David and Dayle, Cindy and I started planning this trip back in February. Because we have cycled much of Waterfront Trail between Toronto and Niagara Falls we decided to shorten the trip by a day by taking the GO train between Port Credit and Niagara Falls. Originally we had planned to leave tomorrow, but on Tuesday this week, we learned that track repairs would mean we would have to bus part of the route, so we scrambled and found a hotel for tonight, while the train was still running. It made for an easier time getting going because our departure was early afternoon for a train at 5:33 PM, rather than 7:00 AM in the morning to get to a 9:30 AM train in Port Credit.
This will be my longest self-supported bike trip. My previous longest one was four days. I’ve never travelled for such a long period of time with so few clothes. Handwashing will definitely be required many evenings.
Here I am setting out.
I left a little early so I could stop by Decathlon to pick up a packable rain jacket as it seems likely that in 13 days away we will probably have a rainy one. Cindy was itching to get going so she met me with her husband, Mark, who rode with us along Brampton’s new protected east-west cycling corridor, to our meet up with David and Dayle to see us off.
We rode down McLaughlin, which was quite busy with the cars slowing us down in sections. We had a lovely tailwind. I love the views of Mississauga’s downtown as you cross the 403.
South of the Queensway, we saw this permeable filter which allows pedestrians and cyclist through, but not cars, on this lovely tree lined street.
Hurontario is a mess with the LRT construction around the GO station.
Here we are on the platform waiting for the train to come in. We had to ride just one stop to Clarkson, and then transfer onto the Niagara bound train for the rest of the trip. There were no bike coaches, but not many cyclists, so getting a spot wasn’t a problem at either station.
Fortunately, both the train station and our hotel were up on the hill in Niagara Falls.
About half of the distance from the station was on a nice trail called the Olympic Torch Run Legacy Trail.
It felt cool when we got off the train so I put on my new rain jacket, but I was shortly too warm.
We are staying at the Falls Lodge and suites – unassuming, but clean room with fridge and microwave, and comfortable beds.
Tomorrow we ride to Fort Erie to cross The Peace Bridge. The Erie Canalway starts in Buffalo.
Here’s our ride. The straight line is when the ride was paused while we were on the GO train.
A moderate amount of rain was falling when I opened the curtains this morning, and was forecast to continue for the whole day. I looked at my list of things to do here, and at my guidebook, and decided to go to Galéria Nedbalka. It didn’t open until 1 PM so I had relaxing morning in the room. I decided to take the tram because it was still raining when it was time to leave.
I was a little bit early, so I stopped into the post office that was built between 1908 and 1912. The ceiling is a gentle arch of glass with floral motifs. It was quite impressive for a post office, and still operates as such.
These are the front and back views of the outside of the post office.
I passed the Primate’s Palace and a small part of the Christmas market on the way to the gallery. The market is open, but not nearly as busy during the day.
The gallery is spread across five floors surrounding a circular atrium. I enjoyed the architecture of the building as much as the art collection.
I started on the fourth floor, as advised by the receptionist, where are the oldest art starting from about 1900, was displayed.
The elevator entrances on each floor were covered with a copy of art from their collection. I appreciated the fact that the stairs were open and bright and right next to the elevator, and used them.
This piece is entitled Adam and Eve, and was painted by Anton Jasusch in 1925. I thought their smiles were engaging.
This is a view of the third floor.
This is a view looking up from the second floor.
I found the colour appealing in this oil painted in 1965 by Milan Laluha, entitled Three Men.
Ladislav Guderna was a surrealist, Czechoslovakian painter, who emigrated to Canada after the Prague spring. His work seemed familiar to me, and I thought perhaps I had seen it in the National Gallery when I was in Ottawa in the summer, but if I did, I didn’t take a picture of it.
The first floor gallery was taken up entirely by an exhibition by Fero Lipták. All of the work presented was very recognizably by the same artist. This large piece had so much detail in it that I took four detail images. It is called passengers.
The artist statement says: “Through the figures, looking at the world from a perspective of an innocent child, the artist points out, with kind humour and gentle satire, various social and individual problems.” These are some other pieces of his work, which were in the collection.
There is an Art Café on the second floor and a coffee, tea, or hot chocolate was included in the admission. I chose a hot chocolate, and was surprised to find it was one like we had at the Maximillian Café on Sunday morning a couple weeks ago. More like fondue than hot chocolate. It was delicious. They had a large bookshelf full of art books, and I enjoyed looking through a couple about artists whose work I saw exhibited at Danubiana.
It was still raining when I finished at the café at the gallery so I took the tram back to the hotel. This was the view from the room just before 4 o’clock.
Milan, who loaned me his bike while I was here, took us out to dinner tonight. Despite the weather, the restaurant was completely full.
After dinner, we walked across the street to the little market in front of the Apollo Hotel, and the guys had some Christmas punch. Then we had a 20 minute walk back to the hotel.
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.
I decided to go to Danubiana Art Museum, 20 km south of downtown Bratislava, very near the border of Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. It opened in 2000, and was founded by Gerard Meulensteen of Eindhoven, a Dutch collector and art patron, and Vincent Polakovič, a Slovak gallerist. It’s a 22 km ride from the hotel, all of which I have done before, so I decided to take the my bike on the bus to the gallery, look around, then ride south for a bit, which would be new to me, and then ride back to the hotel.
The transit portion of the trip entailed taking two buses, transferring about 5 km into the journey. The second bus only runs once an hour, so I set an alarm for 7 AM to make sure that I was at the bus stop by 9:06. The other complication was the hotel is at a transit hub, and I didn’t know the location of Platform J, where the bus would stop.
The dining room terrace was covered in ice, and I encountered icy puddles all day long. I saw man slip and fall on the slope to a pedestrian bridge in Petržalká.
I usually only take a couple minutes from leaving the hotel to being on the tram, and they come frequently enough that you don’t need to know the schedule. This morning I gave myself 15 minutes since I didn’t know which platform to use. I got a workout by the time I got on the bus! I went down into the pedestrian subway and couldn’t find signage for platform J at any of the exits. So I tried each one in turn, carrying my bike up and down. The last place I looked, which was the last possible place for it to be, and was where I needed to be, was also the easiest platform to get to directly from the hotel. Oh well, I’ll know for next time. The appointed time arrived, and passed. No bus. But I wasn’t the only one at the stop. It eventually arrived, but it was later than the amount of time allotted at the transfer point. I got on, but I knew unless the next bus waited, that I would miss the second bus, and then have to wait almost an hour.
When I got to the transfer point, I could see on the electronic board that the bus I needed was no longer listed. Then, I couldn’t get the bike out from the tight space. At the beginning of the ride I held onto the bike, then I noticed the red bar that could be put around it to keep it from falling over. I managed to put it around it, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the bike back out. Someone helped me, but by then we were two stops down the road.
I got off, and found some sunny steps to sit on, and checked where I was in relation to the route I had planned for returning this afternoon. I was about a kilometre away from the route. So I went into Ride with GPS in my browser, and reversed, and re-saved the route, something that wasn’t available in the app. Then I watched my position on the phone screen as I rode towards the route.
I was in Petržalká. It is the largest borough of Bratislava and shares a land border with Austria. It is home to about 100,000 people. It was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. In April 1945 it was freed from the Nazis and taken by the communists. It was returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II. Construction of housing blocks began in 1977. The tower blocks are known as Panelák. It is the most densely populated residential district in Central Europe.I quite like the area. The housing is very dense, but the green space is extensive, and it has good Active Transportation infrastructure.
I saw this bridge design several times as I travelled south. This seems to be a tributary of the Danube.
One of the street car lines is being extended 3.9 km further into Petržalká with a 2024 opening date. From what I saw today that looks ambitious. This is the current terminus.
There are some modern midrise buildings in Petržalká, but the Panelák dominate.
The construction of the streetcar extension caused me to have to detour from the path here. Unusually, detour signs were not provided. I managed a roundabout way back to the path.
The churches in the former Communist built areas are quite utilitarian, and of a similar design from place to place.
I have now joined the Danube Cyclepath, and here is another one of those wonderful way finding signs. I cycled this section in the spring. The cyclepath is on a berm, on this side of the river. The black and white stick in the lower part of the picture, to the right of the way finding sign, is a flood gauge. I assume that the cyclepath is on a berm so that it is still useable when the river floods.
When I was here in the spring, I had a goal of riding across all seven Bratislava bridges. They all have excellent cycling infrastructure. This is the Floodplain Bridge. It is 2.9 km long and 35 m wide. There are cycling paths on both sides. Unlike some of the other bridges it doesn’t have stairs as well as ramps.
Every few kilometres there are small restaurants. The cyclepath runs on both sides of the river and there are frequent bridges across it. For about a kilometre this section had a variety of exercise equipment every hundred metres or so.
I saw quite a few swans as I rode along. This is where I turned off the Danube path to go to the gallery.The bus that I would’ve been on had I waited an hour, was returning from the terminus at the gallery. It didn’t beat me by much, even though I stopped a lot to take pictures.
There is a large dam here, the Cunovo Water Power Plant, but very few of the spillways were operational today.
A surf and kayak school have been set up with artificial rapids part way across the dam. There are two different courses. It looks fabulous. And once you get to the bottom, you can paddle around to the left to take out and carry your boat up to the top and come down again. There are stands for viewing. There was a sign advertising European youth championships this summer. There is a hotel and campground, restaurant, outdoor dining, pool, and playground. I would have loved to have tried this back when I was kayaking regularly.
I was puzzled back in the spring when I saw a bike crossing on Ride with GPS at this point. I wasn’t able to see a bridge when I was there. I discovered last night when I was planning the route today that it is actually a bike ferry. During the warm months when you use it on its regular schedule it is €4 per per person. This time of year it has to be booked and is €20.
I was absolutely delighted by Danubiana. It was much more extensive than I had realized with an outdoor sculpture park, a rooftop park with excellent views of Bratislava, the Small Carpathians, and the Danube River – I was able to see the Kamžik TV Tower – and an extensive indoor gallery on two floors, with four special exhibits, as well as the permanent collection.
This made me think of a deconstructed coffee mug. It was called Contemplation, which, come to think of it, one can be prone to do over a cup of coffee.
This was my favourite outdoor sculpture. It is called Smiling Faces by Bilio Nic.
I also really like this one called Infinity Lady by Ján Ťapák.
This one is called Danube Wings by Peter Pollág.
This figure is called Pičus by Victor Freso, the same artist who created Octahedral Body, the colourful sculpture outside Eurovea shopping center. He says of Pičus: he is “man both ridiculous and foxy, an insidious son of a bitch, full of complexes; a self-important, arrogant bastard, the type that people find annoying in real life”. The gallery had a whole room full of these figures and mirrors to make it look like they were even more.
Here are some of the exhibits which drew my attention.
There is a funny story, told about these Brillo boxes, with respect to exhibiting them in Toronto. “In 1965 thirty Brillo Soap Pads Boxes intended for a Toronto exhibition were held at Canadian customs, as officials questioned their status as art. The officials contacted Charles Comfort, then-director of the National Gallery of Canada who, on examining a photograph, determined the works were not art, but merchandise. Two years later, Brydon Smith, curator at the NGC, together with Jean Sutherland Boggs, the Gallery’s new director, purchased eight Brillo Boxes. For them, the works were indeed art and, more than that, art worthy of the national collection. Purchased 1967”.
One of the special exhibits was by Michae Mraz which I found quite interesting.
Another was by Martin Stranka, who seems to be quite prolific. I also enjoyed his work.
This piece by Katarína Galović Gâspâr is called Brandage. I thought it apt in the highly branded, consumer driven society we live in.
The Art Café was very inviting and I had a latte.
I had about half an hour before the bus arrived when I finished so I rode south and picked up one new tile and saw a little bit of the Danube Cyclepath that I hadn’t seen before.
I wasn’t allowed to board the bus until it pulled up to the stop. I was the only passenger for the first 10 minutes or so, but then, as we went through small towns more and more people started to board.
I had two transfers to make on the way back, but the second bus driver came out of his booth and down to the middle of the bus where I was standing with my bike and told me I wasn’t allowed to bring my bike on the bus at this time of day. I thought I was allowed to bring it on until 3pm, but it turns out it’s not allowed after 1pm. And, apparently it’s always at the discretion of the driver. So I got off and planned a route back to the hotel, which was only 6 km. This picture is entitled, “Left Behind”.
When I saw this giant sundial, I knew where I was. I had seen it in the spring.
My route took me under the Harbour Bridge, which has cycling infrastructure on both sides, and streetcar tracks. And, under the Apollo Bridge, which has been attractively designed even underneath.
Today I noticed there’s a bike counter on the Old Bridge. I was the 133rd cyclist across it today.
This is the north end of a major transit stop and university.
I realize it was still early enough to have another coffee, and I was quite hungry, so I stopped at Hentam, and had a delicious meal.
It felt quite bitterly cold from the café to the hotel, which was only about a kilometer. We decided to eat dinner at Komin, near the hotel, rather than going to the Christmas market tonight. But first we went up to the 13th floor to the Outlook bar for a drink.
I have two days left on my own, and two days left with Michael, and then I return home on Monday.
Rain was forecast for today, but I set an alarm last night, just in case the forecast was wrong, and I could do a longer bike ride. Alas, it was raining when I awoke, and quite heavily. So I didn’t rush out of bed or over my breakfast. I felt less like I had a cold this morning.
It rained much for the morning and then I give it a little bit of time for the roads to dry up. My goal was a visit to the National Gallery. I decided to ride and headed in the direction of the gallery, but tried to get there by a different route, so I would see different things. Bratislav is a city of fountains, and this one caught my eye. It is from the communist era and commemorates the Soviet space race. It is in Kukorelliho Park, named for Ludovit Kukorelli, an important organizer of the partisan movement in Slovakia during World War II.
I like the shape of the balconies on the building adjacent to the park. In front of the Apollo Hotel, I came across a picture of the fountain and statue with a block of housing that had been knocked down to build the apartment building. Apparently, in the summer water shoots out of the back of the rocket, looking like exhaust and is lit up red at night to look like fire.
There are many small markets set up with food trucks, and entertainment for children, and Christmas decorations around the city. This one is in front of the Apollo Hotel. It was apparently a favourite place for the Soviets when they would come to Bratislava. The statue is called Lovers and dates to 1959.
Shortly thereafter, I found myself around the back of Nivy Mall which we visited on Saturday. I was absolutely delighted to find this automated, transparent bike parking tower. The instructions were in Slovak, so I didn’t try it out, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see it operating, but I did take these pictures.
I arrived at the National Gallery, locked up my bike, and then discovered that it’s closed on Monday to Wednesday.
I messaged Michael that I had tried to do something cultural, but it was closed, so perhaps I would go check out the AuPark Mall in Petržalka. He suggested that I should try visiting the Slovak National Museum, which was close by, so I decided to do that, first.
The first exhibition was by an artist called Ašot Haas. The information for the sculpture was: “The figural composition which is an appro- priation of Michelangelo’s David will be premiered here. Hass dynamizes the sculpture and rotates it 360 degrees thus creating a distinctive formal deformation and symbol of the tireless endeavor to achieve the unachievable. The story of David and Goliath about the disparity of forces and the subsequent victory of the underdog is also an im- portant message for the present.”.
He also created some very pretty designs in glass that were about a metre in diameter.
The rest of the museum was devoted to natural history. It is a real giraffe and the bottom of her belly was my shoulder height.
I then rode across the Old Bridge. When you move from an environment where you’re riding with cars, to one which only has pedestrians, cyclists and street cars, it makes you realize that cities aren’t noisy – cars are noisy.
This was a bike rental place on the south shore of the Danube. I thought it was cute the way they made their sign out of bicycle parts.They also had a dome built out of old bike wheels.
On this street there is only one lane for motor vehicles and the other lane is for bikes.
AuPark, the mall, possibly the third largest in Bratislava after Eurovea and Nivy, and all three are within 3 km of each other, is beside Sad Janka Král’a Park, which translates as John King’s Orchard, which became the park. I find it astonishing that there is enough demand for three such large malls, so close together.Like many malls here, it incorporates playgrounds for children, and has a little food truck festival and children’s entertainment area set up outdoors for Christmas. It also had covered bike parking, and E bike charging stations. You can see the UFO bridge in the arch of the Franciscan Tower.
I had a look around the mall and had a coffee and treat.
Then I rode my bike around the outside of the mall. Once again, I was reminded how noisy cars were. It was very quiet on the park side of the mall, and very noisy on the side adjacent to a highway.
I then rode back to the hotel to drop off the bike.
It was twilight at 4:30 when I left the hotel to meet Michael at the Christmas market.
I decided to walk today. It takes about 30 minutes. This street is primarily used by pedestrians, and transit, but cycling and driving are permitted. Most drivers choose to drive elsewhere. Imagine if all these people walking, and in the trams, were in cars. It would be a massive traffic jam.
There are many pretty windows when you walk at night here.
In addition to the small tables where you can stand and eat that have a small small cover over them, there are a couple large covered areas at the Christmas market.
it was more crowded tonight, but not as crowded as Saturday.
We split a potato pancake, a traditional Slovak food. We didn’t eat at all. It was tasty, but too greasy. Then I had a grilled Camembert sandwich, and Michael had a blood sausage.
I was being tempted by these little Christmas tree decorations. I might go back another night and get some. I haven’t bought any new Christmas decorations for years, and we have too many, but it would be nice to have a little souvenir.
It was spitting as we arrived at the market, and increased to a misty rain, but it made the wet pavement reflective and pretty.
We took the tram back to the hotel. Once I finish writing the blog, I need to figure out what I’m going to do tomorrow.
I had a restful night of sleep, but woke feeling like I’m getting a cold. My throat was a bit irritated the last two nights by a soapy smell in the room, and the air quality in our room had suddenly become quite poor the last two nights, as well, so I’m hoping it’s related. We weren’t sure why, but then I realized Michael had bought some bar soap which has a very strong scent, and it was that which was irritating my throat. And it was probably more of a problem than it would usually be because the ventilation in the room wasn’t working properly. On my way out this morning I mentioned it at the front desk, and it’s better this evening so I’m hoping I’m not getting a cold, but it still feels a bit like I am this evening.
In light of the that, and the fact that it was raining, I decided to take the tram to the UFO tower on the SNP bridge after the rain tapered off. I’m amazed how Bratislava keeps these old trams in service.
My brain just didn’t seem to be working too well today and I got off the tram too early, but the headway was only five minutes, so I didn’t have to wait for long to get back on and continue to the correct stop. I could see the tower from the correct tram stop.
I walked over to the pedestrian level of the bridge, which is underneath the motor vehicle traffic level. There are stairs and ramps, and you can walk on the east or the west side.
When I got to the south side of the river, I realized that I didn’t know where the entrance was. I wandered around, looking for it unsuccessfully. I pulled out my phone and put in “UFO observation deck” into Google Maps and it told me to walk back across the bridge. I was skeptical, but couldn’t see a way in where I was so I walked back across the bridge. Keep in mind that this is a 500m walk one way! Google told me to continue walking and I ended up in the pedestrian underpass with the murals that we visited yesterday afternoon. At this point I was certain it was completely wrong.Here I am in front of a mural of the tower mystified as to how to get to the real one!
This morning at breakfast I read an article about two cat cafés in the city, and I was now near one of them, so I decided to go sit down, have a cuddle with a cat, and some coffee, and then figure out how to get where I intended to go.
The coffee was good. The café was spacious with lots of comfortable places to sit, and lots of cats.
I texted with Michael and he told me I definitely needed to be back on the other side of the Danube. So I finished up, used the bathroom, passing this aphorism on a mirror, on the way. I thought it worked well as the theme for my trip and blogging: Make Each Day…A Story Worth Telling. It’s unusual for me to get lost, but at least it gave me a story to tell.
Bratislava is on the edge of the Little Carpathian mountains. Many of the streets, wind up hills, and the street where the cat café was was one of them. The sidewalk often turns to staircases in these neighbourhoods.
Bratislava used to be a walled city, but only a small amount of the wall remains. Here it is beautifully covered in ivy changing with the cold weather.
I decided to walk back across the Danube for the third time today on the west side of the bridge.
When I came down off the bridge on the south side for the second time it still took me a minute to find the ticket booth, but once I found it, I was astonished that I had had trouble, but I had basically been looking for it away from the river, but it was between where the ramps came down and the river and across a road. But as I said earlier, my thinking seemed to be a bit fuzzy today.
The silver lining of having taken so long to get there was that the day had brightened up a bit. It was €11.90, two euros more than it would have been in the morning, but I’m sure the views were better. I was surprised it was that much, but it was still much cheaper than going up the CN Tower, and the views were worth it.An elevator took me up to the restaurant and café bar level. From there it was 30 steps to the outdoor observation level.
I took a picture in each direction with my iPhone.
Then I got out Michael’s point and shoot which has a 40 times optical zoom and took a lot of detail pictures.
The south side of the river is called Petržalka. It is the largest borough of Bratislava and shares a land border with Austria. It is home to about 100,000 people. It was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. In April 1945 it was freed from the Nazis and taken by the communists. It was returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II. Construction of housing blocks began in 1977. It is the most densely populated residential district in Central Europe. Note the wind turbines on the horizon in the third picture. That is in Austria.
Bratislava castle, and the parliament building are right next to each other.
You can see the city climbing the hill behind the steeple of St. Martin’s.
The brown and white striped building is an abandoned hotel, which had a giant public art project executed on it a couple years ago to make it look like a circle had been rotated 90°.
The black building on the left is where Michael works.
Our hotel is the middle height building on the left – The Lindner.
The views were wonderful, and I took in my fill, and then descended and walked back across the Danube for the fourth time today. There is a great view of this complete street with its wide sidewalks, and brand new since I was here in the spring bike lanes, tram tracks, with a little bit of space left over for motor vehicles. Perfect.
I took the tram back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit, and then took the tram to the Christmas market to meet Michael for dinner. They had the Christmas decorations over the street lit up tonight for the first time.
It was still well attended, but much less crowded, which was more to my liking.
We bought food from both of these stands, and it was delicious.
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.
When we checked the forecast last night, it was showing a high of two and a mix of rain and snow until mid afternoon, and given it dark here a little after four, you can’t get a lot done after mid afternoon in the daylight. However, after sleeping in, and having a leisurely breakfast, the sun had come out and we could see Kamzík clearly from our hotel room, so we decided to take the bus to the bottom of the chairlift and go up the tower.
It was two buses, and the first came just as we arrived at the stop, and we only had to wait eight minutes for the second, so the total trip was just under 40 minutes – about the same time that it took me to do it by a few days ago.
The Chairlift from Železná studienka to Kamzík is the only existing two seater cable car produced by the former TRANSPORTA Chrudim, an elevator company. It has never had a single malfunction that prevented passengers from reaching the stations. It has an elevation of 186 m and can move 342 people in one hour. The lower station is reached by foot, bike, or public transit. People can drive to the upper station. The ride took just over eight minutes. It first began operation in 1972. Bicycles can be transported, rather than a second person, by hanging them off the back on the safety bar.
There were footprints on the ground, where we were meant to stand to prepare to sit as the cable car came around. They had foam pads which they put on the seats just before we sat down, which made them much warmer than they otherwise would have been.
I learned just after taking this picture that Michael wasn’t thrilled about riding up a mountain on this type of vehicle. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it immensely.
The Kamzík TV Tower is a 196 m tall television transmission tower sitting on top of the 437 m above sea level Kamzík hill, which is part of the Little Carpathians. It has a restaurant and observation area reached by elevator. Unfortunately, upon our arrival, we learned that the elevator wasn’t working. They didn’t know when it would be back in service. This was Michael’s fourth trip to the tower and the fourth time he failed to be able to go up it. It was my first.
So we took a short walk around the area, and then took the chairlift back down. Michael was less unsettled on the way back down. We got to see somebody riding up with his bike, as we went down.
The bus to take us back to a transit hub from the park runs four times an hour at this time of day on the weekend. All of the buses and the streetcars we took today were quite busy, and some of them were standing room only. We bought a 24 hour pass for €4.40, about $6.50 – a great deal.
After transferring, we decided to take the next bus to the main bus terminal at Nivy shopping mall, somewhere I had yet to visit. We were dropped off here next to the mall. I was interested to see the two green wall panels on the end of the building.
We decided to go up to the third floor for coffee and snack. After my spring trip here, during which I ate a lot of hard boiled eggs taken from the breakfast buffet on my bike trips, many of which were quite smooshed by the time I ate them, I bought these cute little boiled egg cases.
Then we went out on the green roof, which is a public park with a playground, workout stations, gardens, coffee shop in nice weather, and many places to linger, as well as a 500 m rubberized running track. It was truly impressive, and I had trouble deciding which of the many photos I took to share here.
Indoors, it was bright and airy with lots of interesting lights. It also had an exhibition space. We saw an exhibit by this artist at the Toronto Science Centre years ago.
The bus station in the basement was very impressive. It’s reached by an underground roundabout, and has more than 1100 international and regional connections daily.
There is a cycle track in front of the building.
The beer bikes, of which there were many when I was here in the spring, are still running, but this is the first I’ve seen. Unlike in Toronto, you actually drink beer while pedalling the bike.
We headed over to the main square, and the Christmas market, at twilight. It was much more crowded than it was last night.
Tonight we ate and drink at the market. There was a great variety of food and drink, and it was all delicious.
There were many tables to stand at upon which to place your food and drink, which have covers over them in case it rains, or snows.
After we ate, we wandered a bit more around the area, and it did start to snow lightly, not enough to stay on the ground, but enough to wet it, and make beautiful reflections.
It was a wonderful evening, and I look forward to a few more there over the next week.
It was raining heavily when I got up today, and continued as I had my breakfast in the dining room. So I went back to the room to plan some routes for less rainy days. However, a little before noon I noticed that the sun was shining.
One of the rides I had planned was a 25 km ride to the northeast of the hotel to pick up 10 tiles. Michael anticipated getting off work early so I didn’t want to go too far. I wasn’t expecting it to be as picturesque as my other rides, and it wasn’t, but it was a bit of an adventure.It was mostly on roads, or really sketchy laneways, and foot paths. It also took me along the muddy edge of a field, and over a creek on a jury rigged bridge.
I had a multi-use path for a bit at the start.
Right turn channels are light controlled here, for the most part.
The sun which had beckoned me out, didn’t stay out strongly, and the roads were mostly wet, but it didn’t rain anymore.
Here are some residential streets that I was on and some of them were more rundown than I’m used to seeing.
Then I was riding through an industrial area, then down a laneway which had a posted limit of 15 km an hour because it’s a shared space for pedestrians and motor vehicles.
That laneway led me to a beautiful little lake called Zlaté piesky which translates as Golden Sands – it is kind of like Professors Lake in Brampton.
Then I rode down a footpath between two fences, which, at some point, wasn’t much more than a metre wide, and had razor wire on the fence top on one side. The third picture is what it looked like when I got to the next road.
Then I went around the edge of a very large self storage place and up over an active transportation bridge over the busy road and the tram turnaround of the same name as the lake.
I was then on a couple of very busy roads, including one that ran over the main railway line before going down this small ramp to the station Road.
This small footpath lead from the station into the adjacent neighbourhood which had some nice cycling infrastructure around the local school.
This road was quite busy and had no cycling infrastructure, but still had bus service, and the cars drivers were reasonably patient, although I was getting quite a lineup behind me at one point, so pulled over to let them pass.
Gasoline prices here are about 50% higher, but people still drive much smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, and drive less than in Canada.
I had to take this road very slowly. A driver came along while I was stopped to take this picture. I don’t often have to stop to take pictures, but the surface was so bumpy that I did. He had no English, and I have no Slovak, but he seemed to be inquiring if I was all right, and I was able to indicate that I was.
I accidentally turned into this property because I couldn’t see any other left as the navigation had just directed me. A woman came out of the building and indicated that I shouldn’t be there and was pointing to the right side of this picture. I wasn’t sure what she was pointing to, but it was clear she didn’t want me to continue so I turned around And looked on the other side of the fence to see this desire line through the woods.
That led to this rough puddle strewn road between two fields. Ride with GPS didn’t actually show a heat map for the route I chose through this area, but it did show pathways. I chose these pathways, rather than the parallel route, which showed a heat map of cyclist using it, to pick up a tile.
That gravel road led me to this muddy truck. At that point there was a locked gate to continue straight or I could have returned over a couple kilometres of rough surfaces, or I could proceed. I dismounted and walked the bike along the stubble on the left. Then the route directed me through this small gap in the weedy hedge.
Someone set up boards to cross the small creek. I stood for a while and contemplated whether to retrace my route, but it would’ve been a couple kilometres back along very poor surfaces, and then I might have missed the tile, continue forward along the muddy field edge I was on, but possibly not be able to cross the canal at the end – Google satellite was too pixelated for me to tell for sure, or go across those wooden boards.
In the end, I decided to go across the boards. I didn’t understand at first how I was supposed to do so. I started out by rolling the bike across the boards on the right and walking on the lower board on the left, but it quickly became clear that the lower board would not support my weight. So I lifted the bike down onto the lower board, and climbed up onto the top board and successfully crossed.
This is what I saw when I made it to the top.
I was very happy to get back to civilization.
However, it wasn’t long before I was riding along another rough, muddy path for a short distance.
Finally, I ended up on a good quality multi-use path running along the tracks.
I passed this interesting modern building, and this communist era circular shopping mall.
Then I rode a couple kilometres on this parking protected bike lane before using the elevator down to the pedestrian subway near the hotel to finish my journey. I got 10 new tiles, and the tile with the jury rigged bridge across the creek was possibly the most challenging one I’ve ever acquired, and that includes trespassing in a quarry in Halton region. The goal of collecting tiles is to ride in places you might not otherwise do so, and in that, it was a successful day.
I had a late lunch in the room while Michael took the tram home from work, then we went to a local coffee shopfor coffee and cheesecake. When I went to the bathroom, I wasn’t sure which door to use. I guessed the one on the right, which apparently was correct.
It was twilight by the time we left the coffee shop. I notice different things walking at night, than in the daytime. Here are a bunch of beautifully lit up shops.
The modern streetcars here reminded me of Toronto’s. They have a lovely collection of older street cars, as well, and it’s astonishing how long they have kept them in service.
The Christmas market opened last night. It was beautiful and well attended, but not overly crowded.
They have staffed recycling stations set up to ensure that waste is disposed of properly. And there are many municipal employees wandering around, sweeping and picking up litter and making sure that the area is spotless.
The food choices were overwhelming.
And so were the drink choices, including many alcoholic drinks. it is legal to drink in public here, and I haven’t seen any public drunkenness or bad behavior. When you purchase a drink, you pay two euros for a reusable cup which you can get refilled, and return for a refund when you’re done.
I’ve never seen balloons like these before, but I don’t generally go to festivals at home, so perhaps I’m just out of the loop.
Last week not many places had tables and chairs set out, but with the Christmas market in full swing, there seems to be an expectation of more customers, and even with the cool weather that people will sit outside.
I was very excited to notice that it would appear Bratislava has a critical mass ride. It’s the last Friday of the month and this group had gathered at 6:15, which is when we used to gather in Brampton when we ran a critical mass ride. Unfortunately, my bike was back at the hotel so I couldn’t join in.
This street is for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit only.
We met John and Fury for drink and Slovak pub food.
I was feeling tired so I left them to continue and caught the tram back to the hotel. You don’t have to look up a schedule to use public transit here. I arrived at the stop and there was a six minute wait, which is about a long as it gets. In the app on my phone I purchased a 30 minute two zone ticket for €0.97. I was back at the hotel much faster than I would have been if I had had to walk to a parking lot for the car, and then parked it again under the hotel.
No biking for the next couple days as Michael and I will be sightseeing together. It seems that most of the bike share bikes have been put away and there’s only one or two and some stations, and none and others. the weather looks like it will be wet over the weekend so will try to find things to do.
Today I decided to ride to the most visited sightseeing venue in all of Slovakia – Hrad (Castle) Devin. I decided to do a loop so that most of the route would be new to me, and I chose to do the climbing part at the beginning when my legs were fresh. Today was the first morning I woke feeling rested since I arrived here. It was a 45 km ride. I started out in the same direction as yesterday, but altered the route to pass the main rail station on the south side, rather than the north.
This meant I was travelling along busier roads, but it was slightly shorter, and the hills were longer, but less steep. There was no bike lane here but it felt comfortable riding in the bus lane and I was only passed by one bus.
The high today was forecast to be 8° and the sun was strong when I left.
After turning off the bus lane, I had to get to the road via the desire line where I got lost yesterday, but I did it flawlessly, today.I decided to ride up the spiral bridge which I saw yesterday, over the highway, just for the experience, and back down again, because I didn’t actually need to cross.
Most people in the older areas seem to park their cars outdoors here, but I do sometimes see these garages along laneways, but these ones don’t look like they’ve been used for quite a while.
As I continued to climb, there was a nice raised bi-directional cycle track for a short distance, which turned into a bike lane.
When there are islands here, rarely for right turn channels, but often to minimize the crossing distance for pedestrians, most of the island is at grade with only the edges raised. It seems to me if we use something like this at home they might not be such a disaster when we have large snowfalls.
Sometimes I’m surprised at where the routes, planned using heat maps of where people ride, take me. I end up in places that feel like they would be private property at home, but here they’re very small roads.
At this point I’m getting well out into the suburbs of Bratislava, but most of the housing is still quite dense. Here there are garden allotments under the hydro corridor, across the street from the apartment buildings. I see a lot of allotments here.
This single lane bridge under the rail line doesn’t have a traffic light but people managed to take turns without incident.
I’m still in Bratislava here, but it’s mostly rural with some built-up areas, and there is still bus service. There wasn’t a bike lane here, but there was a wide shoulder.
Volkswagen have a massive facility here and it is a bus terminus with what seems to be frequent service based on the number of buses I saw in the few minutes I was there.Across the street was a view of the other side of Kamzík from what I see from the hotel. It’s 13 km as the crow flies, and i rode 16km to get there. I’m thinking next week that I could take my bike on the bus to some of the outlying places that I have cycled to and start further out. I haven’t been getting going very early in the morning and sunset is just after four. Even moderate distance rides take me a long time here, between the hills, and the sightseeing.
The long distance rail here is electrified, as well as the streetcar network, and many of the bus lines. Society here is arranged in a much more energy efficient way than in Canada.
I’ve been seeing a lot of ivy geraniums still in bloom, but this is the best example I’ve seen.
This is the small town of Devínska Nová Ves. It is a borough of Bratislava. It lies on the banks of the Morava River, which forms the national border between Slovakia and Austria.I stopped here because I was curious about the bollards in the road. There was a sign off to the side, explaining in Slovak, which I used Google translate, and my camera to read in English, that cars are to stopped before the bollards so that the license plate can be read. Only license plates of registered residents will get a green light to proceed. No one else is allowed to drive down the road.
As I stood there, I noticed green paint in the distance and wondered what I was looking at so I continued down the road even though it wasn’t on my route. What I found was The Sobodný Cyklomosť, or The Freedom Biking Bridge, spanning the Slovak and Austrian banks of the Morava river and floodplain. It is 525 m long.
I didn’t know that as I rode across it, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself in Austria. So not only did I pick up an extra tile for the day, I also crossed an international frontier.
Here’s another overwhelming amount of wayfinding and places one can go on cycling infrastructure.
There Slovak side of the river was the former site of the Iron Curtain. There is still a bunker to show where the border was.
There are pictures showing what it looked like when the fence was up.The current cyclepath is the former military patrol route from which soldiers guarded the iron curtain. It was an exclusion zone for decades so the area along the river has retained much of its original habitat.
As I returned to my planned route, I passed Penny Coffee, and even though I had food with me, I decided to stop for a meal. I was the only patron, and it was a pleasant meal. Other than being too warm when I was riding uphill at the beginning of the ride, I found that I dressed appropriately and was comfortable all day. So I didn’t really need to go in somewhere to warm up, but it was pleasant nonetheless.
As I left town, I cycled along a cyclepath and it wasn’t long before I came to Castle Devin.
It is quite a remarkable sight to see it rising above the surrounding flat terrain. Local mountains Malé Karpaty and Hundsheimer Berge were created by a geological process called Orogenesis, which followed the collision of the African and Eurasian plates. Where the Morava and Danube rivers meet, there is an upwelling, crowned by the ruins of Devon Castle, along the fault, and water flowed through the resulting depressions, creating the rivers.
This monument is for all those who lost their lives under communism.
I stopped at the bottom of this hill to get my bearings, and wasn’t sure whether I was allowed to ride up so I walked my bike. This cyclist rode past me. He then tried to ride past the admission booth, while I stopped to leave my bike in the stand just inside the gate. The security guard came out, and I think he thought we were together, until he saw me locking my bike, and I went to the booth to pay. He said something to the other cyclist, who stopped, and then left.
It was 230pm when I arrived, and I could see the shadows lengthening. So I decided to quickly walk to the top and take in the views and then be on my way since I had 15 km to go back to the hotel. There was a basic route, and an extended one. I chose the basic. I didn’t go I side to see the exhibits.The views of the surrounding area were spectacular.
I couldn’t really visualize what this looked like when it wasn’t a ruin, but even as it stands now, 70 m above the surrounding land, it’s very impressive.
Here I am with the Morava River in the background.
Here is a panorama from the top.
Here I am climbing up the south side looking back at the north.
Here are some pictures that I took with our point, and shoot camera which has a long zoom lens. There were six tiles in the middle of the loop that I didn’t get, if I were at home, I would have tried to include on the route, but they were all mountainous, and would have involved riding up steep streets, or even using hiking trails.
The castle was built starting in the 13th century. In 1809 it was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops. It was declared a national historic landmark in 1961.
The light was beautiful as I continued along the river pathway.
The pathway turned into a bike lane. The traffic was steady, but not overly fast, but with the failing light, I was glad to have my flashing rear red light.
The warm light of the setting sun caught my eye at this quarry.
As I got closer to the center, the bike lane gave way to a multiuse path.
There was a park adjacent to the path with a nice covered sitting area and bike repair area. It is called the Waterpark, and there is a waterworks museum, there, and various sewer pipes placed around the garden. I’ll keep it in mind for a rainy day.
This was near a recreational boating centre on the river.
They really don’t fool around with pedestrian infrastructure over busy roads here. This one even has an elevator.
Now I’m cycling along the Danube river path. It’s a beautiful wide path with plenty of room for cycling and walking and working out.
A lot of modern new buildings are being built along the path, and this one is quite interesting in the way that it juts out over the water.
The sculpture is entitled Mythical Ship by Czech, Jaroslav Rona, “which pays homage to our magnificent river and the city that grew under the influence of diverse cultures. The statue depicts a rudder man navigating dangerous currents, while the woman represents precious cargo – a noble and beautiful queen/mother figure who embodies new life, hope and future. The dog symbolises mans’ eternal companion and protector”.
There are many ships used for entertainment, moored along the riverbanks, as well as riverboat cruises that stop in Bratislava. The UFO bridge is in the background here.
At this point rather than share the path with pedestrians, I got out on this beautifully wide bike lane.
Michael had a work event this evening so I just came back to the room to relax, look at pictures, write the blog, and figure out what to do tomorrow. I went to the food fair in the attached mall and brought back a rice bowl for dinner.
