Bus from KASSEL to MARIBOR

The free city Kassel is after Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden the third largest city of Hesse and is located in the northern part of this state, on the border with Lower Saxony and Thuringia. Currently, the population is around 200,000 people. Every five years, Kassel is the venue of the most important international exhibition of contemporary art and has therefore been named "documenta-Stadt" since 1999.

The name of the town is probably derived from "Chassalla" or "Chassella", the name for the royal court of Konrad I, located at the Kassel Fulda. The name was first discovered on a document from the year 913. There are also other names derivations; Thus it could be of Germanic origin and translated as "buildings on a terrain", whereby the origin of the name is far back in the prehistory.

Settlements have existed already in the pre-Christian era, but there has been secrecy before the 10th century,when it first appears in the documents. Since the end of the 12th century, Kassel has been gilded in the modern sense as a city and became the headquarters of the Hessian Landgrave Heinrich I a few decades later. The townscape was decisively influenced by Landgraf Karl from 1700 onwards.

Kassel - had man been seen in the city's ice cream?

During the Second World War the old town of Kassel was unfortunately massively destroyed, so there is no longer a closed historical cityscape. Nevertheless, as a former residence, Kassel has a lot of locals. The Protestant Brethren Church is the oldest church building in the city. A typical baroque building is the Ottoneum, the first permanent theater building in Germany, which now houses a museum of natural history. From the 13th century we have the Renthof, the relic of a former Carmelite monastery. However, there is also the Martinskirche with its distinctive towers, the Karlshospital, the Druselturm, or the Ständehaus, built in the neo-Renaissance style. Also worth a visit is the Fridericianum, the famous museum building in Kassel, which every five years is the site of the documenta and is already impressive by its architecture alone. It is also recommended to take a walk through the Orangerie at the Karlsauesowie, a walk through the district of Vorderer Westen. The parking area Bergpark Wilhelsmhöhe, which has been part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage since 2013, is one of the top 100 sights in Germany. The Wilhelmshöhe Castle, the Löwenburg Castle, as well as the Herkules, the landmarks of the city of Kassel, can be visited from the beginning of the 18th century. The popular Kassel water games are held twice a week during the summer months.

Kassel is an extremely culturally shaped city. There are also plenty of art galleries and community theaters, as well as a variety of museums and galleries. In addition to contemporary art in the Fridericianum, In the Wilhelmshöhe Palace, as well as in the Old Masters Gallery you can admire an antique collection. The Grimmwelt, which was inaugurated in 2015, is dedicated to the work of the Brothers Grimm, who spent a long time in Kassel.

Kassel offers a wide range of hotels, guesthouses, hostels and holiday apartments for its guests. In addition to art and culture, you should not miss outits cuisine. Typical specialties in Kassel are the "Weckewerk", a dish prepared from cooked rind and minced meat. There are "Ahle Wurscht" and the traditional Speckkuchen.which is  equally popular with both locals and tourists.

Maribor is the second-largest city in Slovenia with about 95,500 inhabitants, it's also the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria and the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor.

Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle Castrum Marchburch ("March Castle") in 1204, and received town privileges in 1254. It began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty over King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. Maribor withstood sieges by Matthias Corvinus in 1480/1481 and by the Ottoman Empire in 1532 and 1683.

Maribor has a humid continental climate, bordering on oceanic climate. Average temperatures hover around zero degrees Celsius during the winter. Summers are generally warm. Average temperatures during the city's warmest month (July) exceed 20 degrees Celsius, which is one of the main reasons for the Maribor wine tradition.

Many historical structures stand in Maribor. Of the remains of city walls surrounding the old downtown, the most prominent are the Judgement Tower, the Water Tower, and the Jewish Tower. Maribor Cathedral was built in the Gothic style in the 13th century. Maribor Synagogue was built in the 14th century, and is the second oldest synagogue of Europe. Today it serves as a centre for cultural activities. Other prominent Medieval buildings are Maribor Castle, Betnava Castle, and the ruins of Upper Maribor Castle on Pyramid Hill. Town Hall was constructed in the Renaissance style, and the Plague Column in the Baroque style.

The city hosts the University of Maribor, established in 1975, and many other schools.

Every June, the two-week Lent Festival (named after the waterfront district called Lent) is held, with hundreds of musical, theatrical and other events. Every year the festival attracts theatre, opera, ballet performers, classical, modern, and jazz musicians and dancers from all over the world, and of course many visitors. There is also mime, magic shows are being held and acrobats perform during the festival.

Maribor is known for wine and culinary specialities of international and Slovene. There are also many popular restaurants with Serbian cuisine. The Vinag Wine Cellar (Vinagova vinska klet), with the area of 20.000 m2 and the length of 2 kilometres, keeps 5,5 millions litres of wine. The house of the oldest grapevine in the world (Hiša stare trte) at Lent grows the world's oldest grapevine, which was in 2004 recorded in Guinness World Records. The grapevine of Žametovka is about 440 years old.