Out and About in Bratislava and the Surrounding Area

We've been here a few days now and Bratislava is beautiful! It is the perfect size. We can walk everywhere. If we don't want to walk we can take a bus or trolley.

Yesterday, we were left on our own (Jessica actually had to work). She helped us figure out what bus to take to go to Devin Castle and we set out to get a ticket and find the bus station. We got the ticket with very little problems and took off for the bus station. We knew just where it was... we thought. We found the bus stop and looked at the sign that tells you which buses come through there and realized we were not at the correct stop. Not a problem. We'll just go a little farther down the road... or maybe we passed it... or maybe it's on the other side of the road (you can't get there from here). Mark decided to ask for help... fantastic idea! He asked a nice young girl (who he picked because she looked just like our friend Tammy... she must be nice, right?). She was quite helpful and finally pointed us in the right direction... looks like it was just a little farther.

Finally, on the bus and our way! We met a nice couple from St. Louis, Jeff (a dentist) and Mary Kay, we spent most of the day with them exploring the Devin Castle. It is quite large and sits on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Danube and Moravian rivers. It was very peaceful. There was only another group there... looked to be a school field trip. After checking out the castle we went into the town of Devin and saw a small church and had some lunch. The waiter did not speak any English but was very nice and attempted to help us learn some more Sovak words.

After lunch we hopped back on the bus to Bratislava... 15 minutes later we are back in the city. Hard to believe that only minutes away it is so green and quiet. Later on when Jessica and Andrew got home we went out for dinner and walked to the Novy Most (New Bridge). It is a suspension bridge across the Danube with a large UFO-like structure on top of it that actually has a restaurant in it. We went to the top of that and looked out over the city. It was very interesting to see the Stare Mesto (Old Town) on one side of the river and Petralzka on the other side of the river. When we were walking around Petralzka it was not apparent how many of the large generic concrete apartment buildings there are. On our way back down we stopped to use the bathroom... not usually something we share but... I would rank this as the COOLEST bathroom ever! You actually look out over the city while using the facilities and, it is pretty swanky too!

Today.... we went to Vienna for the day. What a beautiful city. It is quite a contrast from Bratislava. Big and busy!!! Very cosmopolitan. We went to St. Stephen's Cathedral which is home to the entrails of most of the Hapsburg empire. Their hearts live in St. Augustine's and the rest of their body is entombed in a small modest crypt in a Cappuccin Church.... which we also went to. Their sarcophagi are very ornate and get more and more ridiculous as time goes on with the pinnacle being that of Maria Theresa and her husband. After that we just wandered around the city and waited for Andrew to get done with work (he works in Vienna). We had some dinner and a lovely dessert. On our way back to the train we wandered into a church that was having a small candle lite service in a side chapel: we quietly listened for a few minutes. Then we were back on the train and home to Bratislava. It was a busy day. We definitely need to go back to Vienna to spend some more time.

Tomorrow we have most of the day here in Bratislava. We have a rental car being dropped off at 7 pm and then we are off for a weekend excursion to see some more castles. We hope to make it all the way to Spis. It is out in the eastern part of the country and has one of the largest castle complexes in Europe.