Danube Waltz Viking River Cruise
Day 7: Friday, October 25, 2019 - Bratislava, Slovakia
Another day, another city. This is one reason why we liked this sort of trip so much. Traveling was mostly at night while we slept.
Anyone want to guess what Linda had for breakfast? If you guessed cereal, you'd be wrong. It was egg benedict... I had
scrambled eggs with mushrooms, sausage, and hashbrownn. And as always we had pineapple juice and coffee. Today we ate with Peggy
and Lou from Los Angeles, and Kim and Dan from Scottsdale, Arizona.
Fun facts: Slovakia was the Slovakia portion of Czechoslovakia before the amicable split with the Czech Republic on January 1, 1993. Bratislava is Slovakia's largest city. It is also the only country capital in the world that borders two soverign states.
This was taken at some point during the day... the two of us with the Fly Saucer in the background (more on that below).
Grabbed these before we set off.
Parliment from below.
Across the parking lot from the ship was this school.
Today's excursion was called Panoramic Bratislava, and our guide was Uri, which is Slovak for George. George was another guide with a sense of humor. As we drove around the city looking at the sites, some of the comments Uri made included "In this area, the residence had signs put up that said no bus stopping. So we will drive by real slow and leave a bunch of polution here anyway."
Some sights from the moving bus, as we made our way up the hill. It was foggy this morning. It does clear eventually.
A monument to the Unknown Soldiers.
This is this morning's approximation of where we walked.
The red line is the walk around parliment (from the bus and back to the bus).
The blue is the rest of the walk after the bus dropped us off, ending at the ship.
We eventually stopped to see the outside of parliment. Uri said "Parliment is in
session right now. So watch your valuables."
This was across the plaza from the entrance to parliment grounds.
The gates to parliment (in both directions), the building, and a courtyard statue.
It was rather overcast and foggy this early in the morning, and the city is in a little bit of a valley. There is a lot of construction going on in the city (as if you couldn't tell).
From our vantage point, on the other side of the river, we could see Austria - where the wind farm is on the right, and Hungary to the left.
To focus on the wind farm, here are two more shots of the right most portion of the panoramic above. There are what look like 18-20 turbines. The second image is modified for contrast to try to make the turbines stand out more.
We got back on the bus and headed into town. After getting off the bus, Uri explained this plaque on the ground as "This is where the first witch was burned. But they are still amongst us today. I know because my brother told me he's married to one."
And other sights during our tour.
The fransciscan church (the arch topped building in the background) is the oldest in Bratislava.
We were told this was the narrowest alley in the city. We have no proof either way...
The symbols, along the cobblestoned walkway, marked the coronation trail.
The university library.
This "mural" (the figures) was uncovered when stripping the paint on top of it.
We eventually weaved our way through the streets to a town square. Notice the protective fabric from the construction (on the left of the first image).
It was painted to look like the building.
The most highly photographed statue in the city.
In case you didn't notice, all the images are 1,200 pixels across, except for the tall pictures, and the panoramics. And this one.
This was a "compass" in the middle of the city. I left this one almost full size because I found when it was shrunk
too far, the detail was lost. Take a look at the outer ring.
At the end of the tour, we were left in front of an opera house, at the end of a small sidewalk market. We had some free time to explore and shop, but not much time as the ship was
leaving port at 11:00 AM.
The market was within a park setting, and there were fountains and statues. Also, take note of the what-looks-like-a-castle in the sidewalk stone work
in the fourth image. We didn't even notice this when we were there, only when looking at these pictures to put on the webpage.
A nice little outdoor cafe.
A funky looking trolley.
A statue in a park on the way back to the ship.
Another bridge, just not as interesting as the others.
Some other daytime sights.
A couple different angles of an interesting bridge. The flying saucer portion is actually a restaurant called - the Flying Saucer.
The first two pictures were taken early in the morning when it was foggy, and the other two in the afternoon after it cleared up.
It looks like there is an observation deck at the very top too.
We just got underway when I noticed that this bridge... had a park in the middle of it.
Back on the ship, it was time for lunch. Here is the menu.
Linda had roasted bell pepper and garlic soup (no pic), a Cuban sandwich on toasted French baguette, and apple tarte.
I had the market fare, sautéed turkey medallions, and chocolate mousse.
We ate with Maureen, Brian, Linda, Hellen, Carmel, and Abe.
To give you an idea of what we like about a river cruise - here is a VERY wide spot on the Danube. And yet one shore is there, and the other over there.
You can also see some of lunch's market fare buffet layout in the right image.
The river system was so deep (or would that be so high?) at one point while we approached the deepest lock, that all that was visible off the
shore was the top of a church steeple.
At 1:30, we were passing through the deepest lock in the Danube - a descent (for our direction) of sixty feet.
This lock was big enough for a road on top. People also liked to watch the ships go down too.
At 3:00, there was an apple strudel making demonstration in the lounge. And we got a recipe. The crust wasn't as flakey as in the restaurant the other day, but it was still good. A couple pointers from the demo included using rum soaked raisins, coat the final creation in clarified butter before baking, and put the dough on a towel to make rolling the strudel easier.
We were up in the sun deck and Linda wanted to learn a little about how to play chess. So I was showing her some moves.
Eventually we tired of this and went to our room.
After the lock, we continued down the Danube toward Budapest.
Some more Danube sights while the sun starts setting.
And after the sun set.
We had our port talk and sat with Debra and Les from Oxford, England, and Arty. Then it was time for dinner.
Tonight it was rimsky salat; risotto con zucchine, berrata e tartufo al limone; and carrot cake for Linda.
I had kapustnica soup, chatteaubriand béarnaise, and opera cake. And we had wine.
We ate with Nancy and John from Nebraska.
Daniel made sure we were all aware that we should be on the sundeck for our approach into Budapest. It was not a
disappointment.
I did the best I could with the equipment I had, at night, on a moving boat...
This figure was at the top of a hill. She is supposed to be holding an olive branch.
After the picture taking, we grabbed another cup of half cocoa and half coffee to drink while we finished watching The Sound of Music. Then went to sleep.