Maribor - a city surrounded by beauty – part II

I would not be in the least surprised if you haven’t heard of Pesnica, for it usually reminds me more of a local creek than a river. But since it’s not large and there are many waters accumilating from the hills of Slovenske gorice, this valley has quite a number of lakes.

And this time we’ll go northeast from Maribor, towards Perniško jezero, the largest of these lakes – and further on to the right bank of river Mura.

If you wish to make a slightly longer trip I suggest you follow the river Drava toward Malečnik (I talked about in the previous issue) and follow the Wine Road over Vodole to reach Pernica... or you can cross the Meljski hrib, from behind the main railroad station in Maribor... but if you haven’t got a somewhat good map or a local guide to show you the way, I guess the main road through Košaški dol following the road to Lenart (parallel to the highway leading toward Hungary) is the safest bet. Quite soon you’ll reach Pernica, a small village with a medieval pilgrimage church of Saint Marjeta.
 
A have to admit, I like this church, for although it was renovated it hasn’t lost the charm of ages. Next to the church is the seat of the priest and on the other side, as it’s traditional all through Slovenia, a traditional inn.

In Jakobski Dol you’ll see right next to the imposing church – which I strongly recomend you visit – the Restaurant and Vinery Žmavc. Here you can even see an old refrigerator that did not need electricity to work, but most of all you can try excellent vines in the centuries old house in the village center. 

After getting your strength back, you can continue and visit the wind mill, gallery and open air museum Vogrin. Especially now, when more and more people wish to make use of wind energy, a windmill is a great example of utilizing this energy source and here you’ll see it’s used for more than just making electricity. also you’ll see the collection of various agronomical tools from the past and the impressions put on canvas, of how various artists saw the windmill.
  
Next continue over Ročica and Plodršnica toward Zgornje Gradišče and finally Zgornja Velka, with the famous church of Saint Maria in Snow – where some of Slovenian most noticeable (either relaxed or very serious) novels took place. Next to the church is the wedding chapel and the gallery, where you can get familiarized with works of a local painter and sculptor Gabrijel Kolbič and in the back open air amphitheatre you can get to see one of the off springs of the oldest Wine in the world.
 
And from Zgornja Velika I suggest you head east and descend to the house of thousand stories – Methansova hiša, where the owner will not just tell you but really take you into the stories of local people and their history.
    
From here on, you can naturally quite quickly return to Maribor, but I suggest you head toward Sladki vrh and spend the night on the right bank of river Mura at the guesthouse, or one of the surrounding tourist farms – and continue the tour, which I will further describe from this point on in the next issue of the Globetrotter. 

Borut Jurišič