A castle, a UFO, and Josef Stalin

During our only full day in Bratislava, Phillip and I visited the Bratislava Castle, visible from all over the city as it is situated on a hill near the Danube River.

The castle grounds opened for visitors at 9 am. We decided that after Prague Castle last year and Schonbrunn Palace last week, we didn't want to see the museum inside this castle. We walked around the exterior overlooking the Danube

walkway leading to the castle grounds entrance

view of the Danube from the castle

We went thru the gardens on the grounds

garden with reconstruction in background

We even walked along the ramparts at the rear of the castle (the only tourists on that side of the complex)

the rear ramparts of the castle

We finished our tour of the castle at 10:10 am. It wasn't a very big castle. I understand that over a couple of hundred years, maintenance needs to be done, but the reconstruction and repairs made the castle look too new. Only a few sections of the rear wall looked old, but all the information about the castle spoke to its role during the Hapsburg rule.

We wanted to get a public transportation ticket because we didn't want to walk the 3km trek uphill on Thursday with our luggage to get to the train station. Our hotel receptionist said we could buy tickets at yellow ticket machines at the tram stops. We couldn't find one, so we asked a lady on the street and she directed us to a tobacco shop. Yep, one can purchase transport tickets there, so we bought a 24-hour ticket. We did a trial run to the train station and bought our train ticket for Budapest a day early. 11 euro each, including seat reservations, for a 2-1/2 hour train ride. Exceeding reasonable! And we saw plenty of yellow ticket machines after we had our tickets.

Since we had an unlimited transport ticket, we rode the tram across the Danube River bridge and walked along the river to the next bridge back to downtown. We walked under the UFO. You can see it in the third picture of this post, the right side of the picture.

The UFO is actually a restaurant on top of a unique cable pylon support for the road bridge. The bridge, with its UFO, was built in the late 1960s during the communist era. In addition to the UFO, that bridge had another unique feature, the pedestrian walkway was under the road surface. It was shaded and cool, much nicer than walking alongside the cars above.

pedestrian walkway under the bridge

I mentioned going to the KGB Pub in my previous post, but didn't include a picture. This pub is underground and decorated with Soviet-era posters, lots of them, just like the ones I remember seeing in history books. 

KGB Pub decorations

While riding the tram to the bus station Thursday morning, I captured a picture of another Soviet-era structure in Bratislava, the inverted pyramid building. 

Actually a radio station building

Our train to Budapest was a few minutes late, but once on board, Phillip and I were pleasantly surprised that our reserved seats were two window seats in a 6-seat compartment on the train car. One other passenger occupied the compartment, but she got off at the first stop outside of Bratislava. For most of the trip, we had a private compartment!

At times, the train tracks ran alongside the Danube, but most of the time, we saw harvested, unplowed fields and fields of corn.

Danube River as seen from our train

We walked from the train station to our hotel, about a km, but it was level and the Budapest sidewalk was much better than the cobblestone ones in Bratislava. Our room is on the 9th floor, with a balcony complete with a view of Budapest. Small room, but a great view!

view from room 907 balcony

A howitzer, the actual Danube River, and Slovakian black beer

On Monday, a rainy day, we decided to do laundry before we left Vienna and then visit just one museum. Thanks to my friend, Google, I found a self-service laundry accessible by tram. Not terrible on the price either, 2 loads washed and dried for 9 euro (it cost closer to 20 euro last year in the Swiss laundromat). Not worth a picture, though. After we returned our clean clothes to the hotel, we headed off for the National Armory Museum, again on the tram. 

entrance to the Vienna National Armory (Military Museum)

This museum had many displays of 18th, 19th and eary 20th century European uniforms and weaponry. 

The museum also contained the actual car in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were riding when they were assasinated, the event that triggered World War I. Following that historic exhibit were many display cases of WWI military gear, presented in chronological order as the exhibits told the story of "the war to end all wars."

Actual death car from 1914

The museum contained more than just handguns and rifles. It had an actual 1916 model howitzer.

1916 howitzer, seen from upper floor (too big for one floor of the museum)

This weapon weighs 81,700 kg (almost 90 tons) and took 12 people to operate. It had to be disaaembled in 4 pieces to move. It took a 740 kg shell. 

Many WWI exhibits, but the museum was skimpy on the WWII material, probably because Austria agreed to the takeover by Hitler. There were numerous exhibits of the Nazi propaganda posters. 

Early Tuesday, Phillip and I boarded the Twin City Liner as our transportation to Bratislava, Slovakia, where we currently are staying. A river cruise on the Danube! Since Bratislava is only about 80 km (less than 50 miles) from Vienna, our river cruise lasted about 75 minutes. It was however, a fun 75 minutes. I learned that we had previously walked along the Danube Canal, a regulated waterway that had been an arm of the Danube River. The walls of the canal are the only legal graffiti zone in Vienna, hence the proliferation of street art we had seen. About 10 minutes after we left the pier, the canal joined the actual Danube River.

Once out of the city, the Danube was surrounded by green space as we traveled into Slovakia.

view of the Danube from the back of the boat

We passed Devin Castle ruins, about 10 km from our destination. We enjoyed the cruise partly because I had booked us seats in the upper deck Captain's Lounge (basically, first-class for the boat, but just $10 more per person than the lower deck, with its crowded seats).

Devin Castle

In Bratislava, we easily found our hotel, as the town is not very large. Since it was only about 10:30 am when we arrived, we left our luggage and walked around. By the end of the day, we had seen all the sights of Bratislava except its castle. Really, it isn't a very large place. The highlights:

Many ice cream parlors, usually 1.50 euros per scoop

Bratislava has many statues, small humorous ones. 

Cumil, aka "The Peeper"

Another thing this town has a lot of are churches. One of the most notable is the Blue Church. Although it was closed when we went by, we could see in and even the pews were blue.

The streets are similar to others in Europe's older cities, made of cobblestones. The older, historic area is mostly pedestrian only. Delivery vans are allowed, but they arrive early in the morning because by 10 am the streets are full of day-trippers from Vienna.

typical Bratislava street in historic area

We had lunch at the KGB Pub and dinner at the Slovak Pub. I had the darkest beer I have ever drank. It has a Slovak name, but it is ordered by telling the waitstaff yu want a "black beer." It was delicious, flavorful but not bitter. Not thick, just really good. It rivals my favorite beer, Czech beer. None of that watery American pseudo-beer (I'm talking about you, Coors, Miller, etc) for me.

black beer

My final picture is of our room. Our hotel, Aplend City Center, has only 16 rooms on four floors. Five rooms on three floors and one room on the top floor. I booked directly with the hotel (a Rick Steeves tip about small hotels) and got a standard double room, but they put us on the top floor in the penthouse! The room is huge, with a curved bank of windows (no view except other roofs, though) and a tub/shower instead of just a shower. Pretty neat!  

our Bratislava hotel room

We spent today (Wednesday) visiting the local castle and casino, but I haven't pulled the pictures off my camera yet, so I'll make those adventures as a separate post.