Bratislava Day Two

Today we planned to visit Bratislava Castle. This is on top of a big hill overlooking the Danube River and the Old Town.

We planned ahead and knew to get a bus to the top of the hill, and then walk downhill through the castle and to the old town. Better than uphill! The plan paid off well.

Next to the castle is a modern building, protected by police, which we found is the National Council of The Slovak Republic.

From here is an amazing view over the river. We had no rain today but the view was a little hazy. Of note across the river is the UFO, which is a lookout on the Most SNP bridge (Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising). 

We spent about an hour walking around the castle grounds which are free to enter, but the castle is not something you can visit indoors.

We then meandered our way down hill towards the old town. This crosses a busy road that connects to the Most SNP bridge.

We planned to eat at the Christmas Markets we had seen yesterday, so we had to navigate our way back there. We arrived at lunch time and it was merrily busy, enough for good vibes but not overwelming, and we easily found a standing table to have lunch.

I splashed out on a plate of spicy sausage, fried onions, a while fried camembert with cranberries, on top of a Zemiakové Placky (like a giant hash brown pancake). It was a but pricy but fed us both. Helen also found some mulled wine with pear nectar. We also found some sweets.

Next I wanted to visit the Bratislava BMW Motorrad (motorcycle dealer) so we walked a fair distance to catch a tram, which after about 15 minutes dropped us off straight across the road from the dealer. The showroom was quite impressive with a great selection of new bikes, as well as some old museum pieces on display.

Next we returned to where we came from, at Centrum. Here was a shopping mall that is seriously run down. I needed to go toilet to we went in. The space for the foodcourt is huge, and very clean, but there are only two food vendors. We set for a while, and I visited the toilet which was full of graffiti. After seeing this, Johnsonville Mall isn't so bad after all.

Tomorrow we are catching a train to Budapest but from a different train station then we arrived into. So we caught a bus to see where it is. Actually it was very easy, the nearest bus stop to our hotel was only two stops away from the station.

After this we made our way back to the hotel room for a rest. We then ventured out again about 7pm, by which time it was raining. We walked down past the presidential palace and had dinner at an old restaurant nearly.

We walk back to the hotel a slightly different route and got a bit lost, which just meant more steps for today. Tomorrow, off to Budapest!