With the car expertly packed by Hermann for the last time, we set off on our journey back to Vienna via Maribor (Slovenia) and Krumbach (Gitti & Hermann’s home town). I nodded on and off for the first 90 minutes or so before we arrived in Maribor, the second most populated city in Slovenia. It has about 96,000 inhabitants compared to Ljubljani’s 280,000. (The Slovenian population is just over 2 million.) 

We found a park on a street not far from the centre of the old town, fed the metre, and then set off to explore. Car-free zones are such a pleasure to wander in! We checked out the cathedral, the university building (we were actually looking for a toilet, but found only a drinking fountain — for which I was equally grateful!), the oldest grapevine in the world (about 400 years old) and the Jewish Tower in which there was an unimpressive photographic display. 

We were soon on our way again, arriving at Gerald’s brewery in Krumbach for a late lunch of pastries/strudels that Hermann had picked up in Maribor. Gerald is Gitti and Hermann’s son whom we hadn’t seen since we met up with their family on a Greek Island in 2000. He brews his own beer and, for a ‘hobby’, works as a data analyst. Various sites in the town were familiar to us, having visited there with our girls in 1994. 

After a late lunch of sweet and savoury strudels with wine/tea, we set off on the final leg of our journey back to Vienna. An hour later, it was time to bid farewell to our companions. We had had a wonderful 10+ days travelling with them, and talked enthusiastically about possible destinations to explore together next year. (Macedonia? Montenegro?)

Our room at the Imperial Riding School Hotel was very comfortable, but more appealing was the hotel lounge in the building across the entrance driveway where we were entitled to complimentary food and drink. With a reasonable range of breads, meats, cheeses,  and various salads, there was plenty of food to suffice for dinner. After we had had our fill, we set off on foot on a reconnaissance to the railway station in preparation for our departure the next day to Munich. It was a very warm evening...almost hot, in fact. The walk there took us about half an hour. We familiarised ourselves with the layout of the huge modern railway station, noting in particular the location of the lounge that, as first class passengers, we would be entitled to use whilst waiting for our train to depart.

The downhill walk back to the hotel took us a little less time. It was almost 10pm when we arrived back at the hotel — just enough time to go back into the lounge for a quick soda water before calling it a night.