Day Trip to Bratislava, Slovakia (from Wien) 27 June

While watching a little of the European Cup soccer game at an imbiss stand by the UBahn station, a very informative Viennese archivist got to know us and advised us we would be fine trying to taking the train into Bratislava, even though our Eurail passes were only good for Austria and not Slovakia. Bratislava is just inside the border, so he was right and we had no problems. The train trip was beautiful and we got to Bratislava in an hour. What a great little city! We LOVED it. Took us awhile to figure out where to go. We got directions from the train station to take Bus 80 for five stops into the Old Town, but then walked the wrong direction for awhile until getting corrected. Then we stopped into an 5-star hotel and acted like we were staying there, so as to use the WC and get a city map. Then a few steps later an American college student asked me as though I were a Slovak local to take her picture along with her friends under a specific symbol on a building. Turns out they were on a photo scavenger hunt and were a group of American students doing mission work with Campus Crusade for Christ. We took pictures for another similar group a few steps later. Some in the groups were American ex-patriot kids who had lived in Bratislava their whole lives and of course spoke Slovak. In any event, to seize the moment, we asked them which sights we should see in our 5 hours on the ground and where the best restaurants were. Their recommendations were spot-on target. Our lunch was a pungent combination of Slovak sheep cheese, dumplings, and bacon or ham. Couldn't finish it all. We loved the old town square the best, St Michael's Gate, the Primate (not monkeys) Palace, the St Martin's Cathedral, and the Bratislava Castle overlooking the Danube on the other side of the main road. We saw no other Americans. There were a fair number of Norwegians and Brits visiting. Currency is the dvesti, even though they are part of the EU. When asked if they would take euros, the answer was a resounding YES with the accompanying look of "You must be kidding, of course." The descriptions below and changes in demographics highlight how volatile our traveled region has been.

Bratislava (German: Pressburg, Hungarian: Pozsony) is the capital of Slovakia, and with a population of about 427,000, the country's largest city.^[1] Bratislava is in the southwest of Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two countries.^[2] It and Vienna are also two of Europe's closest national capitals, at less than 60 kilometres (37 mi) apart. German name Pressburg. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary under the Habsburg monarchy from 1536 to 1783. Bratislava was home to the Slovak national movement of the 19th century and to many Slovak, Hungarian and German historical figures.

From the city's origin until the 19th century, Germans were the dominant ethnic group.^[80] However, after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, active Magyarisation took place, and by the end of World War I Pressburg was a German-Hungarian town, with Slovaks as the biggest minority. After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, the proportion of Slovaks and Czechs increased in the city. The creation of the first Slovak Republic in 1939 brought the expulsion of many Czechs and Jews. In 1945, most of the Germans were evacuated, or after the restoration of Czechoslovakia, displaced from the city, along with Hungarians accused of cooperation with the Nazis. The city thereby obtained its clearly Slovak character. Hundreds of citizens were expelled during the communist oppression of the 1950s, with the aim of replacing "reactionary" people with the proletarian class. Since the 1950s, the Slovaks have been the dominant ethnicity in the town, making up around 90% of the city's population.

The St. Martin's Cathedral in Slovakia's capital, Bratislava is situated at the western border of the historical city center below Bratislava Castle. It is the largest and finest, as well as one of the oldest churches in Bratislava, known especially for previously being the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Primate's Palace in Bratislava's Old Town. It was built from 1778 to 1781.

The palace and its most famous chamber, the Hall of Mirrors, have played host to many significant events. Perhaps the most famous of them is the signing of the fourth Peace of Pressburg in 1805 after the Battle of Austerlitz, which effectively ended the War of the Third Coalition. Serfdom in the Kingdom of Hungary was abolished here in 1848. The city purchased the palace in 1903.

During reconstruction in 1903, six previously unknown tapestries were found behind a wall, depicting the legend of Hero and Leander and their tragic love. The tapestries were woven in the 1630s at the royal weaving workshop at Mortlake, near London.

St Martin' CathedralImagine grabbing hold of this handle on the choir chancellery while singing!


St George slayingthe dragon and St Elisabeth
St Michael's Gate.
One-man band.
Town square gate.
Town square

Atop Bratislava Castle.
Bratislava has all of these figures around town which are fun.
Slovak National Theatre.
This THE story of Eastern Europe, everywhere we would go -- reconstruction and new construction. "Sorry the museum is closed for three months for reconstruction." We found this to be true from Belgrade to Budapest to Bratislava.

Atop Bratislava Castle.
Danube down below.

Night return to Vienna-- St Stephen's Cathedral - - again, notice its top is under reconstruction.

Windmills in Austria on the way back to Vienna from Bratislava.

Final Vienna sightseeing stop was to Haus der Musik. If our dear musician friend, Dr Ed Wolfe, were to ever enter this museum, one would never see him again.
- an interactive discovery museum located in the heart of Vienna's first district nestled between St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Vienna State Opera. A host of interactive installations playfully communicate openness to new things, understanding and enthusiasm in approaching music http://www.hdm.at/en/sound-museum/16.htm

Here you can conduct your own Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and when you mess up, they bad-mouth you right back to your face and say how they cannot continue to play for such an awful conductor!