Our day in Bratislava

Day's Summary
"It was a wet start to the day. Caught the tram into town and after a bit of looking around the old town we took a bus to Devin castle. It was very cold and windy but it was dry enough to walk around and enjoy the views from the ancient ramparts. There were also two very good museum displays at the castle which kept us out of the wind. Then caught the bus back to Bratislava and found a pizza take away place where we could also sit down for lunch. We then walked up the hill to Bratislava castle which is an extremely interesting museum. It was pouring with rain when we left the castle so we took a bus to get closer to the centre, and went to a very pleasant restaurant for coffee. The rain persisted so our walking around was limited and we went to the museum in the old city hall for lunch. After it closed we did a bit more looking around and then headed back to the tram stop to catch a tram back to the campsite."

It was rather grey when we woke up, but it was at least not raining. The forecast was also rain and we could only hope that the forecast would be wrong. Quite a depressing start. We had found that there was a tram terminus very close to the campsite, so at least getting to the city should be straightforward. We decided against cycling today. It was a short walk over a pedestrian bridge. When we saw the board pointing to the camping again, we could not understand how we missed it when we turned off. We had to wait for about five minutes and then we got going on a very up to date tram that was completely free of graffiti. We got out at the stop pointed out by fellow travellers, but were completely disorientated. We, or rather Marianne, worked out which way we had to go (Google actually!) and we found the old city. It was most impressive with lovely squares and spaces and baroque buildings, some very old. But there were lots of modern intrusions, some of them communist era and completely unsympathetic. We found the very modern tourist information office and decided to buy the one day Bratislava card.

We made our way down to the river, which was dominated by the modern bridge over the Danube. It was impressive, but completely out of place. The high rise flats across the river were unbelievably "communist", row upon identical row disappearing into the distance. Since we had the Bratislava card, we decided to go to Devin castle, so waited for the bus at a stop just across from the river boats. We fortunately did not have to wait too long, as it was freezing cold. We did not realise that the castle was 15 km away and it took a long time to get to the town of Devin. It was also a long walk from the bus stop to the castle, and we were surprised to find a bus stop right at the castle parking. Maybe it only stops there in season? The castle itself was very big and had been blown up, apparently for no reason, by Napoleon’s forces. It was cold and windy walking around the ruins, but we spent some time looking around, going up to the high points and into two very good indoor exhibits, one setting out the history of the castle and the other, in caves below one of the towers, the prehistory of the area. The views down the Danube and the confluence with the Morawia River was very impressive. It was also strange to think that Austria and more so Vienna was only about 10km upstream. It was very cold with occasional flurries of rain. We spent about two hours at the castle and then had to take the long walk back to the bus stop. We got it just right, having only about a five minute wait. The bus runs every thirty minutes so it could have been much longer. It started to rain as we got into the bus.

While we were on our way back it got gloomier and once back in the city. We went straight up to the castle that overlooks the city. It was quite a long uphill and the entrance was quite difficult to find from the side we had come. There were other people looking as well so maybe we weren’t so stupid. Eventually we found the way into the courtyard (it is a castle so it probably shouldn’t be too easy to get in) and entered what was a really good museum dealing with many aspects of Slovakia’s history and with the highlight being the 25000 year old Venus of Moravany, a miniature fertility symbol of a naked woman. This is considered to be the oldest three dimensional art yet found.

The rain was really coming down when we left to go down into town. We caught a bus for a few stops and we were not sure where we were when we got out of the bus. It was also time for coffee and we went into a very smart coffee shop (much like the Exclusive Books setup with a bookshop and a coffee shop combined). It was nice and warm and it was difficult to leave. Then it was a walk in the rain into the old town, entering through the oldest city gate called Michael’s Gate. This had many lovely spaces and buildings. What was fun was the number of bronze human sized statues, of which Cumil, the workman sticking his head out of a manhole is the best is the best known. The old city hall, lovely neoclassical buildings, the national theatre and streets where time has stood still made it a potentially wonderful city to wander around. But not in the rain!

We dived into the city museum housed in the old city hall. It gave an excellent overview of the city’s history, but we had to rush as it closed at 17h00, but started getting visitors out at 16h30. After being "deposited" back into the rain we went to a nearby church, probably “the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation”, and then decided to head for the tram stop to go home. We still needed to do some shopping and I fortunately noticed a Tesco almost at the bus stop. We dived in and did some quick buying and got back to the stop, which was fortunately roofed. There was only a short wait and we were heading back. There was a stop to pick up supporters from the ice hockey stadium and then there was the short walk back to the campsite. We got back at about 18h30 and had supper. There was a bit of a crisis when Marianne thought she had lost part of our new coffee press. The filter screw had come loose and the handle had dropped out while she was carrying it. We looked along the road for the other bits without success and then I found them still in the press. Thank goodness we could still have decent coffee! It was still raining lightly when we went to shower and the forecast was for the same the next day. We would have to change our plans and decided to go east where there seemed to be less rain. We decided to go and see Spissky hrad (castle), the largest castle in Eastern Europe. When going to shower I noticed some thing moving in the dark and thought that it might be a rat. When we shone the torch under the camper, we saw that it was a cute little hedgehog that was sheltering behind our wheel!

Geschreven door Leartravels