Bratislava – Day 10 – And Prague

Prague is utterly overwhelming, in terms of the amount of history here, building after building, street after street, neighbourhood after neighbourhood chock-full of incredible buildings. And it’s absolutely slammed with tourists. I do not remember when I was last in such crowded conditions. In some ways, it feels like a theme park.

We started the day at the Café Melvin just down the street from our hotel. It had a beautiful old interior, but it was a lovely morning and we enjoy eating outdoors so we ate on the wide sidewalk out front. One of the items on the breakfast menu was “Hemenex”. Try saying it out loud. “Ham and eggs” 😂

We are right at the top of a steep hill. We walked down this morning to the Charles bridge, about 2km. Along the way, I was constantly stopping to take pictures. It can be difficult to take pictures because the buildings are tall and often quite close together. Prague does not feel like a city that has had a war on cars, yet. They seem to be littered all over the place, except in the main Square and a few streets around there. However, they did mostly seem to be parked, and when they were driving, they had to be very careful because of the cobbled, and narrow streets.

Here are a very few of the pictures that I took before we were arrived at Saint Nicholas‘s Church.

The church looks quite plain on the outside, and is attached to other buildings on the left, but is quite incredible inside. They charged an admission fee of 100 Czech crowns, which is about $6.50. It was worth it. When I visit large churches, I always want to go to the upper levels, but they are rarely open. It was a treat to be able to climb up to the second level in the Saint Nicholas today.

The Charles bridge is the most beautiful bridge in Prague and spans the Vltava. We walked from west to east along the bridge. It’s construction began in 1357 when King Charles IV was on the throne and finished in the early 15th century. It was the only bridge crossing the river until 1841. It is 516 m long and nearly 10 m wide. It has three bridge towers and is decorated by 30 statues originally erected about 1700, but now almost of all have been replaced by replicas.

This is a view of the south bank on the west side.

On the east side this pier is covered with large building sticks out into the river.

This is Charles IV.

This is looking back west across the river through a fence covered in love locks.

We found Google Maps Live View very helpful in getting around.

This sign made me laugh. Fortunately, we both wanted to do the same thing today, so I didn’t need to leave my husband there.

This was an amazing square, on the way to the main square.

This is the astronomical clock. It is on the old town hall, and was first installed in 1410, making it the third oldest astronomical clock in the world, and the oldest clock still in operation

As we walked down the hill from breakfast, the crowds were growing, but once we got to the main square it actually became difficult to move around all the people including bike tour groups, which seemed like a really bad idea, given how crowded it was, and how rough the cobbled roads and squares are.

This is Church of Our Lady before Týn. We didn’t go in, but plan to return. Cindy wants us to look for the grave of Tycho Brahe, the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope, when we are there.

Here are a couple more photos of the main square. The panorama gives you an idea of the scale of it although it does flatten it out a bit.

We ran into the same bike tour group again on our way to Wenceslas square.

This was a beautiful arcade that we came across.

There are so many street car routes here and they travel so frequently. Apparently Prague has one of the biggest street car fleets in the world. It has 882 trams and 26 daytime routes.

This beautiful square is Wenceslas Square, of the Christmas Carol, known locally as Václavské náměstí.

This is the national Museum of History.

This is the view of Wenceslas Square from the national Museum of History. There were large crowds here, but these people didn’t seem like tourists, and we’re waving check flags. There was also a heavy police presence. I learned this evening when I googled what was going on there today, that thousands gathered to call on the government to resign over high inflation and the rising cost of living, about 45 minutes after I took this picture.

This was the first cycling infrastructure I’ve seen on the road here. I don’t think I would like to ride here. Where there aren’t a lot of cars there are a lot of cobbles, so it would be very rough. And most of the infrastructure is just paint, mostly sharrows, and a few bike lanes that seem to start and stop randomly.

We had lunch at a Korean restaurant near the train station, where we arrived yesterday.

One of the things I’ve long wanted to see in Prague is the dancing house by Frank Ghery.

From there we walked along the river bank and then onto Slovensky Island, where we saw this interesting statue cradling bag pipes. It’s known as The Harmony.

The WeWork location was in a fascinating building, but almost completely empty.

Next, we went to a monument of Velvet Revolution, which was a nonviolent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1989 from a one party government to a parliamentary republic.

Our final stop for taking the tram back to the hotel was the kinetic sculpture of Franz Kafka, an author based in Prague. The head stops at the perfect spot twice an hour for 15 minutes, then resumes rotations which last 15 minutes.

Our friend Victoria suggested installing the app AtlasObscura. I have followed them on Twitter for years, and Alun gave me the book one year for Christmas, but I didn’t realize there was an app. It has proven quite useful, and if you allow it to know your location. It will send you notifications when you’re near something of interest. It is crowd sourced, and one can also contribute to it. I already have a couple of things we’ve come across that I think would be good entries that they don’t have. There are also no entries for Brampton so I think when I return home, I will try to submit a few things.

The street car was standing room only for the first several stops. Here we are ascending the hill to the hotel.

Around the bend, the ascent continues.

We had great burgers at this restaurant tonight.

The city has recently converted a disused tram loop and foot bridge into a restaurant and gathering area. There was a great view from the foot bridge to the tram, was running up and down the street that runs past our hotel.

We walked over 14 km today.

Bratislava- Day 9 – And Prague

Last night I decided to leave the packing until this morning and to get up at 7:30. That would give me ample time for breakfast, packing, and relaxing, as our train wasn’t scheduled to leave the main railway station, Bratislava hlavná stanica, until 12:06. It is a short walk, to a short bus ride, to get to the train station. Unfortunately, the morning wasn’t a relaxing one for Michael, as he finds travel stressful, and frets about all the things that could go wrong.

We left the hotel just after 11. About half an hour after the train was due to depart the information board announced a 20 minute delay. That delay stretched to 35 minutes by the time the train arrived. Fortunately, it was a very pleasant morning, and we found a bench outside the station on which we could sit to wait. Bratislava has a very utilitarian train station. The most notable thing in it is a mural which contains many of the hallmarks of socialist thought. I came across a very thorough explanation here.

I haven’t been wearing a mask other than on the airplane, because I had Covid for the first two weeks of April, and I think I probably can’t catch it right now, but Michael is still being careful in enclosed spaces, and the ventilation on the train was not great.

We booked first class tickets which cost €160 for both of us, return, for the 340 km journey.

To compare, when Owen and I went to Montreal last year in the lowest of ViaRail’s five categories, I paid $420 for the two of us, return, for a 525 km long journey. The level of service in first class here is similar to what we received on ViaRail, with the exception that we have been provided with free bottled water, today, and the seats are wider as there are only three across. Also, the carriage seems much quieter. Regional trail here is electric. The food onboard here is much more reasonably priced than on ViaRail. Soup and bread for Michael, and a sandwich, and latte for me, was under €10.

When I walked through the train to the other carriages, they looked less comfortable, and were quite a bit noisier.

The first large place that we travelled through was Brno, Czech Republic, which we had planned to visit next weekend, however, I won’t be getting the borrowed bike until midday, Tuesday, and there is still so much to see in Bratislava and the surrounding area, that we decided to cancel our reservations, and stay local. So all we will see of Brno on this trip is what we saw from the train today. It did look like an interesting city.

There is a screen that shows how fast we are travelling. The highest I’ve seen it show is 159 km/h. On our train trip to Ottawa in 2017 I recall the fastest we went was 153 km/h as measured by Strava.

The train was mostly travelling between berms so there are only a couple spots where I was able to get a photograph of the view.

We arrived in Prague 40 minutes later than scheduled. It was an impressively large station.

We purchased 72 hour public transit passes for about $20 each, and rode two trams to our hotel, which is up a steep hill similar to climbing the escarpment in Hamilton, just below Prague castle. The tram ride was interesting for the steepness of the climb and a tight turn that challenged the people who were standing. The Czech Republic used crowns not euros. Google maps really reduces the stress of navigation around unfamiliar places, especially when the “live view” function is available.

It was only 300 m from where the tram dropped us off, to the hotel. We checked in and unpacked our few items, and then went down to the hotel restaurant as an easy option when it was already getting late.

I think it was the waitress’s first day. I ordered a G&T and she forgot to bring the gin. When we told her she brought back a large glass which had so much in it that I thought they had already poured the tonic at the bar. It was very strong, but it was only when I started feeling a buzz I realized it was just gin over ice. In my defence I was trying to finish yesterday’s blog and I don’t drink very often.

Next she brought my food, and then I asked Michael if he would like the same as I had, forgetting that he had ordered a steak. So I had to go ahead and eat my meal while it was hot while his was being cooked. At that point, another waitress took over and brought over a bowl of nuts for Michael as an apology.

The food was excellent, but the portions were small, so we ordered raspberries and ice cream for dessert. It was also a very expensive meal. We’ll find somewhere other than a hotel to eat the next couple nights. The breakfast isn’t included in the price here, like it is a Bratislava, so we will also be looking elsewhere for that. It is high tourist season here and a holiday weekend.

We took a short walk after dinner, and I’ll leave you with a few of the twilight scenes that we saw.

Finally I want to mention, in case someone reading does realize it, that if you click on the small images when they are grouped into a gallery, it will expand them somewhat. I do resize the images to be quite a but smaller than they are as taken to reduce upload time and save on storage.

Bratislava – Day 8

The day started beautifully, warm and sunny with a temperature of 14° rising to 20° this afternoon. I was able to sit on the terrace for breakfast, and the espresso beverage machine was working again.

I decided to use bike share to explore the city today, stopping when something looked of interest to me. I planned a route to the east, crossing the Danube twice, and trying another bridge. I leaned last night that there are six bridges, the sixth built since my guide book was written. I had originally planned to ride to Vienna today, but it would be too far on bike share, and since we are going to Prague for three nights tomorrow morning I felt it might be a bit much to go to Vienna for the day, even on the train.

I planned a route on Ride with GPS, and checked it on Statshunters, to see what new tiles I could collect. It turned out the route was missing one in the centre of the 20 km route, so I added a short down and back to grab it. Planning it this way is a useful to ensure I’m riding in new places. Today’s route took me out of the touristy areas.

I have noted in previous posts that motor vehicle traffic is much lighter here, and I was curious how transport mode share broke out. I found the mode share for 2015 , which is the latest I can find is:

Car 37.7 %

Public transport 32.6 %

Walking 26.7

Biking 1.6%

Brampton’s car use was 67% in 2016. And Brampton’s target for 2041 is to have 58% of the population using carpooling, public transit, walking or cycling as their main mode of transportation which is less than Bratislava was eight years ago. This is depressing for those of us who recognize the need to live more sustainable communities to address the climate emergency. The population here is 440k.

No wonder it feels much more comfortable on the roads here as a cyclist.

We have decided to take the bus to the train station tomorrow, so Michael asked me to find the nearest stop to our hotel this morning. The pedestrian subway has many different shops, and provides access to all four corners of the large intersection near our hotel. Once I came up on the correct corner, it was immediately apparent where we would catch the bus to the station. The subway is accessible due to including escalators and elevators , as well as stairs.

I then went back down and came up on the corner that has the bike share stand, and there were two bikes available this morning.

About a kilometre later I spotted this incredible tree across the street from where I was riding. I crossed the street to take pictures. The flowers look like a foxglove, but I had never seen them on a tree before. As I was photographing it a man stopped and told me that it was a very special tree, that he didn’t know what it was, but it was the only one he was aware of in the area.

When I got back to the hotel, I was able to use Google lens on the image once it had uploaded, and learned that it is a jacaranda tree. One of the common names for it is foxglove tree.

On this street the tram runs in a grassy area in the centre of the road and there are wide multi use paths on both sides of the road for cyclists and pedestrians.

I found a hammock, but it wasn’t very comfortable.

On the monthly bike share pass I am required to dock every 30 minutes or be subject to overage charges. The third time I docked I was unable unlock it again. I wasn’t sure why, but thought maybe there was a limit to the number of times I could take out the same bike, or the number times I could take out a bike within a certain period. I attempted several times and failed, so I decided to walk to the next bike share station, about a 13 minutes away.

Whenever things go wrong for me when I’m travelling like this, I keep myself calm by saying: oh well, at least it will be a good story for the blog tonight. It’s all part of the adventure.

The walk to the next bike share station took me off my planned cycling route and I saw several things that I would otherwise would have missed.

There were very few roads in this neighbourhood with lots of green space, and most of the residential units in mid rise buildings. In place of roads were wide pathways like this one. There were cars lining most of the streets, but I saw very few cars actually being driven. It was extremely quiet without motor vehicle noise. All I could hear was birdsong and happy children. Experiences like this make me think that anyone who opposes denser development, and reduction in motor vehicle development, has probably never been outside of an auto dependent city. I also see many more people with disabilities moving around independently here, than at home.

When I got to the next bike share stand, I still couldn’t get the bike to unlock. I turned around and spotted an ice cream stand so I decided to treat myself as I had forgotten to pack my snacks this morning.

After getting my ice cream, I phoned the help number for the bike share and encountered someone who spoke even less English than the last time I called, but whose English was, of course, much better than my nonexistent Slovak. However, we managed to communicate, and she couldn’t see a block on my account. I tried to unlock a bike again while she was on the line, and the miracle of asking for help caused it to work, I guess. The rest of the day my returns and rentals worked so I think it might have just been user error.

Once back on the bike, it didn’t take long to get back onto my planned route. Under this clean and well lit highway, I initially thought that the stripe down the centre of the road was the brightest road paint I had ever seen, until I realized there was a small gap between the two directions of the highway above me, and, it was the sun is shining through.

I rode through a neighbourhood of small single-family homes, and then a very large open field lined by large allotment gardens.

Many of the intersections have these mirrors for a better view before turning the corner.

I rode around both sides of a very large park. On the north side I was on the road where for more than a kilometre only one car passed me, and on the south side, where there was an excellent multiuse path.

I spotted this lovely Active Transportation bridge that goes over a tributary of the Danube called the Little Danube and a bike share station. When I docked, I had gone slightly over my 30 minutes and was charged an additional €0.12.

From this point until the harbour I was on dedicated Active Transportation infrastructure along with the Little Danube.

That infrastructure continued through the harbour area.

I came off the path in the centre of the picture, and there was a yield sign to the main path.

Like the other four bridges that I have crossed this has Active Transportation infrastructure on both sides, including ramps for cyclists to ride up, and stairs for pedestrians. This ramp was lovely to ride up with the trees surrounding it.

These were the views from the bridge and along the path.

This bridge has an upper level for motor vehicle traffic, and a lower level for trains and Active Transportation.

I used the telephoto lens on the point-and-shoot camera to get a picture of two bridges of the four other bridges I’ve been across – the Apollo, and the UFO bridge.

This is the view under the bridge.

I rode along the Danube Cyclepath to the Apollo bridge, and this time used the east side. This time I didn’t encounter an obstruction that caused me to ride on the roadway, but there was construction at the bottom that forced me to ride east out of my way before I could ride back west.

Once again, I was delighted by the views.

In this picture, you can see the spiral ramp back down to street level.

I found a bike share station next to a garage station with this very interesting canopy.

I passed another beautifully coloured playground.

We walked on this street the other night past the Apollo hotel. Bratislava is in the midst of a program to make more complete streets. A complete street is one that includes separate infrastructure for each mode of travel.They are also reducing the amount of street parking.

I returned the bike, and went to the hotel to change, and eat my snacks, and realized that I had forgotten to remove the do not disturb card from the door. So I finished quickly and then went out to a coffee shop that we saw last night in the same complex where we ate dinner. I let reception know, on the way out, that we still needed housekeeping.

The café was delightful. The atmosphere, the food, and the music. I Shazamed four songs while I sat there.

The hotel has a bar called The Outlook on the 13th floor. It was a beautiful, bright clear day, so we went up to have a drink when Michael returned from work. It was my first time up there, and I was flabbergasted by the view. Michael had been there once before years ago. The drinks were about three times the price elsewhere. They are definitely charging for the view.

We had dinner at a pulled pork restaurant, in a shipping container, that I noticed when I was looking for the bus stop this morning.

Then we went for a walk around a dense, transit , cycling, and walking oriented neighborhood. The main floors of the buildings are commercial units, the parking is underground, and the green space is imaginatively designed.

As I stood taking pictures of this street art four trams passed within two minutes. We haven’t looked at a schedule here. We just walk to the stop and never have to wait more than a couple minutes. It’s so convenient having frequent transit and a comprehensive network.

The old railway station and 10 track corridor are between this new neighbourhood, and our hotel. It want been decided what will happen but some sort of rail is one of the possibilities.

It was a short walk back to the hotel, and I decided to leave the writing of the blog for the train trip to Prague tomorrow, which will take approximately 5 1/2 hours door to door. It will involve walking, bus, regional rail, and trams. Packing was relatively simple. We are taking Michael’s wheelie airplane, carry-on, and a backpack each. Michael didn’t want the hassle of packing everything else up and putting it in storage, so we didn’t check out of the room; he just let them know that they shouldn’t charge us for an extra person in the room, or Michael’s breakfast or room cleaning while we are gone.

Bratislava- Day 7 – And Austria

It rained overnight which meant that the furniture on the terrace was wet, so I had breakfast inside. And, all of the espresso beverage machines were out of order this morning. So I had to have brewed coffee. But these are very minor complaints. I was surprised that espresso beverages were included in the breakfast buffet. It was another lovely spring day with temperatures between 13 and 16° and a mix of sun and cloud.

The bike share here has six separate plans, including one for tourists priced at €6 with up to 12 hours of riding in 24, with no requirement to return the bike every 30 minutes to prevent overage charges. I was expecting to get my borrowed bike last night or this morning so I purchased a day pass for the bike share yesterday.

I learned last night that the bike that I will be borrowing won’t be available to me until next week because the bike shops here are very busy with spring service, and Milan wanted to have it serviced before lending it to me. So last night I purchased a monthly pass which is priced at €9, but requires the bike to be docked every 30 minutes, or be subject to overage charges. But the overage charges aren’t very onerous at €0.12 for six minutes.

I rode to two small towns in Austria today, and over another one of Bratislava‘s five bridges. It was 31 km, which is a lot to do on a bike share bike with its weight and only three gears, and I did 24 km yesterday. I had to push it up, one short steep hill yesterday, and one today. It’s quite fun to ride on descents, or with a tailwind, with the momentum you pick up.

The nearest bike share stand was empty again so it was a five minute walk to the next one, which had one bike.

I love the look of this building with all the plants inside the windows.

I don’t find the lack of cycling infrastructure on the city streets to be a problem, because, even on weekdays, traffic is light, and relatively slow moving compared to Canadian cities.

This is the continuation of the Old Bridge to the south. I waved at Michael’s office building on the right as I went by.

Petruzelka on the south side of the Danube is part of Bratislava, but has a very different feel. The buildings are all communist, era buildings or newer, and there’s a more open suburban feel to it.

Even there, though, the roads were quite lightly travelled with private motor vehicles.

As I got closer to the Austrian border, it became more industrial, but there was cycling infrastructure. There was a bus stop only a few hundred metres from the border crossing.

Both Austria and Slovakia are in the EU, so the border is marked, but unprotected.

In addition to the architecture, which was quite different from both old Bratislava, and Petruzelka, I could tell I was back in Austria because of the windmills.

I was pleased to see the sign for the Iron Curtain Trail. I read an amusing book by Tim Moore in which he detailed his trip on a Soviet era bicycle, riding the Iron Curtain Trail, from the north of Finland to the Black Sea. It is EuroVelo Trail 13. I saw signs for other EuroVelo Trails today, as well.

The trail was lovely, and very lightly traveled.

I received a flurry of messages from my SIM card provider after crossing over to Austria, all in Slovak, so I had no idea what they were saying, and was concerned it might be warning me I was roaming and incurring additional charges, or something. But I was able to copy the text into Google translate and find out that it was just telling me that I was able to continue to use their service, even though I was in Austria. It really is quite amazing all the information at our fingertips when we’re connected to the Internet which makes travel easier.

I stopped for coffee in Kittsee. It was very small village with not much to see. As I was leaving Kittsee I encountered the most incredible smell of chocolate just before seeing the Scokolade ab Werk with a chocolate shop and a tour bus pulled out up outside.

I like the signs when you are leaving villages.

There were many rest stops very close together along the trail.

I walked down the driveway of the nursery to take this picture.

The sign in this picture says: no entry, excluding residents, agricultural vehicles and cyclists. I only saw one other cyclist, and one resident in a car travelling slowly.

This shelter was well equipped with tools, maps, and vending machine.

I did an out and back to the commercial section of Berg which was even smaller than Kittsee.

This looks like a new subdivision. One of the houses had a green roof. I encountered no cars.

When discussing my plans to ride to Vienna and take the train back with one of Michael’s colleagues, who is a cyclist, he suggested that I should do it the other way around because of the prevailing winds. Based on my ride into the north wind today on the back way back from Berg, Austria, I think he’s right.

There were views of the Hrad in the distance from many places in Austria.

There are no cycling directions available here, on Google maps, or the map layer I usually use in Ride with GPS. There are some in Open Street Maps which are crowd sourced, so when I planned my ride on Ride with GPS I had to switch between biking, driving, and walking modes, so I thought I might be in trouble when I saw this.

Fortunately, I had simply forgotten to turn. I received the instruction, but then saw a place to sit and snack, and then continued straight when I finished.

So I checked my route and backtracked a bit and then found where the cycle path crossed the highway. I am re-entering Slovakia, here.

Had I turned the other direction I could have gone to Vienna, all on bike paths, which I hope to do next week.

This bunker is on the Iron Curtain Trail and was never used because before the fortifications were finished, the Germans invaded, and the bunker was captured.

They have a bicycle highway beside the car highway.

They needed both sides of this sign post to affix all the routes available from this point.

They do not mess around when they’re building cycling infrastructure on their bridges. There are ramps up to pathways for pedestrians and cyclists on both sides under the Lanfranconi Bridge, which was built between from 1985 to 1991, and is 760 m long.

The intersection you see below is for bikes and pedestrians only.

I’m about half way across the Danube.

From here you can see the north Danube Cyclepath, and the UFO bridge in the distance.

I’ve seen a lot of these workout stations around the city.

This is looking back out the Lanfranconi bridge.

We saw this mid rise building from the Hrad a couple days ago, and from that viewpoint, it looks like a ship.

I spotted my first bike share station, since crossing back into Bratislava, and almost returned the bike momentarily to start another free 30 minutes, but then decided I might not be able to get it out again if I did. When I purchased the monthly account, I couldn’t figure out how to add a credit for overage and only €0.60 was provided as part of the initial payment for the pass. When I returned the bike outside the hotel, I owed €3.24.

I was quite tired at this point so I grabbed a takeout latte and cookie at a coffee shop in the subway under the large intersection where the transit stop is, which allows pedestrians to cross the road and access transit without conflict with motor vehicles.

Then I had a rest in the room and reviewed my pictures and started writing the blog.

When Michael finished work, he suggested that I grab the bike share and come and meet him. I forgot that I owed the money. When I tried to scan the bike out, it wouldn’t let me and I couldn’t figure out how to top up the payment so I bought a tram ticket and we met in the old city. I like the mix of old and new buildings.

We walked for a while and looked at restaurants, but nothing was grabbing me so we got the tram back out to near where we’re staying, and went to a restaurant that he recommended that makes good burgers. I had schnitzel and really enjoyed that.

Unfortunately, there is a lot more smoking here, than at home. It’s allowed on restaurant patios, and I can often smell it on people, as well.

After that, we walked back to the hotel now I have to figure out what to do tomorrow. What a luxury.

Bratislava – Day 6

Michael was very quiet getting ready and leaving for breakfast, so I didn’t hear a thing. I was aware of him coming back to finish up in the room before heading to work, but only momentarily and I fell back to sleep.

I had breakfast on my own on the terrace. It was lovely with the temperature already in the mid-teens.

I spent a few minutes orienting myself with a paper tourist map this morning and headed to the nearest bike share station.

I have a different phone number here, due to buying a local SIM and plan, and no roaming data from Canada, so I couldn’t purchase bike share, because I couldn’t get the text or voice call from MasterCard to confirm the purchase. Fortunately, I was getting it set up last night when Michael was around, and not this morning. Michael had to use his credit card because his phone has two SIM slots, and some roaming from Canada on his Canadian number. If I had been on my own, I would have had to put my Canadian SIM back in the phone, and go online to purchase roaming data, just so I could receive a text to confirm a purchase. This is because MasterCard hasn’t given the option of confirming the purchase via email, or simply foregoing the confirmation, as is done on purchases at restaurants. I had the same issue with the 72 hour transit pass. It was. inconvenient and I’ll be having a word with MasterCard when I get home about how they expect me to handle this type of thing when I travel.

The bike share stand closest to the hotel was empty. The app tells me there are three bikes at the next closest bike stand in the direction that I want to go, a nine minute walk away, and provides me with navigation to get there.

Success. I’ve now done bike share in four cities.

The street I had to use to get to the train station had no cycling infrastructure, and is a busy street for Bratislava, but not for someone comfortable riding in Brampton.

The really expensive infrastructure here like bridges, have phenomenal cycling infrastructure, and the Danube Cyclepath is terrific, but it’s quite poor otherwise. Even where there are bike lanes they’re often quite narrow and stop unexpectedly. There’s a lot of sharrows. And there’s mostly no cycling infrastructure. And because there’s so many tram lines here wants to be very careful of the tracks.

I scouted the train station this morning so that it will be fast on Thursday when I go to Vienna. It’s a good thing I scouted this. I turned right one street to soon and ended up going around the back of the station and up a giant hill (or at least it felt giant on the bike share bike, which is the heaviest bike share bike I’ve ever been on. Solid, eastern European engineering, I guess), and about half a kilometre before I realized I was not getting to the station.

But if I haven’t taken a wrong turn, I would’ve missed this hotel.

I’m not gonna get the heavy bike up the stairs to the station.

So back out to the main road and then right onto the station access road. Weirdly just past the green paint was a No Bikes sign. So I got off the road, but there was no need and next time I’ll stay on the road.

Success.

I took a different route away from the station to see something different. I’m already getting a mental map of this place and haven’t planned a route for today. I just have in my mind what I want to see and I am riding to where I think it is and I’ve been successful so far.

This 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.

I wanted to lock up the bike so I could walk around the pyramid, but I realized that I had a problem. The lock goes with the bike. When it’s locked around the bike share stand, the lock goes onto the left side of the front axle. When you’re riding, it’s supposed to rest on a stand on the right side. I had locked it to the left side.

I messaged Michael to find out if anybody at the office knew what I should do. Then I continued riding.

He messaged back that no one did. I sent an email to the bike share company, but after half an hour had heard nothing back. So I tried phoning, which in itself is a challenge because it turns out you have to put a plus sign before the phone number and I couldn’t even figure out how to get the + 🙄, but Michael helped via Facebook messenger. I got a recording, which was in Slovak and just waited until it timed out and someone answered. I asked if they spoke English, and the reply was only a little. In the end, she changed the status of my bike so that it appeared to be returned, and allowed me to take out another bike, and sent maintenance to lock it up the first one. This picture shows the correct placement.

Problem solved I headed for Zaha Hadid’s Sky Park.

Hadid is what is known in the business as a starchitect. She has designed curvy buildings all over the world. It was great to see some up close. It’s in large area of dense new development, and is walkable and bikeable, and all the roads make the cars feel like they are visitors even around the large shopping centre Eurovia which had no surface parking.

After exploring there I decided to ride across the Apollo bridge. I found the bike approach, but it was fenced off after one block wth a by teach you were sign posted. I thought of the detour and and ended up back near the shopping center. So I went back out onto the road and use the motor vehicle lanes, and ignored the no bikes permitted sign. Once I got about a quarter of the way across the bridge there was a gap in the railing between the motor vehicle lanes and the bike lane at a bus stop and I was able to get into the bike lanes for the rest of the Crossing. With the exception of the temporary detour, it is excellent infrastructure.

The cycling infrastructure went down to the Danube bike path on the south side of the river. I rode along there to the Old Bridge for active, transportation, and trams, only.

Just under that bridge is a bar that has an old street car outside it, and a hemisphere made out of bike wheels. I spotted it Friday from the bridge when we went into the office and planned to come back.

At this point, I started feeling hungry and headed back to Eurovia to use the bathroom and have lunch.

Adjacent to the mall is a huge pedestrian area and patio area and then the Danube, Cyclepath and the river.

I had a good lunch in a lovely setting. There are many mid rise residential building attached to, and surrounding, the mall.

I continued along the Danube Cyclepath after lunch past floating restaurants and clubs to the UFO bridge, which was, until 2000, the longest cable stayed bridge that has one pylon and one cable stayed span. It has a flying saucer, shaped object, housing a restaurant, bar, and lookout platform.

These ramps are for accessing the cycling and pedestrian platforms that are hung beneath the road.

I decided to return to the hotel. I only referred to a map once today, and once I decided to return set off in the direction which felt right. At one point as I passed a side street, I noticed our hotel and stacked office tower in the distance, but it was too late to turn. I turned on the next street, and, given that it’s one of the tallest buildings in the area, was able to navigate towards it by catching glimpses of it.

I recognize these old tracks that I crossed and train station from pictures that Michael has shared in the past.

The bike share station is on this corner. It was the hearts on top of the tower that I was navigating toward. The hotel is to the right.

When Michael got back from work, we relaxed for a while and then walked to a different part of town for dinner.

Many of the bus is here front on catenary wires like the trams.

We passed a mostly closed market on the way to the restaurant.

We took a walk after dinner, and Michael showed me this appealing restaurant, which has changed hands since he ate there.

He also showed me this lovely tree lined bike path. I’ll have to give it a try tomorrow.

Finally, we had a look at the Apollo hotel which was apparently a favourite of the Soviets when they would come to visit Bratislava.

Bratislava – Day 5

It was another beautiful day today in Bratislava, but a bit cool to eat breakfast on the terrace.

We decided to start the day at The Slavin, a memorial monument and military cemetery, which is the burial ground of thousands of Soviet army soldiers, who fell liberating western Slovakia in April 1945.

We took the tram a few stops because our 72 hour pass was still valid, and I wanted to reserve my energy for walking new areas. Just after alighting, we saw another one of Bratislava’s famous statues.

Next we headed for the Presidential Palace.

While standing at an intersection, waiting to cross I did a panoramic shot and caught this distorted version of a streetcar which amused me greatly.

Bratislava has an incredible mix of architecture and many beautiful older apartment buildings.

The Slavin is on the top of a hill and the streets are so steep that the sidewalks are stairs.

This neighbourhood is a very odd mixture of ambassadors’ residences, the homes of wealthy people, and abandoned homes.

There are often staircases between streets, which is faster for pedestrians, and often easier, then walking up the steep roads.

Once we got almost to the top of the hill we were greeted with this relief on a staircase that took us up to the memorial.

The soldier on the top of the memorial is sculpted stepping on a swastika.

This is the Chinese ambassador’s residence.

This is the American ambassador’s residence, and unsurprisingly, the most fortified of all of the residences on the hill. It looks like a mini White House.

Here are some examples of crumbling buildings, sometimes next to, and even attached to, crumbling ones.

We used these stairs on our way down from the Slavin. Again, very run down on the way to a very popular tourist destination, and in this case, in a wealthy neighbourhood.

We had lunch at this restaurant. We seem to have cracked the code for getting tapwater and not having to pay for a bottle – ask for a jug of draft water and a glass. Michael has been asking in Slovak, but there still seems to be a fair bit of discussion. I said I can just show this picture when I’m out on my own.

Michael, and Andrej, have told me I must try Bryndzové halušky, traditional Slovak sheep cheese gnocchi, with crispy bacon, spring onion and chives. I’m not a big fan of gnocchi, but tried it for lunch today. All I can say is that I’ve now tried it.

After lunch, we visited the gardens behind the Presidential Palace and had coffee.

A lot of restaurants have blankets available for people to use when sitting outside in cooler weather.

There was a very impressive bathroom in the Gardens of the Presidential Palace, but it cost €0.50 each to use.

I saw this wonderful bike on our way to the Blue Church, one of Bratislava’s most famous sites.

This wide street is for pedestrians and cyclists only.

Ján Kuciak was a Slovak investigative journalist who worked as a reporter and focused mainly on investigating the tax fraud of several businessmen with connections to top-level Slovak politicians. He and his fiancée were shot dead in February 2018 in their home in Veľká Mača. This sparked protests and led to the fall of The Prime Minister and cabinet.

This is the Square of the Slovak National Uprising. In 1974, the sculpture of a partisan and two women was unveiled at the 30th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising. It is the main place in the city for demonstrations. The revolutionary demonstrations took place here in November 1989. In 2018 even more people protested here after the murder Ján Kuciak.

This is the church of Saint Elisabeth, popularly known as of the Blue Church. It is consecrated to Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a princess in the kingdom of Hungary. She was married at the age of 14 and widowed at 20. After being widowed she regained her dowry and used the money to build a hospital where she worked. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death at the age of 24.

After visiting the church, we decided to head back to the hotel on the tram. We had to purchase a ticket because our 72 hour pass had expired. One purchases a ticket by a combination of zones and riding time here.

We had dinner at Klubovňa, 50 steps from the hotel lobby, again. Dessert was good. And I made use of the provided blanket to stay comfortable on the patio.

It was twilight when we returned. Michael goes to work tomorrow and I will get around by bike share. This is the busy street in front of the hotel, but cars are required to stop for pedestrians. They have to drive up a ramp and proceed slowly through the pointed stones narrowing the roadway. It seems to work well.

Bratislava – Day 4

We awoke to a bright, but cool day. Despite the temperature, it was lovely on the patio so we ate breakfast outside.

The hotel is shaped as a triangle with an atrium that goes down to the fourth floor.

The last couple days I saw this mirror sculpture from the tram, near the Justice Palace. Today we walked to it.

The Justice Palace (Justičný palác) is 86 years old and holds the courts and can house 740 prisoners. Death penalties used to be carried out in its rear yard.

We continued our walk to the Medical Garden (Medická záhrada). The Medical Garden was originally part of a Baroque palace complex built in 1770 called The Aspermont Summer Palace, which is preserved to this day, and serves as the seat of the dean’s office of the Medical Faculty of Comenius University. The building is quite run down, but the French formal gardens are lovely, and contain many walkways, benches, large trees, a playground, and coffee shop.

As we approached this bench, I thought it odd that someone had left pillows there, but it is a piece of art, and they are made out of stone.

There was a florist in a container just outside the garden adjacent to the cemetery.

As we were leaving the garden, I realized that my phone battery was nearly dead. It turns out the charger I bought last night wasn’t sufficient to charge my phone and iPad, even overnight.

So we took the tram back to the hotel and got my portable battery packs. Then we headed to to the Old Square to Michael’s favourite coffee shop to visit on a Sunday morning. They have amazing hot chocolate made with melted chocolate and cream.

Next, we decided to head for the castle (Hrad). We passed a bar with lots of funny things written on the chairs and tables.

We had to walk up a narrow cobbled street, and climb some stairs, and then we emerged at the last remaining section of the city walls.

Then we crossed the highway on a pedestrian bridge, climbed another flight of stairs, and continued walking up another steep cobbled street. The sidewalk was made of long steps.

Someone is building a new home just outside the castle with a double car garage on the road on the right.

This is a monument to Alexander Dubček who was a Slovak politician who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) from January 1968 to April 1969. He oversaw significant reforms to the communist system during a period that became known as the Prague Spring, but his reforms were reversed and he was eventually sidelined following the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968. It sits between the Slovak Parliament and the Hrad.

Parts of the Hrad date back to the 13th century, but the castle lay in ruins when renovations started in 1953.

This is the grand staircase.

We were able to climb one tower to the top – a couple hundred stairs from the third floor, for 360° views of Bratislava.

This is a view from the Hrad to Petržalka part of Bratislava on the other side of the Danube, which shares a border with Austria. The communists constructed housing blocks known as Panelák beginning in 1977.

The Slovak flag next to the Hrad.

The UFO bridge from the Hrad.

Looking west along the Danube with the Parliament building on the left.

Looking north.

Looking back towards our hotel.

We had a very late, but enjoyable lunch, followed by gelato from Michael’s favourite ice cream place.

Then we climbed the tower of the Old Town Hall to view the old Square, then a tram ride back to the hotel, for a rest, and then a late dinner next door.

Bratislava- Day 3

We discovered when we checked in yesterday that the hotel charges €25 for a second person in the room, which we didn’t know before we got here, but it’s still an amazing deal for me to be able to come to Europe and spend only that much a night, and it includes a wonderful buffet breakfast, which even has make your own espresso drinks.

They have a very large dining room and a terrace which, unfortunately, we were unable to use this morning, due to rain. The rain did clear before we left the hotel.

Europe is so far ahead of North America in terms of clean, energy generation, reducing energy consumption, and ventilating large buildings. We saw so many windmills on the way from the airport, and you have to put your room key into a slot just inside the door to turn on the electricity in the room, so it isn’t possible to leave things on when you leave unless you have two keys. All of the toilets I’ve encountered, have two buttons to control the size of the flush. The only thing I found that I don’t like is that if you want water in a restaurant, you’re expected to pay for a bottle of it.

Here Michael shows me a narrow window which allows ventilation in the hotel corridor. He says he they have them in the office as well.

We had expected to plug all our devices that need to be charged into USB plugs in the wall, but they don’t have them. So we started the morning by buying a two prong European plug that allows two devices to be charged at once. It wasn’t a problem for Michael in the past when he was the only one in the room. It’s so convenient having the hotel attached to a large mall.

We’ve seen so many different types of trams here. Apparently the rolling stock consists of 211 trim vehicles, and operates on five lines of approximately 42 km in length.

This neighbourhood is being made more pedestrian and cyclist friendly by narrowing the side streets, and having raised, narrowed and cobbled crossings to slow cars.

Bratislava was under communist rule from 1948 to 1989 and has many Soviet style buildings and works of art to show for it.

The trams here don’t even have curbs separating them from the sidewalks on many of the streets, just a slightly different style of pavement.

Sometimes when walking along the street you see a little alley that leads businesses like this coffee shop and residences.

It’s very easy to find places to linger and to find bike share stations and e scooters share all over the city.

Bratislava was a walled city with eight gates, only one of which – Michael’s Gate – Michalská brána) remains. Only a small part of the wall still exists.

Bratislava has many quirky statues, one of which is a soldier from Napoleon’s army. The story is that he fell in in love with as local girl and stayed in Bratislava and became a wine maker.

This is Bratislava’s main square called Hlavne Namestie.

On one of Michael’s previous trips, he sent me a picture of this bike rack. Of course, I had to climb on and pose.

This was built as the Primate’s Palace, and originally belong to the archbishop of Esztergom. It is built in the classical style and was built from 1778-81. It is now used by the mayor of Bratislava.

This is the Ritz Carlton. It’s just down the street from the American Embassy.

This is a brand new park that was created on the former site of a parking lot.

These memorial stones are dotted around Bratislava, and memorialize Jews who were deported to concentration camps during the war. Bratislava has the unfortunate distinction of being the first country to voluntarily pay the Germans to have Jews deported.

We had lunch with Michael’s colleague Andrej and his wife Katarzyna at a restaurant, that had the entry area quite oddly decorated.

This is the location of one of the destroyed city gates.

I can never pass up a beautifully decorated bike in the shop window.

This statue was one of the most photographed things in Bratislava. His name is Čumil which means watcher in Slovak. I couldn’t get a picture of him the first time we passed by because of the lineup of people waiting to photograph him or be photographed with him.

After lunch, we wandered along this beautiful wide long wide park called Hviezdoslavovo námestie. It is named for a Slovak author. We stopped for coffee at one of the many restaurants.

The American Embassy is on the square. We passed many other embassies that fit inconspicuously into their surroundings, but the Americans have fortified theirs.

This is the Slovak national theater.

This is looking down the square with the national theatre at my back.

I roamed around this beautifully manicured park with pieces of art in it, while Michael used one of the few free public bathrooms available in the area.

There are many little road trains, taking tourists around the city.

There are also beer bikes.

Here you can see some of the architecture that was built during the communist era.

About four o’clock I started feeling quite tired and Michael’s tutor has just contacted him to find out if he would like to meet for a lesson, so we went back to the hotel. I had a rest and Michael had a Slovak lesson in the restaurant where we ate last night. He’s been taking Slovak for three years now.

When he returned, we took the tram back to the old city for dinner. We were able to buy a 72 hour pass, which is in an app on our phones, for just over eight euros each for unlimited travel.

Dinner was at Thema which had a nice atmosphere, but the food was only mediocre.

After dinner, we took a walk along the Danube to view the bridge that I called the Red Army Bridge in yesterday’s blog That is the former name of the bridge and it’s now known as the Starý most (Old Bridge).

There were several river cruise boats moored along the river, which made a nice foreground to the UFO bridge in the background.

We then caught a tram in sight of the Hrad back to the hotel.

It was a very enjoyable day today. It was nice to meet one of Michael’s colleagues and Michael enjoyed showing me around this place that he’s been telling me about for years now.

Bratislava – Day 1 and 2

Michael has been traveling to Batasava for business for the last seven years, but I’ve never been able to go with him before because of various commitments at home. I haven’t been to Europe since 1999. This spring, with only two adult children at home, I decided to accompany him. I’ll be going for two and a half weeks, and he’ll be staying for three and a half weeks.

Michael ordered an airport limousine for 2.30 based on when our flight was scheduled. First thing in the morning we received a text telling us the flight had been delayed by 15 minutes. We hoped there would be no further delays. We were ready to go a few minutes before 2.30 and the weather was lovely so we sat on the porch. Michael smiles at me anticipating the limousine any moment.

A few minutes later the limousine was late and he was on the phone trying to find out when it would come.

While that was happening Cindy texted me to say she was sorry she hadn’t been able to see me between her trip to New Orleans and my trip to Europe. Michael received bad news that the limo was going to be 40 minutes late. Cindy offered to come and pick us up but Michael initially continued trying to work things out the the limo company. A few minutes later she suggested we drive to her place and park there for free when I told her how much airport parking cost (almost $400 for 18 days) as I was considering driving and paying for parking. We decided to do that, as her place is between ours and the airport. I drove and picked her up and we were at the airport in plenty of time. Cindy is such an amazingly supportive friend.

We were in the line at security when we got a message from the limo driver that he was at our house. He was 52 minutes late.

This huge piece of art looks like the bat symbol to me.

When Michael was in Edinburgh, before Bratislava in November, he caught Covid, probably on the plane. Until the end of March, I had yet to catch it, but caught it at a quilt show on March 27. I brought the CO2 monitor along because, while I’m feeling somewhat invincible at the moment, having had it so recently, and Michael did have a booster a few weeks ago, we still want to be careful in crowded and poorly ventilated places. The waiting area and the airport was pretty good. Security, not so much so.

Our flight has been called for boarding. Because Michael is travelling for business he was able to fly premium economy, but I was unwilling to pay that much, despite Michael’s encouragement that I do so, and saved over $2000 by sitting nine rows further back, in a narrower seat than he had. His food was also slightly better, he was allowed two pieces of free luggage, priority boarding and baggage handling, and the ability to change or cancel his ticket.

The air quality on the flight was poor, as expected, but they amount of carbon dioxide in the air isn’t a good proxy for air quality when HEPA filters are running once the plane is in flight. Despite that, Michael, and other people, we know, are quite sure they have caught Covid on flights.

I’m always amazed when I fly over the GTA how little density there is and it makes me even angrier when I think about the Greenbelt being opened up for development. The clump of buildings in this picture is around Square One in Mississauga.

My meal was quite unappetizing, but the movie that I chose, the Fabelmans, was quite good.

This is the nicest plane bathroom I have ever encountered.

I was only able to sleep a little under two hours, and because we were flying east through six time zones, the sun rose very early “in the night” for us.

We landed in Vienna, and the airport was very uncrowded, and there was a very short line at immigration, who asked no questions, and simply stamped our passports.

There is a train from the Vienna airport to the city, but we had a limousine to Bratislava – about a 45 minute drive. Once we left the airport, until we got to Bratislava, we were never out of sight of forests of wind turbines.

I helped myself to an apple at check-in.

We have a nice bright room, with the bathroom doors, serving the function of separating from the bedroom, and also being used as the shower door, or the toilet door, depending on which way you swing them.

The hotel is attached to a large modern mall and an office block with a raised park in the centre, which we can see from our window.

We went to the mall for lunch and ate outside in the park.

Bratislava has a very extensive tram system with many different types of trams ranging from decades old trams to quite modern ones that look like Toronto’s new streetcar fleet.

We took two trams to get to the office so Michael could get his badge. Monday is a holiday so we have the next three days to sightsee together. On the way from the tram to the office I saw this tree with odd spherical shaped clumps of leaves in it.

I sat in the lobby when Michael was up in the office getting his badge and was asleep when he returned.

Beside the office is a pedestrian ramp to take you back up to the street that the tram is on.

We crossed the Danube River on the Red Army Bridge, which is only used by trams, pedestrians, cyclists, and scooters.

In this picture, we’re standing on the bridge looking at another bridge known as the UFO bridge and the Hrad, a castle, which was essentially derelict at the end of the communist era, and has been completely rebuilt, according to mediaeval pictures. Michael has been and plans to take me for a visit.

We stopped for a coffee and sugar fix to get some energy to hopefully make it until a reasonable bedtime tonight.

We returned to the hotel and picked up our passports and went to a cell phone store to get local SIM cards and a data plan, which is far cheaper than Canadian roaming.

Dinner was across the street at Centrálna Klubovňa .

We took a quick walk round the block and then went back to the room for me to write the blog.

I’ll be happy to get into bed tonight and I’ve now made it past 9pm local time.