Bratislava 2 – Day 7

It was quite a bit cooler today with a high of 4° feeling like minus one. I waited until midday to head out and bundled up with a down jacket, ski mitts, and balaclava under my helmet.

This street has streetcar tracks, bike lanes in both direction, parking, and one-way only lanes for motor vehicle traffic. 

My route took me under the main rail line past and pass the main station.

I spotted this crazy hotel the last time I was here, but didn’t go round the corner to take a picture of it from the front. While I was taking a picture someone came out and asked me if I wanted to come in for a coffee, but I had just started my ride. Perhaps I’ll go there for a coffee on another day and see what it’s like on the inside.

Sometimes when I’m using voice navigation when Ride with GPS it stops giving me the queues for some reason. This intersection was complicated and I didn’t get a  cue so headed up this hill which was a 12% grade, since there was a centre median preventing a left,. When I got to the top I pulled out the phone to take a picture and saw that I was off course. I didn’t actually have to ride up such a steep hill!

I cycled back down the hill and thought perhaps it was these stairs that I was supposed to use so I carried my bike up, but that was wrong, as well. So I crossed the road and  started heading downhill looking for a right turn. I didn’t realize that it was this desire line and small set of stairs, so descended under the rail line down a steep hill on a one-way section of road. I realized my mistake at the bottom and walked the bike back up, keeping close to the wall. Then I tried going up the desire line and along the street at the top, and that turned out to be where I was supposed to be. All part of the adventure!

This Active transportation bridge crosses the highway, but I did not need to use it.

This is a road, but I didn’t meet anyone on it.

This residential road has an electric bus that uses wires.

My destination was the city forest, and to circumnavigate Kamzík, which is a TV tower at the top of a mountain. There is a cable lift, which can take people and bikes to the top, but I decided not to go up today given my late start,  and the fact that it was clouding over. I still had a long shallow grade to climb. I planned the route, so the climb was long and not too steep, and the descent was steep and exhilarating.

Only buses and service vehicles were allowed to use the road through the park. There was plain pavement on both sides for pedestrians, red pavement on both sides for cyclists, and cobbles in the middle for motor vehicles. I was passed by one bus, and one car, the whole time I was riding, and they both travelled past me very slowly. 

There were three restaurants which I passed in the park, two of which were open, despite the time of 2023 and weather. And as I left the park on the descent, which continued on city roads, I saw this little restaurant, which was also open.

 Bratislava’s Forest Park covers an area of 27.3 km² of which 96% is forested. For comparison Central Park in New York City is 3.4 km², and the entire area of Brampton is 267 km². Imagine if we had a recreation area within the city that covered more than 10% of the total area of the city. Heart Lake Conservation Area is 1.7 km².

The city bus took people deep into the park with many bus stops.

There were many covered places to sit, and even to have fires, or cook.

I decided to have a coffee before I started climbing.

There was an overwhelming amount of wayfaring signs outside the café.

Let the climb begin.

Some of bus stops had wood structures like this.

This is a well and the water has been tested for drinking.

I was mostly riding through forest, but there were some meadow areas, as well. Here is a map of the area. And the route I did today, with the elevation profile at the bottom.

As I finished the descent, I realize that I was returning on the way I had headed out on Monday morning.

The sun was beginning to set. In this photo on the top of the hill, you can see a pointy black TV tower which is Kamzík. I might ride straight up the road to it, on another day, or, I might take the bus or the chairlift. I haven’t decided yet. It would be a challenging ride to the top. It’s another 65m higher than I went today. Today I collected 9 new tiles, and 26 new ones Monday.

I saw a cute bike rack near the arena.

I ended up on the wrong side of the intersection where the hotel is and there’s no way to legally cross at grade so I took the elevator down into the pedestrian subway, which is lined with shops.

I was quite cold, especially my toes, when I got back to the room so I had a hot shower, then reviewed my pictures, and started writing the blog, before heading out to a restaurant near Eurovea, which is near Michael’s work, and where we ate last night, for dinner.

Some of the intersections here have countdowns to when you will be able to walk which I find useful.

Dinner was good, and the air quality better, but it was very noisy. Marián and Tomáš joined us. We returned to the hotel on the tram.