we interrupt this trip to Vienna for ... Bratislava!

 We will get back to Vienna in a moment, but first I must tell you about our trip to Bratislava. Carsten & Falk at the train station upon arrival - look how innocent they look! - they have no idea what an adventure the day will bring!

Bratislava is only about 60 km (35 miles) from Vienna. This makes these two capitol cities the closest together in all of Europe! We went by train and had arranged a tour guide for a 3 hour city tour.  We did this when we visited Tallin in 2019 through Tours by Locals and it was a great success.

Eva, our tour guide, met us at the train station in her car and the interesting day began. Driving in any foreign city is always interesting but Eva made it a big adventure.  Falk was in front pressing on the imaginary brake, trying to save us all.  Carsten, Svenni and I were in the backseat behind a plexiglass divider, rather like fish in a bowl.  To say Eva drove slowly would be an understatement, we got passed by everyone, including a dude on a scooter - one of these:

And he did not just pass us - he flew past! Buses were honking at us, really everyone was honking at us! It was nuts!

She knew a lot about this history of Bratislava of course - back to the time of Jesus.  I'm pretty sure she lived through most of it.  For sure she had lived through the "communist times".  That was actually pretty interesting.

We did not move quickly through history or the city .... but we did learn a lot.

There were many funny moments - Svenni was crying with laughter more than once - I am a bad influence, I admit it ;) ... we do have fun together!

Anyway, we managed to see a few sights -

This is a monument erected by the Soviets to honor the soldiers who defeated the Nazis in WWII. Eva told us that it used to be required that folks visit this place on certain important dates.

Over 6,000 Soviet soldiers are buried here.

Interesting building (none of us can remember what it was for...)

This is a picture of a house and a church but they are reversed.  The one on the LEFT is the church, the RIGHT is the house.  Apparently the church was originally Protestant so was not allowed to "look" like a church - so not to compete with the Catholic cathedrals.  Ironically, it is now a Catholic church.

Bratislava Castle: Originally built in the 9th century.  Accidently burned to the ground in 1811. Was finally rebuilt 150 years later in the 1930s.

Cool building in old town:

Opera house.

St. Michael's Church (seems like every city has a St. Michael's)

Cannonballs fired by Napoleon damaged 300 buildings. Those with cannonballs imbedded in their structure received a property tax break for two years.  Apparently, there were some shenanigans whereby folks picked up cannonballs and "put" them on their house to obtain the valuable tax break.

Archbishop house.

Famous "Man at Work" statue.

We were told to have cake and coffee at a specific cafe and to be sure to use the WC (bathroom).  This is the urinal which makes for an uncomfortable pee-break.

Finally back in Vienna we had a snack.  The menu said "Chips and 2 Dips" - I asked and the waitress said it came with salsa and queso.  Well.  This was closer to sweet & sour sauce and cold cheese-whiz.  So, lesson learned (again). 

This was a wonderful day full of laughter for sure!

We will finish up with Vienna in our next post.

Sheri & Carsten

GO ASTROS!!!