Wed. June 17-Bratislava, Slovakia: After a nice buffet breakfast at
the hotel the whole group was picked up by The Golden Express, a small tram
that looked like a train and drove us up the hill to the Rhad Castle. Along the
way our guide, Katrina, thoroughly entertained us with her dry, sardonic wit as
she pointed out the high points of the city. At the castle, she walked us
around, filling us in on the history of both it and the city in general. From
the grounds one can look out to the south and see Hungary, Austria, and
Slovakia. Around the other side there
are the beginnings of the Carpathian Mountains. She said there are still people
who can say they lived in three countries (Hungary, who used the city as its
capital when the Turks took over Bucharest, Czechoslovakia under the USSR, and
Slovakia) while never moving out of Bratislava.
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| Our map showing Bratislava, Slovakia's location |
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| Rhad Castle |
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| Courtyard of Rhad Castle |
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| How the castle used to look. |
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| Posing by one of the gates |
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| Looking south over Hungary(left), Austria(right), and Slovakia(foreground) |
The Express then took us to the
Old Town where Katrina led us on about a 45 minute tour of the area, part of
which is still walled and where there are some vestiges of the moat that
surrounded the city in the 1400s. At the end of the tour, we had the choice of
taking the Express back to the hotel or staying to wander on our own, so, of
course, we stayed. We went in and out of the many intriguing courtyards and
narrow cobblestone streets, and explored every nook and cranny. Around
lunchtime we went to a traditional Slovak restaurant just inside one of the old
gates of the city where we sat outside and enjoyed sour cabbage soup with
hearty bread and a dark Slovak Golden Pheasant beer. It made for a very filling
and satisfactory lunch.
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| Looking down one of the larger streets in Old Town |
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One of seven comic brass sculptures in Old Town.
This one looks like soldier coming out of a manhole |
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| Charming straw animals in the Market |
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| Traditional beer, cheese and cabbage soup for lunch |
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| A narrow lane |
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| Another narrow lane |
After about an hour more of wandering, Pat and Ross
headed back to the hotel while Marv and I continued walking. We headed to the
Hospital Garden, beside the hospital from the 1800s, and after a short rest on
the benches by the swan fountain, continued past the old cemetery and into a
neighborhood district. The day was windy and had turned cloudy with a high in
the 60s, a stark contrast to the mid-90s of the past few days. We came across a
neighborhood coffee shop full of locals, where we shared a piece of Kuba Rec
(chocolate-banana cake) and had .99eu coffee--a third of the price anywhere
else. It made a nice place to refresh but was very hot in there so we didn't
linger like we might have.
Eventually we made it back to the hotel having
walked for several hours so who knows how far. We had a short rest then went
with the Macks to one of the cafes behind the hotel for more coffee while they
had creme brulee. There is a grocery store in the lower level of the mall where
we bought cheese, bread, sausage, raspberries and chocolates. With the bottle
of champagne from the ship and the bottle of Serbian wine we had bought, we had
a delightful dinner sitting on benchlike steps beside the Danube and agreed it
couldn't get much better than that. It was cool, as it would be for the rest of the trip, which was a contrast to the week before. Since we had to have our bags outside our
door at 7:45 the next morning to be loaded on the bus, we made an early evening
of it, having thoroughly enjoyed learning about and experiencing this totally
new-to-us part of the world.
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| A Feast!! |
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