The following information will be distributed to all of you upon your arrival in Maribor, at the reception of Hotel OREL, enclosed in a package with the complete set of conference materials. Many of you will probably appreciate to see our complete programme already now: ******************** DEAR PROFESSOR/INVITED SPEAKER: WELCOME TO MARIBOR! Some fundamental information --- OUR PROGRAMME --- Your residence normally is Hotel OREL, Grajski trg 3, 2000 Maribor. There are NEW PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS: Phone: +(386) (62) 216 171 Fax: +(386) (62) 218 497 (1) Your breakfast is served in the restaurant of Hotel OREL between 7:00 and 9:00 am. Every resident of Hotel OREL (including all the family members, of course!) is entitled to visit and to use the FONTANA Swimming, Health and Fitness Center every day free of charge! Just request a voucher/coupon at the Reception of Hotel OREL, with which you can get then a free ticket at the Reception of FONTANA Center. It is open every day from 9:00 until 22:00, on Fridays until 24:00. For its location please see the enclosed map of the city of Maribor with the indicated locations. (2) Your lunch and dinner will be normally served in the Saloon Restaurant of Hotel OREL. Please always wear your name badge: it is the ticket to the Conference place and to lunches and dinners: lunch is served roughly between 13:30 and 15:00, and dinner roughly between 18:30 and 20:00. Only the following soft drinks are free of charge: mineral water ("Radenska"), coca-cola and juice. All alcohol drinks must be paid individually. You are entitled to all breakfasts, lunches and dinners immediately after your arrival and before your departure! (3) Our scientific programme begins on Monday 28 June 1999 at 9:00 am in the Lecture Hall "Glazerjeva Dvorana" in the building of the University Library, first floor, at Gospejna ulica 10. Please see the enclosed city map with indicated positions. It is just 3 minutes walk from Hotel OREL. Our scientific programme normally runs from 9:00 until 13:30 (four 60 minutes lectures and 30 minutes coffee/tea break), lunch 13:30 - 15:00, and then from 15:00 until 18:30 (three 60 minutes lectures and 30 minutes coffee/tea break), followed by dinner (normally 18:30 - 20:00). Occasionally we shall have prolonged or slightly shortened afternoon/evening programme due to social and cultural events. For details please see the Programme Brochure and the schedule of the lectures enclosed in your conference materials. On Friday 2 July 1999 we shall have a special scientific programme devoted to the Japanese-Slovenian cooperation, entitled "JAPAN-SLOVENIA SEMINAR ON CHAOS SCIENCE". There will be 8 lectures, 50 minutes each, 4 Japanese and 4 Slovenian. For details please see the Programme Brochure enclosed in your conference materials. This Seminar has been supported financially by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Ministry of Scienceand Technology of the Republic of Slovenia. (4) On Tuesday 29 June 1999 we shall have the dinner in the Saloon Restaurant of Hotel OREL between 18:20 and 19:20. After that there will be a chamber music concert by The String Quartet "Fegus" (four brothers of the Fegus family from Maribor) in the Hall of Nights in the Maribor City Castle, just 40 meters from Hotel OREL. (Please see the enclosed city map.) The concert is a private concert specially for us and will be followed by the official opening of our School/Conference, combined with a Reception by the Mayor of our Town of Maribor Mr. Boris Sovic and myself. There are many invited persons to attend this event. The concert starts at 19:30. The programme is enclosed in the conference materials. There will be an intermission (15 minutes) between the two parts, and the Reception will start at about 21:00 at the same place. (5) On Saturday 3 July there will be no normal dinner but a banquet instead, in the Saloon Restaurant of the Hotel PIRAMIDA (Please see the city map enclosed in your conference materials): We start to gather at 19:00 through 19:30 in the Gallery of Hotel PIRAMIDA, champagne will be served. At 19:30 there will be official opening of a special exhibition of computer graphics of fractal structures by Peter Ciuha. All works displayed are on sale, so you can buy them if you like them. At about 19:50 there will be the opening of a special computer generated Performance displayed by a video system, created by Mr. Bozidar Svetek, under the patronage of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts. It is a visualization of variety of musical compositions from the treasures of classical music. Probably interesting game and interplay of sound and light. The organizer of these two exhibitions is Mr. Josip Tavcar. At about 20:00 starts a short chamber music concert by the trio Barbara Novak (piano), Oksana Peceny (violin) and Gorazd Strlic (violoncello), at the same place. The programme is enclosed in conference materials. The banquet begins at approximately 20:30 in the Saloon Restaurant of Hotel PIRAMIDA (practically the same place). Here the served drinks are free, including wine and champagne. (6) On Saturday 3 July 1999 our scientific programme will be exclusively the presentation of short reports (20 minutes each). We start at 9:00 am and finish at 13:30. After lunch (13:30 - 15:00) at the Saloon Restaurant of Hotel OREL we shall have a guided tour by an English speaking guide through the nice and interesting places of the town of Maribor. The tour starts at 15:00 at the entrance to the reception of Hotel OREL and it will finish at 17:00 at the Vinoteka Maribor at Lent (on the bank of the river Drava). At 17:00 we shall start the wine tasting in the Vinoteka Maribor, by presenting five white and one red wine. Small snack will be served (cheese and bread and olives). We finish at 18:00. On the ground floor there is a superb wine shop offering for sale a selection of about 500 different wines from all over Slovenia. You can buy them there. Between 18:00 and 19:00 you can enjoy a short rest, and join us for the conference banquet starting at 19:30. See above. All the programme on Saturday 3 July 1999 is free of charge. (7) On Sunday 4 July we have the excursions to some of the most beautiful places in Slovenia. There will be two options: THE MAIN EXCURSION ("BLED-POSTOJNA-LJUBLJANA"): We depart by luxury bus (air-condition, WC, refreshments etc) at 9:00 from the Hotel OREL. We shall have an official touristic guide in English language. We shall visit lake Bled, in the Alpine region, have a walk there, and enjoy the lunch at the restaurant in the castle above the lake Bled, with beautiful panoramic view. Then we proceed to Postojna, and visit the Postojna cave, which is unique in the world (probably the third largest in the world, with total lenght of about 25 Km). Here the famous endemite amphibius "Proteus" can be observed. The temperature in the cave is about 8-10 degrees Celsius, the tour lasts about 60-90 minutes, so you must be prepared for the low temperatures. Partially we shall travel by a mini-train, partially by walking (about 40 min). After Postojna cave we shall proceed to Ljubljana, visiting the old town there, and enjoying the dinner at the restaurant there. After dinner we depart for Maribor, arriving at Hotel OREL at about 24:00. The price of the excursion which includes everything is about 150.-DM per person. Please register as soon as possible and pay, possibly immediately upon your arrival at "Dijaski Dom Drava". The deadline for registration for this excursion is Thursday 1 July 12:00. You can register and pay to Mr. Gregor Veble during the coffee/tea breaks. THE ALTERNATIVE EXCURSION ("PRLEKIJA-PREKMURJE") (especially for those who already know Bled, Postojna and Ljubljana): We depart at 9:00 from Hotel OREL by a luxury bus (air condition, video, English speaking guide). We shall visit the old town of Ptuj (established in the Roman era, more than 2000 years old, and quite scenic), the castle there, a few historic medival places, a few museums. The lunch will be in a nice restaurant in Ptuj. Then we shall visit Ormoz, and continue the tour on the "wine road" to Jeruzalem, which is the pearl of Prlekija. In a castle there we shall enjoy the tasting of local superb wines. After that we shall visit Verzej, the last preserved mill on the river Mura (you can buy flour there), then Filovci (pottery manufactur), in Bogojina we shall see the famous church by Plecnik (one of the most famous Slovenian architects), and finally we shall enjoy the dinner at Zelezne dveri, next to a benectinian monastery. At a touristic farm we shall enjoy the local cuisine and excellent wines. The price per person for this trip is about 120.-DM. Please register and pay as advised above for the main trip. (8) If you want to see some performance in the programme of Maribor Festival "Lent'99", please just use the brochure enclosed to your conference materials. It contains the full programme of the Festival (in Slovenian, English and German) and is the ticket to all performances. Simply show it at the entrance. Most performances are completely open-air at various places in Lent, the medieval part of Maribor on the bank of river Drava. Please see the city map enclosed, where the Festival Area is indicated. (9) On Wednesday 7 July 1999 there will be no normal dinner, but a festive dinner instead. It will begin at 20:30 in the Saloon Restaurant of the Hotel OREL. We shall be served the "Slow Food", a selection of exclusively Slovenian cuisine, even more special, of the Slovenian Styrian cuisine (Stajerska kuhinja), combined with a variety of carefully selected local Styrian wines. It is of course free of charge, including the alcoholic drinks (champagne, wine and possibly beer if somebody prefers that). For those who wish a vegetarian meal we have prepared a nice selection of vegetarian menu. Please advise one day beforehand about your choice as an exception. (10) During the whole period of our School/Conference we can help to organize a programme for the family dependants, families and spouses. In collaboration with the travel agency "Van Gogh" we can organize daily trips to some other beautiful parts of Slovenia. We have already offers for three such different trips. If you are interested, please contact me personally. (11) If you want to buy some photocopies of (p)reprints displayed by the lecturers and other participants, please contact Mr. Gregor Veble. (12) If you have any questions, or problems, please contact Dr. Aneta Stefanovska, Dr. Tomaz Prosen, Mr. Gregor Veble, Mr. Marko Vranicar, or myself at any time. You can reach me also on the mobile telephone (0609) 615 000 at any time. We hope you will enjoy your stay in Slovenia! Marko Robnik. Tel (062) 213151 (office) Tel (0609) 615 000 (mobile) Tel (062) 218419 (home)