Category Archives: Slovakia

Bratislava

Today we only had a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of Bratislava. Good tour with tons of info. Lots of security since there is a big meeting of some European heads of state in the castle. This meant the castle was closed. After the tour we walk around the old town and stumbled on a pastry shop. We had to indulge in Viennese coffee and various sweets-scrumptious!!!! At 5pm the majority decided to go back to the hotel. We then ate dinner in the hotel and it also was great. Our waiter was the only one who spoke some English. We had a good time and so did he. I finally have a chance to get caught up because tomorrow is Budapest.

Dessert and Viennese coffee

Cakes and tea

At hotel restaurant

President’s residence

Bratislava

We made it to the hotel and checked in. We had decided to eat at the UFO. Some of our group did not think they could walk that far so we set out to find a bus and how to use the automated ticket machine. On the way to the bus is started to rain and it was cold and windy. Finally on the bus we were dry. When we got off the bus we had trouble figuring out how to get to to UFO since it is on the bridge. Long story short-over the river and through a mall in the pouring rain to the UFO we go. Finally we made it even though we were cold and wet. Then we were told we had to have reservations for the restaurant but we could go to the lounge and there would be some food available. Up we went. Of course it had a spectacular view. We had hamburgers that were very good although not the dinner we had anticipated. Then back down to return to the hotel. We couldn’t find the right bus, so we walked. Tired and cold we went to bed.

View of castle from UFO

View of Danube

Inside the UFO lounge

Bratislava/Vienna – Day 3 -7-31-13

We got up, had breakfast and took our luggage back to the first hotel. It was too early to check in so they stored our bags and we made sure we had a reservation. Then we walked to the train station and took a train to Vienna. When we got to Vienna we got on the subway to Schônbrunn Palace Marsha did the maze and I took the palace tour. I also took a picture of the garden. As usual all was great and of course no pics allowed in the castle. See pics of outside and garden. We then went to the demonstration on how to make apple strudel. It included a piece of strudel and a drink – see pics. We then got back on the subway and headed to central Vienna ((St Stephen’s Platz). See pic of church. We toured the church and the downtown area. We decided to have dinner in Vienna and chose a restaurant based on food naturally, while we were having dinner I noticed people taking pictures of the building. When we had finished we discovered it was the building where Mozart wrote the Marriage of Figaro. The restaurant was very nice – see pics – Marsha had gazpacho for an appetizer and had mushrooms in a cream sauce with bread dumplings for the main dish. I had pork with the chanterelle mushroom cream sauce and potato noodles. See pics . All good food. We are now on the train to Bratislava – it just left Vienna and it is 8:30pm, we still have to walk from the train station in Bratislava to our hotel and check in. When we get there I will be able to connect to WIFI, upload the pics and send the blog post. Tomorrow we are headed to Budapest.
Forgot to mention the before dinner digestive. See pic. We know it had vodka and all that fruit. It was very tasty!

PS- Bratislava is in Slovakia just across the border from Austria. It should be pretty much east of Vienna.

Bratislava – Day 2 – Tuesday 7-30-13

When we woke up it was much cooler to our delight. We were so hot and tired yesterday we couldn’t bear the thought of another day like that. Our first job was to find a place to stay for the night since the hotel we were in didn’t have a room for today. We set out on foot and while we were walking past the Presidential Palace they were changing the guard. See pics. There was no one there but us! We checked several hotels and found one for tonight. We are not homeless. We stopped for breakfast and then headed to the first hotel to check out and get our luggage and make a reservation for tomorrow. are you confused yet? We then dropped our bags at the hotel we are staying at tonight (too early to check in) and went to see the sights. We walked to the UFO Bridge over the Danube and walked across it. See pics. Then we went up to the observation tower on the bridge. Great view! We then went into the restaurant and had a cold drink. Again a spectacular view. We could see windmills in the distance and they are actually in Austria. We decided to use the facilities when we were leaving the restaurant and it was all windows and on them said “are you enjoying the view”. I have many pics on my camera-too many to post. We then walked into the Old Town for more sightseeing and about 4pm headed to our hotel to check in. Nice hotel and since we couldn’t find a laundromat, we did laundry. See pic. We went to dinner in the Old Town – nothing exciting – Marsha had garlic soup and fries and I had schnitzel and fries. We are now back at the hotel and I can only get WIFI on the lobby so Marsha went to see how we’ll our laundry is drying. It is only 10:15pm.

Bratislava – Monday 7-29-13

It was about a 4 hour train ride to Bratislava. Fortunately our car was air conditioned until the conductor came around checking our tickets and said “the climatizer” is no longer working. We reached our hotel at approx 5:30 but it is still HOT here. We looked like we took showers with our clothes on. The hotel is air conditioned so we just cooled off for a while. There was a snafu with our reservation so we have to find another hotel. We headed into the Old Town and it seemed deserted. We thought everything was closing, but we found a restaurant for dinner. We both had salads – it is just too hot to eat – and then we split a dessert, while we were sitting there a Greek parade passed by – don’t know what the parade was for.

There is also a picture of the square where we had dinner. Walking back to the hotel we saw this table of guys with the giant beer container on their table so we took their picture. Also there is a pic of the “space” bridge. I