Another not-reporting-much post. Sitting in a caffe bar – where they only sell drinks, no snacks, bwut they have better wifi connections than the hotel did. This hotspot is part of MoM – Municipality of Maribor – and, while this small town has less to it than the other, more established places such as Ljubljana and Bled, I’m still impressed with what they have done for their 2012 closeup as a European Capital of Culture. Train station is spiffy, different areas of the city that hosted a variety of events, especially during the summer are identified by huge color-coded balloons – about the size of VW bugs and there a posters and banners and signage all over the place to help visitors get around.
The fellow at the hotel desk – Hotel City Maribor – said the crowds were not as large as everyone had been expecting, though still more than usual. I offered that it was probably hard to predict travel numbers in a year with the summer Olympics in London.
Still, they seem to have made some money out of the whole thing – there is still construction going on.
I hope this puts the city on the tourist radar. Only thing might be that they need to get some better connections from elsewhere – flights and faster trains. That may be a ways off, though.