Days 99 - 100 (June 13 - 14, 2013): Bratislava, Slovakia

The Quick Facts:

* Continued on our European tour with a train ride to Bratislava, Slovakia, the capital city that lies on the banks of the Danube
* The main sites include St. Michael’s Gate (the remaining tower of the ancient wall built to fortify and protect the city), the castle which sits on a hill and offers extraordinary views, the Primate’s Palace which is where Napoleon and the Emperor of Austria signed a peace agreement, and one of the ugliest sites I’ve seen on this trip but unfortunately calls you to go into it: the UFO structure on top of one of the bridges over the Danube
* Stayed at Blue Danube Apartments – a very nice place and worth the money we paid; would recommend

The Good:

* Bratislava is a perfectly nice city – the people are all welcoming and speak good English, there are classic European streets (and the requisite castle), and a newer section of town with shops and restaurants set on the water
* The castle is particularly beautiful – we skipped the museums on the inside in full disclosure (serious museum fatigue going on here)

 

The Bad:

* The UFO building is a particular architectural tragedy – our guidebook jokes (or maybe not jokes) that the locals say it the building has the best views of the city because the views don’t contain the UFO building
* I’m not sure there’s ever a reason to seek out Bratislava…if you are in the area or have a day or two to spend somewhere, then by all means you should visit.  But it’s not in the “must see” category


So the best parts of Bratislava are the castle which sits on the hill and offers great views of the city:

 

 

 

The UFO in the distance you see, well we went to it (of course…I’m ashamed and feel dirty), and it does offer some good views of the city:

 

St. Michael’s Tower, mentioned above, also provides good views of the city:

 

Here are some other pictures from our stay:

 

 

They have some interesting statues in Bratislava….

 

 

….and some are just fun to imitate.

 

All in all, a nice day and a half.  Off to Budapest!

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