Bratislava

It is my birthday!!! Today we got up really early to take the train to Bratislava in Slovakia. I’m not sure if we will get the chance to go to Slovakia again, so now we will be able to add another country to our list of places we have been. Bratislava (which used to be part of Hungary before 1920) is the capital of Slovakia and pretty close to both the Hungarian and Austrian borders and in the bottom left corner of Slovakia. We weren’t able to take the first train in for the day, so we didn’t get into the city until after 11:00 and thus had a limited amount of time. We first walked from the train station to the Slavin Memorial, which is a monument and cemetery on the top of a hill built as a burial ground and memorial to the Soviet soldiers killed while liberating Bratislava during WWII. This was built by the Soviets and has remained even after Soviet rule ended.

Bratislava had some pretty buildings, and we were able to walk through some empty streets. I thought it would be more crowded given that it was the weekend, but there were very few people around.

We walked through St. Michael’s Gate, which is the only remaining city gate and tower. However, as you can see by the picture it was being completely renovated so we couldn’t really see it. We did walk across the big compass rose, which shows how far this point is from 29 main cities. From here we turned down a smaller street that had weird Halloween decorations stringed up across the street, but it also had an amazing chimney cake store that shaped the cake into a cone and then inside put a spread (caramel, Nutella, or nougat), ice cream, and toppings. It was so super delicious!

Our walk led us to the main square with the Old Town Hall and the main fountain. We walked around the square and took some pictures.

Located in the square are a few quirky statues. There is the Napoleon’s Amy Soldiers, Hans Christian Anderson, Schone Naci, and of course Man at Work. The kids loved taking pictures with each of the statues (as did the adults).

We then went to the Primatial Palace, which is a pretty pink building. There is a small art museum in here with several giant tapestries, but the best part was the Hall of Mirrors. I was expecting it to be bigger, but what I wasn’t expecting was a rehearsal of a string duo that we got to listen to. Once again, Willow was completely absorbed and wanted to stay for the concert.

We went to two churches in Bratislava. The first was the Blue Church (St. Elizabeth), which really is blue. We couldn’t actually go in but could take some pictures of the inside from the gate. This may be one of my favorite pretty churches we have been to! The second church is St. Martin’s Cathedral, which sits right beside the big freeway. This church had some nice stained glass in it, and we were lucky to be able to view the church on a Sunday as there were people setting up flower arrangements, most likely for an event later in the evening.

Right next to St. Martin’s is the Holocaust Memorial, which is a memorial built to commemorate the Slovakian Holocaust victims and built on the site of the original Neolog synagogue.

Walking to the Bratislava Castle, we went past this small tea house that was built in an old bomb shelter. We stopped to get a drink but couldn’t find anyone working and it didn’t really smell like tea but more like recreational herbs. So we didn’t stay for tea but continued on to the castle. The castle was up on a hill, and Willow did not like the long walk up the hill. There is a museum inside the castle, but we didn’t have enough time to go through it in detail and the kids are a little museumed out. The grounds of the castle are free though, and we enjoyed walking around and enjoying the view. The gardens were particularly lovely.

The castle was up on a hill, and Willow did not like the long walk up the hill. There is a museum inside the castle, but we didn’t have enough time to go through it in detail and the kids are a little museumed out. The grounds of the castle are free though, and we enjoyed walking around and enjoying the view. The gardens were particularly lovely.

The last place on my list of things to do today in Bratislava was the UFO structure, which is built on the far side of the bridge across the river. It was not cheap to go up to the top of the structure, and there is an obscenely expensive restaurant at the top along with the viewing platform. The views were great and the kids really liked going to the top of the structure, which made it worth it.

We took a train home at 6:00 so that we would get home at a reasonable time since Zoey has gymnastics practice early in the morning. It must have been a great trip since Willow slept most of the way home. It was a good birthday, and now we can say we have been to Slovakia.