Last night in Ptuj we explored the castle and had a good fish dinner at the Anglers Arms by the river.

The Muzicafe provided an excellent vegetarian breakfast, after which we set off for Maribor, the second biggest city in Slovenia. There was rain on the forecast and we could see heavy clouds to the west. But we had a good morning following the Drava valley upstream. The approach to Maribor gave good views of the town.

Maribor was almost destroyed in the war, and only a small amount of the old town remains. We had planned to spend some time exploring, but the heavy rain arrived as we did, so we settled for a long lunch instead!

Luckily, neither of us minds riding in the rain, in fact we seem to quite enjoy it, because this was a wet afternoon. We headed north and fairly soon had crossed some low hills and descended to the Austrian border. There was fencing and there were border guards, but noone was interested in two wet cyclists.

The final section followed our final river, the Mur. For the first time since leaving Austria we were back on purpose made, car free, smooth tarmac bike paths. Slovenia was great, but Austria is so cycle friendly its hard to beat.

Tonight we’re in an immaculate apartment with all mod cons, having just wolfed a meal in the local pub restaurant. The rain has stopped. This was the view from my table.