Bratislava 2 – Day 15

One of the places recommended to me by local cyclists was Devínska Kobyla. It is the highest point in Bratislava, and in the Devon Carpathians. Its peak elevation is 514 m, and it has a prominence of 300m. Last week, when I said to some locals that I had cycled partway up a mountain with a peak of 439m- Koliba – they smiled indulgently, and said, “Well, a small one, more of a hill”. For comparison, Blue Mountain has a top elevation of 450 m with a vertical drop of 220 m.

I decided to wait until late morning to allow the temperature to rise, and to take the streetcar to a point near the base of the climb which saved me 11 km of riding and 135 m of climbing. I knew the climb would be very challenging and was not at all certain that I would be able to do it, so I wanted to start with fresh legs. I also thought I would give public transit and biking another try. When I was reviewing the rules when I returned last night, I realized that there is an additional fare to take your bike, which is 50% of the base fair. So today my one hour ticket with bike cost me €2. In Bratislava you pay for transit by a combination of time and number of zones you are travelling through.

I keep a small bungee with me on my bike, which proved useful for securing the bike on the streetcar, allowing me to sit down.

The hills begin almost immediately after leaving the transit stop. They were manageable, but much more significant than we typically get in Brampton.

Every time I turned a corner, I could see the hill continuing. I like these raised crosswalks that they have here.

I thought these homes constructed on a hill with the terrace of each home on the roof of the one below where interesting looking, although they were quite rundown.

Seeing the buildings climb up the hills, gives you an idea of what the street is like.

I was dismayed, but not surprised, to see the real beginning of the climb after this sharp left. I was only able to get to the first corner before I had to stop.

As I rounded the corner, this is what I saw. The slope actually increased, and my legs and heart rate were already maxed out. 

At the corner, I saw this staircase. I think it would actually have been easier to carry my bike up the stairs rather than ride up that first bit of the hill.

Looking back down the hill, you can see that the sidewalk has become stairs. That’s how steep the slope was.

And on it goes. I walked this section.

Even walking and pushing the bike was challenging so I stopped again to rest at this sign, which was visible in the previous picture. That is a road on the left-hand side!

This woman passed me running down the hill. I wonder if she had already run up it.

The road to the peak was paved the entire way, however, I determined that I could pick up a tile by going down this road about 150 m, so I left the bike at the top and walked it.

I think I walked the bike four times on the steepest sections, and also took rest breaks when I was riding on some other sections. At one of the rest breaks I realized that I had crossed into the last tile that I expected to collect today, and I still had more than 100 m of climbing to go. I almost turned around at that point. But there were a couple things I wanted to look at at the peak so I continued.

There is an abandoned missile base built between 1979 and 1983 as part of the Warsaw Pact intended to provide defence against attack from NATO. There are about 15 buildings and missile storage bunkers remaining. It was an abandoned around 1996.

At the peak this lookout tower was built in 2020. It has 112 steps and rises another 21 m above the natural peak of the mountain, for a total of 534 m above sea level. For comparison, the CN Tower is 553 m tall.

Most of the ride up to the military base was along a heavily tree lined road, so there wasn’t much wind. It was 2° when I set out, but the temperature noticeably dropped, and I could see my breath on the air as I climbed. When I emerged from the trees onto the peak, the wind became quite noticeable, and was absolutely frigid, as well as quite strong. The winds increased dramatically as I climbed the stairs. I love heights, but with the strong winds, and frigid temperatures and weird angles of the stairs, I was a little bit concerned when I got to the top. It must have been at least minus 10 with the windchill.

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Even though the day was quite misty, the views were phenomenal. From here, you can see Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary. That inspired the three sided design of the tower. I tried to get some pictures with the point and shoot, but it wasn’t clear enough to use the long telephoto and get a decent image. Plus my hands were becoming painfully cold without my big mittens after just a few seconds. I could see Devon Castle, which I visited last week.

After I descended, I had a quick look inside one of the bunkers, but only went in a couple meters. I was just too cold to explore further, and it was quite dark inside.

The road was covered in wet leaves that had frozen, and was quite slippery in places, so I had to descend quite carefully, and without working to move the bike, and having become so cold, I stopped briefly to put on my best, balaclava, and some chemical warmers in my mountains. I had a second set of chemical warmers that I could have put in my shoes, and wind pants that I could have put on, but my hands were so cold that they weren’t working very well, and I thought I would be better off just continuing on rather than taking off my shoes. In retrospect, I should have put on all my extra clothing and broken out the chemical warmers as soon as I emerged from the trees so that I didn’t get cold in the first place but I had anticipated just how cold it was at the peak and at the top of the stairs.

Here I am back to the very steep part with the stairs. I was braking quite hard to keep my speed down to a reasonable amount.

I wish I could have taken the tram back to the hotel, but it was well after 1 PM by the time I got back to the line.There are many above ground pipelines here. I’m not sure what is being transported.

I continued to descend on a residential street parallel to the main street pictured here, and there were several things I would’ve liked to have taken pictures of, but I was just too cold.This is the active transportation bridge across the  road near the botanical gardens that I saw, but didn’t use, when returning from Devin Castle last week. They have planted a hardy ground cover mix in the streetcar tracks, and it looks quite attractive.

I stopped at Hentam again for their delicious chicken wrap and two lattes to warm up a bit before riding the final kilometre to the hotel. I jumped in a hot shower to warm up.

I got five new tiles today, and have gathered 72 over the past couple weeks. Today was probably the hardest climb I’ve ever done. The climb was 6.5 km long, with 350 m of climbing for a 5.8% grade.

We went to food fair, at the mall attached to the hotel, for dinner and then back to the room to relax. I now need to figure out what to do with my final day on my own, tomorrow. The weather doesn’t look promising.

72 new tiles