A Day in Bratislava

It seemed like Bratislava kept coming up in conversations during the planning of our trip so we headed there for the day to check it out. As the capital of Slovakia, day trips to Bratislava are pretty easy and the two most popular options are they hydrofoil in about 1.5 hours or the train in about 1 hour.  We opted for the hydrofoil as it takes you on the Danube.  

The boat drops you off about a 15 minutes walk from Old Town but you can also take the Bratislava Sightseeing Tram to get you there after about a 45 minute ride around the outer area and up to the Castle.  While the commentary was good, overall would not recommend the tour as the tram is very uncomfortable and the 20 minute stop at the Castle is not really enough time to walk around the grounds.  Here’s some of the pics from the tour.

Presidential Palace

Bratislava Castle

 

The tram drops you off at Old Town and since we were feeling a little peckish, we decided to have some lunch.  We found Dolnozemská krěma and really enjoyed our meal.  LuLu had the Hubové rizoto so sous-vide bravčovou panenkou a syrom Volovee (mushroom risotto with pork) and I had Tradične domáce Bryndzové halušky so slaninkou z mangalice (potato dumplings with sheep cheese and bacon). Just like Austria, the water in Slovakia is very good so definitely feel free to order tap water…most places it is free.  While we were waiting for lunch, LuLu was checking out the area and doing some people watching.

With our bellies full, it was time to start exploring Bratislava.  First stop was Čumil (Man at Work)…one of the many quirky statues around town.  As is the tradition, we rubbed his head for good luck.

Church of St. Elizabeth (aka The Blue Church)

Michael’s Gate

I read about the Konditorei Kormuth while researching the trip and it was definitely on our must do list.  The traditional bakery is absolutely beautiful and the desserts were quite tasty.  We got the caramel cake and the chocolate cake which we discovered was the Sachertorte.

Main Square

St. Martin’s Cathedral was consecrated in 1452 and was the church for all Hungarian coronations from the 16th to 18th centuries.  

I think I’ve mentioned a few times just how hot it has been since we arrived well Bratislava topped the charts today.  At 3:15PM, the temperature was 36C/97F with clear skies so the sun was brutal.  Being from the South, we are used to hot summers but we have the luxury of central air conditioning that can make you want to put on a sweater.  European air conditioning is more like a 15 year old window unit that needs Freon.  We had originally booked our hydrofoil return for 6:30PM but we just couldn’t take the heat any longer so while sitting in the church, we called an audible and Bolt (Uber’s competition) and headed to the train station to take the train back to Vienna.

Always love to see Old Glory
when traveling outside the US.
Our Embassy in Bratislava

Here’s a tip we learned the hard way: just buy the ticket to get you from Vienna to Bratislava on the hydrofoil and then you can either buy the return ticket if you want to leave at one of their scheduled times (they have 4 trips a day) or you can just go to the train station and hop on the train as they leave every hour.  Our timing was so good we walked out of the train station in Vienna and the bus to our apartment was just pulling up.  We were home in our nice cool air conditioned apartment before we would have left Bratislava!