Bratislava 2 – Day 1&2

This is Michael’s 11th, and my second, trip to Bratislava. My first trip was in April of this year. It started poorly with the limo not arriving, and Cindy coming to the rescue to drive us to the airport in our car. This time we ordered a taxi and it was in the driveway a few minutes before the scheduled time. The drive to airport was uneventful.

There were many open self check in machines available, and my check-in went flawlessly, but Michael’s machine failed to print his luggage tag, so he had to go to the counter. We chose different lines at security, and I got through very quickly. One of his bags was chosen for manual inspection, and then they forgot to do so. However, despite these two little bumps in the road we were sitting at the gate hours before our flight was scheduled to take off.

The air quality in the terminal was pretty good, but the flight was fully booked, and very few people were wearing masks, so we wore ours, except when we were eating. We also had the XBB variant vaccine a few weeks ago.

The flight left 20 minutes late and it was fully dark. 

Michael was in premium economy, because this is a business trip for him, but I saved $1200 by sitting a dozen or so rows back in basic economy. I closed my eyes for about three hours, but didn’t really sleep.

Austrian painter Gustav Klimpt’s The Kiss  is used in many places in the Vienna airport to advertise the Belvedere Art Gallery in Vienna. Oddly, the same work is on all sorts of touristy items in Bratislava, as well.

We checked in, unpacked, and then I had a 45 minute nap. Then we went out in search of lunch and a walk for fresh air, and to energize ourselves.  It took a while to find somewhere to buy lunch because it is a national holiday here today, and most things are closed.

Bratislava  is a city of about 440,000 people, but is very walkable, and has excellent public transportation. The current mayor has been focussing on improving the walkability of the city and reducing the need for cars and the space that cars take up. Where roads cross the bike path on this street they are very roughly cobbled and cars are very careful crossing the sidewalk and the bike path.

The street is quite lovely right now with the fallen leaves.

There are two bike share systems here. One, which I used last time, must be docked. The other can be left anywhere within a geo-fenced area. Those ones have been replaced with new bikes since the spring, and a lot of new bike racks have been installed, as well.

There’s a row of benches along here that are quite uncomfortable to sit on, but fascinating to look at.

The Družba fountain on Námestie Slobody (Freedom Square) was recently renovated. When Michael was here in the summer, and it was filled with water, there were many children playing in it. The fountain represents the Linden flower, the national symbol of Slovakia.

Biatec is the name of  the first coin minted in the 1st century B.C. named for a person, probably a king.  It was on the territory of present-day Bratislava in the Celtic part of the territory of Europe.

The building in the background is the Slovak Radio Building which was under construction from 1971-83 and is made of brown COR-TEN steel. It has been listed on the Daily Telegraph’s list of the 30 ugliest buildings in the world.

We went into the building, and the interior appears unchanged from when it was built.

There is a small art gallery in the building, which was closed today, but we were able to peer into this small room, filled with mirrors, which made for fascinating reflections.

This street has recently been reconstructed as the complete street with wide sidewalks and large water catchment areas around the street trees.

This sculpture caught my eye. I didn’t find any signage on it.

When we returned to the room I used Google lens to see if I could find out anything about it. It linked me to an article in a Slovak newspaper written in Slovak. So I used the Google Translate app on my phone and the camera. I pointed the camera at the article, and the translation appeared. It’s an incredibly handy tool when you don’t speak the language.

We went back to the room to relax, struggling to stay awake. The hotel we are staying in is attached to a mall which has a fitness center. The hotel has an agreement with the fitness center, which allows guests to use it. I didn’t use it last time, but planned to do so this time. However, I hadn’t realized that while there is an agreement, there is also an additional charge of €14 per three hour visit, so I think I’ll be foregoing the gym.

We walked across the small pedestrianized area from the hotel to Centrálna Klubovňa for dinner.

Then we took a short walk around the block and returned to the room to write the blog, shower, and have an early night.