Bratislava

Mom and I are starting to get the hang of this travelling business.  In Brno we walked from the train station to our apartment.  This time, as we arrived in Bratislava, Google maps said it is 18 minutes to our apartment.  So, we walked.  Our hosts had sent VERY detailed instructions on how to get into the building, including pictures of the building, the locks, the front door, the next door to orient us.  So, after walking more than 18 minutes (cobble streets wheeling our bags behind), we get to our destination and it looks NOTHING like the pictures.  Clearly we are not in the right place.  I used the Booking.com address.  I did not notice that as a side note, the host had mentioned, in like paragraph eight of her two page instructions, the address.  Which, as it turns out is different than the coordinates that Booking.com gave (not a street address).  It was all very confusing since Google maps still isn't quite sure where we are.  But with the help of a passerby and some Google map interpretation, we found our new apartment.  on the second floor (so two flights up) with no elevator.  We lugged our bags up and crashed for a bit. I think it took us almost an hour to get here.  Poor mom and her knees!

Jesus had a hat.  Mom says he is a Gaucho from Argentina

Memorial plaques in the sidewalks for Jews (I assume) 
killed in the Holocaust

We got to Bratislava early so we were quite ambitious on the train, booking a walking tour for that very evening.  And one for the next day at 10 am. We were still good to go though.  We rallied and went exploring a bit.  Found the tourist office.  Found a pamphlet for Devin Castle.  Asked the nice lady at the counter about Devin Castle.  We could take the bus on any day but if we want to take the ferry, it only runs on the weekend.  Since it was already Saturday, that left Sunday, the next day.  And since we were only a day in advance, we should really walk to the LOD (the ferry people) office down by the river.  Ok.  

A war memorial, or maybe a fair representation 
of me and mom at the end of the day

Well of course, we took a circuitous route and we didn't actually know what we were looking for.  Not good with signage, the Slavic people.  We eventually found it and bought our tickets.  But that took over an hour as well.  So, that was mom (and me to be honest) for the day.  

There is so much public art there, from the tiniest little decorative
brick in the sidewalk, to this (temporary) giant inflatable thing

I didn't take any pictures when we arrived so you'll have to take my word on the place we are staying.  Our apartment is very small but it has everything we need, except maybe some space to put our bags.  Coffee machine!!  Washing machine.  Drying rack.  (I now have enough clean underwear to make it home) The apartment technically has a balcony but it is so tiny and it looks out over a parking lot and two ramshackle buildings, I hope we didn't pay extra for it.  

Great location though, we are spitting distance to Michael's tower, the north gate to the old city.  Walking distance to everything.  One complaint, the wifi is TERRIBLE.  I may not get a Bratislava post out before we are back in Budapest.  It's bad all over the city actually.  My SIM card is spotty, at best. 

The architecture here is so crazy.  There are churches everywhere of course.  And beautiful old buildings.  And Soviet era cement blocks randomly plunked in amongst them.  Now the buildings are protected but not so during the reign of the Socialist Party (Eastern block communists). 

Then there are the examples of how they get around the rules now to make more use of space.  

A new building on top of an old building

A new building under an old building (how?)

A Soviet era building built around a medieval wall

But mostly it's just nice city, especially the Old Town.  Most of the buildings are still standing and there is lots to see.  

National Opera House. Built on reclaimed land, 
where the city moat used to be.  Remember Maria Theresa
from Vienna who ordered the city walls taken down,
well, she did that here too.  She was busy, busy, that one. 

And this decrepid building. 
They can't tear down a heritage building
so the theory is that the owner is waiting 
for it to collapse.  Reminds me of the Janion.

Ok, I have to go to bed.  This is so slow, I've had dinner and played two games of crib with mom since I started.  Now mom is asleep so that seems to indicate it is time to go to bed.  I'll try again tomorrow. That is, if this even saves...  

Next day,  in real time and blog time.  (The wifi is so bad here I am now locked out of my online banking from too many unsuccessful attempts to sign on)

We got up semi-early to catch our 10 am ferry?  boat? to Devin Castle.  There is a castle in town as well, which we were informed the next day on a tour is actually a fortress, rebuilt in 2013 or somewhere around there.  Devin is a real castle, like in Scotland, all stone walls and no roof.  

But first the boat.  Devin is up the River Danube.  It is  a 90 minute trip there and a 30 minute trip back, that's how strong the current is.  

The Petrov

This is a bridge.  They call it the spaceship

The Bratislava 'Castle'/Fortress

Finally, we could see the castle on the hill

We docked and then there was a little ways to walk, through that little village below.  This is the sight were the Bratislava Wall crossed.  Not as famous as the Berlin Wall but as equal a deterrent to get to the west.  There are some memorials along the path. 

This heart stands where the wall was

This bullet-riddled wall tells a story, 
unfortunately, it didn't tell it to me
since I didn't go down and read the sign

Finally, the castle is visible again

There was a nice sloping path up the the entry gate.  But first we had to walk through some 'traditional' fields where they keep goats and sheep to manage the pastures like they would have when the castle was in use. 

There is never not a good excuse to show a goat picture! 

We made it to the lower courtyard without a single stair!  Steps are not great for mom's knee.  But after that, not so much, it was all stairs. 

The lower courtyard from above

Devin is at the confluence of the Danube and Morava Rivers

Mom waiting while I went up to the top

One is required by law to take a photo through a 
window when one is in a medieval castle. 

Heading back down. This guy figured out if he stands by the 
fence, tourists will feed him tasty green grass 
from the sheepless field next door.  

Back on the boat, back to town.  My friend Rob said I should try garlic soup in Prague. We couldn't find any but we found some in Bratislava, in a bread bowl no less!!  So good.  Excellent suggestion. 

We walked around after that but I can't handle the wifi anymore so I will toss those pictures into tomorrow's post.  Let's see if I can post this....

One last statue.  Dowsing at a fountain.  Seems like he may be a lazy diviner.  

Brno (lots of dead people in this one if you're squeamish)

We decided to stop in Brno because it was half way between Prague and Bratislava.  As it turns out, Brno is an awesome little town with lots of things to see.   The place basically shuts down for tourists on Sept 30 and we got here on Oct 2 so it is nice and calm here.  No free walking tours though.  Lots of churches and a striking amount of underground areas to explore.

First order of business, find our apartment.  It was close to the train station so we walked.  But first we had to find some sushi place to pick up the keys.  We found the keys and then the apartment.  Wowwy!!  Fancy!  

This is our building!

Our first night we went out and did a bit of exploring but it was raining and we were tired so that didn't last long. We did find the tourist office though and grabbed a bunch of brochures.  For a town that doesn't seem to have any tourists, they really know how to put out a brochure!  They have one for underground, one for kids, museums, restaurants and many more.  We took all of those home and used them to the decide what we wanted to do with our two days here. And caught up on laundry! 

Day one was supposed to be less rainy so we went up to Spilberk Castle.  20 minute walk up hill.  Those old royals did love to put their castles on the tops of hills...

Met this guy on the way to the castle.  He was really tiny.

Who's this?  I have no idea but the statues here 
all seem to have mustaches. 

In order to go into any castle rooms or anywhere interesting, we would have to pay. We just weren't that interested so we consoled ourselves with a coffee and cookies.  Which probably cost as much as the entrance fee but choices have to be made!

We weren't too far away from the underwater tanks.  We had no idea why this would be a thing but it's a thing here.  So, to the tanks!  Boy! I'm glad we did. So cool!  There are three huge underground tanks that supplied the water to Brno until ?  The first was built in 1874, the next in 1894 and the last was 1917.  The last one was actually two but have since been combined for the tours.  The first two were made of brick and the last was concrete.  

We managed to catch up to the English tour that had just started in tank #2 (1894).  It seems so huge but it is actually the smallest. I took a million photos but they all look kinda the same. 

The water was up the the red brick ceiling.  Now there is just a bit on the ground. Just enough to create a very atmospheric reflection. 

Next was tank #1 (1874).  It was more divided and the floor was rounded so it was harder to walk around. 

Then onto tank# 3 (1917).  It is huge.  The echo is incredible.  The guide said the echo can last up to a minute.  Some of the more baritone voiced men really reverberated.  It was super eerie.  The concrete wasn't as picturesque as the old bricks but the sound made up for it.  

Some graffiti on the ceiling from the workers
who did repairs on Feb 16, 1925.

Lucky timing, we were there just in time to see this weird laser and sound show.  It wasn't too much and it only lasted a five or so minutes.  But to be down there with the booming sound and the lights out was a bonus.  They have concerts down there with the crazy echo-y sound.  I wish we were going to be here for the Gregorian chanting.

I would say this doesn't do it justice, but it kind of does.

(Next day, on the train to Bratislava... I finally figured out how to order a latte on their stupid app.  But this time we are in Business class so we have a waiter.  No app needed). 

After our Tank tour, we headed back to the Freedom square where there was some sort of Oktoberfest going on but we didn't have any cash left and we weren't sure how to order anything from the tents.  There is very little English signage here. So, we went to a restaurant and had an unsatisfying burger and a very satisfying lemonade.  

And enjoyed the view of the famous Brno phallic statue.  

Brno is a nice city but not nearly as photogenic as Prague or Vienna.  There are tram wires blocking pretty much every nice building. 

Another famous Brno statue.  A very tall horse. 

Since Brno can't compete above ground, they really do up the underground!  Next stop, an ossuary (unsorted bones!).  The brochure said it is only second to the Paris Catacombs.  Count me in!  Poor mom, more stairs, more dead people.  It may be 50 000 people buried down there but it only has three rooms to look into. No Paris to be sure.

That was enough cellar-dwelling for one day.  We just headed home after that and had an early night. 

Next day, we are getting quite lazy now that we are on the right time zone, I didn't get up until 8:30 and we didn't get out of the apartment until 10:30.  First stop, the main square and the fruit market.  There has been a market here for the last 800 years!  But we didn't have any cash and again, we weren't sure if we could pay with card, so no veggies for us that morning.  

And admired (?) another famous Brno landmark, a Baroque fountain, which I think is kind of ugly but if you leave a fountain long enough, nothing can be done about it (Note to Victoria city council!)

We were trying to find the underground tour under the town square.  We found the exit and the old entrance before we finally found the new, updated with an elevator!, entrance.  Like I said, Brno knows what side of their bread is buttered (in this case, the underside).  There would be an English tour at 3 so we decided to do a different underground activity.  The Capuchins have a crypt here too.  But instead of Habsburgs and super ornate coffins, this crypt has mummies.  Townspeople and monks.  This one may have been too gruesome even for me.  No photos of course, one must respect the dead. Unless you paid 30 CKNs, then you can take all of the pictures you want.  You may have already guessed, I paid the 30 koruna.

I  have to wonder how these people would feel. They were placed in a crypt under their church 300 years ago looking like this: 

And now some grubby tourist is taking their picture looking like this:

It was having his portrait there that made it all too real that this was an actual person with an actual life and now he is just a mummified body.  My crisis of conscience was short lived however, I took more photos but no one else had their pictures on the walls.  

Important (rich) townspeople

Capuchin monks. No fancy coffin for them
just bare ground and a brick for a pillow

After those dead people, we headed up to the Cathedral.  St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral I think.  Or vice versa.  They call it Petrov.  We hiked up hills and stairs and circled the church.  The front door was very elusive.  

So, we stopped at a restaraunt tucked in the basement for lunch.  It was a nice place for a basement (sort of).  French food with servers from all over the world.  Only one person spoke English so she got to serve us.  My soup and dessert were excellent, my main was fine.  

Then we kept circling until we found the door.  

Success!  The front, door included! 

Funnily, when we came out of the cathedral and just went downhill for half a block, we discovered that the church is directly behind our apartment.  Like, just there, around the corner.  We could have saved a lot of hills/stairs but we would  not have found our little lunch place.  

Finally, it was time for our English tour of the underground labyrinth under the Town Square.  It was an interesting crowd that was gathered for that tour.  We've noticed this on other tours as well.  We are often the only native English speakers on these English language tours.  Lots of Europeans, just not local Europeans.  We saw lots of Asian tour groups in Vienna and Prague but not here, at least not so far.  Of course, I don't think Brno is on many international lists so it's not surprising.  

Anyway, there was about 20 people which didn't seem unreasonable until we started the tour.  The underground rooms started out as cellars for family homes.  So they are small.  I mean SMALL.  There is no way 20 people would fit into any of these rooms.  And I am always last, since I can't be first, so as to take pictures after everyone else retreats.  I didn't hear much of the tour guide's talk.  Cellars, old.  

This is a map of the labyrinth as they call it.  
The pink parts are escape rooms :/

Plus, each room was 'recreated' with stuff to make it seem more accurate to the times.  Anyway, take these pictures as they come.  I tried but I was working with limited material/circumstances. 

Brewery/winery

Wine bottles

Tavern

Down an original well.  That is scum on the water so...

After we reemerged into the upper realms of the Town Square, we headed home.  Here are some last photos of Brno.  We liked Brno a lot and would definitely recommend it for a couple of days if one was in the area. 

We're in Bratislava now for a few days.  Talk again soon.