Slow-VIENNA!

 [I got really excited about how that title worked out :)] 

Here's the last leg of the trip:

Nice view!

We drove from Bled to Maribor, and had a lot of extra time, so we decided to take what I thought was a short side trip to see this statue of a miner. You can see our feelings on our faces, as this turned out to take about twice as long to drive as we thought. Thanks, beautiful mountain roads!

Much of the countryside we drove through was hop fields, which look really cool.

Beer fountain! This is a public park in a small village where you buy a mug with a chip in it that lets you sample 6 different beers from the region that use local hops. Genius!

These were the options. All pretty good.

When you drink the green one, a rainbow appears!

Our last destination in Slovenia was Maribor. Again, we didn't really have a good reason for being there (there was something about a puppet festival, but we weren't in the mood). We did find an interesting wine tour, which started at the oldest wine-producing vine in the world (like 400 years old), proceeded to a small family winery where we had a nice lunch with an intense young wine producer, and ended at a new, modern winery with a great view over the surrounding vineyards. We both feel confident at least looking like we know what we're doing when tasting wine now. It was also a real treat to speak with an independent producer, who is something of a local prodigy and very open about the process and the scene.

The rest of Maribor was pretty chill: there was a nice square near our hotel with a fountain that was a sort of stand in for a local swimming hole during the day (think lots of naked kids running through it) and at night was lit up with pretty colors. Restaurants and walks for the most part.

Last stop: Vienna. Beautiful city: we had a great view of Stadtpark from out hotel balcony, good ol' Sigmund greeting us by our hotel door, pickle statue near the Naschmarkt, site-seeing walks, and an awesome food/music-film festival in Rathauspark.

We are back home in Doha, bags are unpacked, laundry is (mostly) done, and we are slowly but surely reminding ourselves of our real life routines. This summer was quite and adventure, and we got to see a whole bunch of new places, and that's what it's all about. I hope all is well out there; have a wonderful last few weeks of summer everyone!

Wait! Can't forget the bees: this li'l bugger wanted in on my last meal (ribs, of course).