Bratislava 2 – Day 11

Michael met with his Slovak language tutor for a couple hours this morning, and I just relaxed in the room.

After lunch, we walked to the only remaining city gate. It has been under renovation for a while, but recently reopened. Tickets are purchased in the Red Crayfish Pharmacy building a former pharmacy from the 16th century. It’s now a museum of pharmacy. We didn’t look around that, but I did take this picture while we were purchasing tickets. 

Michalská brána, Michael’s Gate in English, is among the oldest buildings in Bratislava. It was built about the year 1300, but its present shape is the result of a baroque reconstruction in 1758. Most of the city walls and the other gates have all been demolished. I just realized as I am writing this that I didn’t take a picture from the outside today. Here is one from a few nights ago.

One can go out on a balcony on the sixth floor. This view is to the south and you can see the UFO bridge and  the steeple of St. Martin’s Cathedral.

We had a little more time before catching the streetcar  to dinner, so we checked out murals in the Zochova pedestrian underpass. Unfortunately, someone has tagged a lot of the murals. Bratislava has four street car lines and they run frequently and cover a large area so the streetcar is definitely an iconic Bratislava sight. The next mural is the Presidential palace. And there were many others of Bratislava landmarks.

We walked through this inviting little park before deciding to walk to see the see the actual Presidential palace.

The palace was finished in 1760 for a Hungarian aristocrat Antal Grassalkovich. It is the residence of the President of Slovakia. The fountain is known as Earth – Planet of Peace, and was created in 1982. It is popular meeting spot.

There is a large pedestrian underpass with shops and several exits at the corner the Hodžovo Square the location of the palace.

We got the number four tram to the terminal at Nové Mesto Station. In addition to the transit stop, long-distance trains leave from here. This is a one of the smaller towns that was amalgamated into Bratislava.

We had a lovely evening with Dominik and Andrea and were served a delicious home cooked meal.

It was just a 500m walk back to the station. The tram pulled out just as we arrived, but even though it was Sunday evening, they were running every six minutes, so it wasn’t a problem to wait for the next one.