PhotoJoseph

ALT A Turkish Airlines jet waits at the gate at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU) on a moody November morning. The carrier’s crimson tail fin, marked with a white crane, rises in the lower left above wet tarmac and a low metal walkway railing. Beyond the runway, a dark ridge of forest meets distant blue-grey mountains under a sky of heavy slate clouds broken by paler streaks of light.

ALT Thick fog over Splavarska brv, the timber-clad footbridge across the Drava in Maribor, Slovenia. The bridge's long dark deck cuts diagonally through a muted grey-green haze, resting on clusters of slender angled steel legs that reflect in the still river below. A lone walker crosses near the far end, and faint white swans drift on the water, almost swallowed by the morning mist.

ALT Dawn over Železniški most, the railway bridge across the Drava in Maribor, Slovenia. A bright blue steel arch spans the river beneath a vast sky fading from deep rose to pale peach. Autumn trees with gold and russet leaves fill the right foreground, apartment blocks sit beyond the bridge, and a tall industrial chimney sends a thin plume of smoke into the sunrise.

ALT Misty autumn morning over Maribor, Slovenia, from the vineyard slopes of Piramida. Looking southwest from a steep hillside lined with dark wooden vineyard stakes, the city's red-tiled rooftops and pale apartment blocks sit among trees in deep orange, rust, and gold. A thick band of fog softens distant hills under a pale overcast sky.

ALT Autumn morning in Mestni park, Maribor, Slovenia. A pale gravel path curves away beneath an arching canopy of golden-orange leaves, with the ground on both sides carpeted in fallen russet and red leaves. An empty iron bench sits beside the path on the right, and rows of tall, dark-trunked trees lead toward an open green lawn and a distant walker under a soft overcast sky. About a quarter of the park's trees date back to its first plantings in the late 1800s.

ALT Autumn morning beside a pond in Mestni park, Maribor, Slovenia. A brick-paved path curves along the right bank, covered in fallen orange leaves, beneath overhanging branches of yellow and orange foliage. Across the still, dark water, deep red and rust-colored trees are reflected, with green trees, a willow and a wooded hillside behind under a pale overcast sky. Reeds and tall grasses line the near edge. The park was first laid out in 1872 by Maribor's Beautification Society.

ALT Blue-hour morning on the Drava River in Maribor, Slovenia, looking across calm blue water toward the Church of St. Joseph (Cerkev sv. Jožefa) in Studenci. The church's slender bell tower, with a dark onion dome and spire, and its red-tiled roof rise above a dark band of trees on the far bank. A thin footbridge spans the river below, and misty hills and low clouds sit behind. The Baroque church was built in 1726–1728, replacing a smaller pilgrimage church from the plague years, and its 1743 bell tower leans slightly.

ALT Autumn morning on Koroška cesta in Maribor, Slovenia, framed by a dark stone archway. A single small tree glows bright orange in front of a cream-colored building with tall white-framed windows and shopfronts, next to a coral-red facade, while someone in a white knit hat sits beneath it at the edge of the cobblestone street. Koroška cesta is one of the oldest streets in Maribor's old town and takes its name from Carinthia (Koroška), the region it once led toward from the medieval town.

ALT Autumn morning at Trije ribniki (Three Ponds) in Maribor, Slovenia. Trees in orange, gold and green lean over a still, dark pond, and their colors are mirrored almost perfectly in the water. In the Middle Ages these ponds held water the town could release into the defensive moat around the city walls. Legend says a brave little shoemaker sneaked through the Ottoman camp in 1532, opened the sluices and saved Maribor. In the 19th century the ponds became part of the city park, with rowing boats in summer and ice skating in winter.