — he went so fast he missed track #4 and went to #5, but we did in fact make the train. The 2-hour train ride provided a chance to catch our breath.
Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia and it dates back to prehistoric times when the Celts, illyrians and Romans settled in the area on the banks of the Drava River. In 1254, Maribor gained town rights, developing a wine trade, town tolls and crafts. The Hapsburgs protected and bestowed many priveleges on Maribor — they must have loved the wine.
Today, Maribor is a friendly city, surrounded by hills of grapes vines and/or mountains with a ski run. We wanted to see the oldest living grape vine in the world, which was planted by the Drava river more than 400 years ago. We visited the Old Vine House. Besides having the oldest vine growing on the front of the building, inside there is a muesum with some of the history, wine tasting (but you have to buy an entire bottle to taste it), and pictures of the wine queens. We were not ready to drink a full bottle of wine so we didn’t taste.
Climb Stolna Catheral Bell Tower for a view of the city and surrounding countryside
During our visit, we also climbed the bell tower of the Stolna Catheral (a fantastic view of the city and surrounding countryside is worth the climb), toured the Pokrajinski Museum, and had lunch at Patrick Murphy’s Irish Pub.
The Vinag Cellar, reported to be one of the largest cellars in Europe, was closed, as was the one wine-tasting cellar in Maribor. Likely, this was due to the Lent Festival, which was nearing the end of its two-week run. The festival includes major music performances each night. American performers Maceo parker and Living Colour were to preform tonight.
Back in Ljubljana, we wondered around looking for a place to have a glass of wine. Beside the Hotel Sloan, we saw a sign for Enoteca, a wine cellar. Since it was early and we were the only guests, we had a great chat with the owner Sašo (pronounced Sa show). Sašo offered a huge selection of Slovenian and other wines by the glass. Enoteca Wine Bar, Nazorjeva 12