Bratislava, Slovakia

Having just one day here is Bratislava, we started with breakfast and then used our gps my city walking tour to see the highlights. We saw St Michael's Cathedral, the Blue Church, the Old Town Hall, the Primate 's Palace and Michael's Tower all in the old town. There are still some of the old town arches where the gates were and some of the old town walls are visible. Like the other countries we have been to, there is a lot of history here from from medieval times to Napoleon to world wars and many memorials reflecting them. We made our way to the castle at the top of the hill for views of the river, city and old town.

Our apartment was just outside of the old town on Obchodna St, now a busy shopping and eating area. It was sometimes hard to navigate with cars, streetcars (trams) and bicycles all sharing the road. However, there was a relative quietness to the street - not all that many cars.

Just outside of the old city is the new bridge and UFO observation tower. The bridge has a name but locals call it the UFO for it's saucer like shape. There is a restaurant and observation area at the top in the saucer. We didn't go up but supposedly one can see three countries from there.

Outside of the old town the city had many very new, contemporary looking buildings but a lot of their buildings are non-descript, plain brick buildings reflecting the communist time.

We had a Slovakian lunch at U Sedliaka, a nice restaurant where we would have enjoyed spending more time over a dinner. However, it was time to pick up our luggage and head to the train station.

We considered walking (about 25-30 minutes) but decided to take the tram and save 10 minutes. We got the tram and went past the first stop when we realized we were going the wrong way, oops. We got off at the next stop and switched trams, heading in the proper direction. We were a little nervous as we were now cutting into our comfort time of getting to the train. But, we needn't worry as it train was delayed for about 2 hours. With nowhere to go, we just hung out at the train station. Initially we were outside but we were soon surrounded by homeless people so we moved inside. The train did finally come and we made our away to Budapest , about 2.5 hours behind schedule. Along the way, Eileen's pack fell from the overhead storage rack and startled us as well as the 2 young guys we were sharing a compartment with. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

After arriving at the train station, we were able to enter the Metro for a short trip to our apartment which was only a few minutes walking. Our apartment is in the 9th floor and has lots of windows, offering some great views, even at night. While it was now past 9:30, we headed out for a late meal at First Craft Beer and Barbecue (not very Hungarian). After returning to our apartment, we were in bed within the hour.Read more