Four Days in Bratislava, Slovakia

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We transferred by bus again, this time from Budapest to Bratislava.  It was a quick transfer from the apartment to the bus station via the metro and local bus.  Once again we traveled with FlixBus Lines on a really nice, super clean bus with WiFi.  Traveling for only 2 1/2 hours, we reached Slovakia and its capital city, Bratislava.  At the bus station we quickly summoned a taxi and met our host at our new home.  We have a really lovely two bedroom apartment on the bank of the Danube River with a balcony overlooking the water.  Nicely appointed, this will be our home for the next four days...anther winner from Airbnb for $54 a night.  We visited the local store for a few groceries and settled in for the evening.

Since most of the tourist attractions are closed on Monday, we planned a full day for Sunday and walked into the city square in the early afternoon to join a walking tour of the old town and then the castle.  The walk was along the Danube River for about one mile before turning into the narrow and winding streets of the old city.  We had time for a drink at a local pub before meeting our guide Zojtech for a lively and informative three hour walk through the streets and up to the top of the castle hill.  At the end of the day we stopped at the supermarket for supplies and enjoyed a really nice steak dinner at home.

One of the many humorous sculptures throughout the city...all with an interesting story.

 Main Square

 Relief of Satan on a local fountain.

 Our guide Zojtech on a VERY cold day.  It was 27^ most of the day.

 St. Martin's chruch

 Magnificent bronze in the church.

 Old city wall

 Climb to the castle.

 Castle walls - 1300;s

 House of Parliament.

 Oldest gate and tower in the city dating back to 1280.

 We walked back at dusk and were able to enjoy a great view of the castle all lit up.

 We enjoyed a full vegetative state on Monday.  All fo the museums were closed and both Andi and I were in our jammies all day.  Bobbie went for a long walk and we caught up on a lot of correspondence.  It was also a sad day as we learned that a good friend of ours had passed at the age of 48 and our dear, dear Susann Thompson had suffered several strokes and was on life support.  This is one of those things that we knew would happen while we are on our long journey and we said goodbye to many two and a half years ago knowing we might never see them again.  To date we have lost four great friends.   And life goes on...

Our last day was devoted to exploring the magnificent castle and gardens.

 The treasury room has a nice collection of silver.

 The views from the tower were stunning, even though it was over 300 very steep steps to the top and back down.

 The archeological displays were well done.

 A gold bracelet from the Roman period.

 These were earrings from the Celtic period - 800-400 BC.  Wow.

 There was a grand exhibit of modern artists.

 This screen/panel is done completely in beads.

 One of the two grand staircases.

 At the end of the cay we rode the local tram back to the apartment and settled in the night.

We enjoyed a lazy morning preparing for our short, short transfer to Vienna.