Bratislava

Each October we get a week off for Fall Break.  I still haven't figured out why we get that week off, but I certainly won't complain about it. This year we decided not to spend the week traveling, but rather recovering from all of the traveling we to have been doing.  But just because we had a great staycation planned, does not mean that I could squash the travel bug completely because that would just be crazy (I jest).  So on Tuesday, the girls and I packed up the car (B was away for work) and took the short drive to into Slovakia.  Bratislava to be exact.

Bratislava is an interesting city with a long history.  As part of the Velvet Divorce in the early 1990's, Slovakia became it's own country and Bratislava became the only national capital to border two countries - Austria and Hungary.  By declaring its independence, Slovakia was finally free to find out who it was as a city without the influence of those that had controlled it up until that point - everyone from the Austrians and Hungarians to the Russians and the Serbians.  

We set out on foot, though we could have taken one of these...

Tourist train Prešporáčik.

The town is compact enough that we could see everything we wanted to by foot.

Michael's Gate is the only city gate still standing in the city.  It also is one of the oldest structures still standing, dating back to the 1300's.  Also, right next to the gate, on the right hand side in this photo, is the narrowest house in Europe.  It is the single door, and two windows above it and measures only 130 cm wide (about 4 feet).

On the other side of that gate is the Old Town square.  And it is where we began our game of finding the bronze statues that are hidden in plain site all over the city.  We found the famous four, and then got a bit distracted by the other sites around us...

Napoleans soldier, Schone Naci (the only silver one), Hans Christian Anderson, and Cumil - the man at work who seems to just be loafing (or lucking up ladies skirts)

As fun as the statues were, we had to get back to our mission of getting to the Blue Church.  It is only open to the public for two hours in the evening and two hours in the morning.  But since those two hours are from 6-8 am in the morning, I knew we had to make it to the evening hours or we would never get inside.  We passed through a museum courtyard, and stopped to play the piano they had set up...

Wandered up a hill and past a church or 4...

And then there is was - the famous Blue Church.

It kind of resembles a candy church, doesn't it?  It's actual name is the Church of St. Elisabeth and is a tiny, one nave Catholic Church built in 1907.  It is not one of the oldest churches we have even visited, nor one of the more ornate, but it is one of the only ones that looked like it walked right out of an animated fairy tale.

By then it was dinner time, so we stopped in for some pasta and headed back to the hotel.  But we were up and at it early again the next morning, since we knew we only had a few hours to see the UFO lookout tower and the castle before heading to our final stop just outside of town, and then heading home.

We stopped for breakfast and a MadHatter photo snap.

They wanted their picture taken at the gate.

We passed the National Theater...

And this gorgeous walking path

While walking here.

The UFO bridge and its look out tower are two of the most modern and distinctive sites in Bratislava.  The bridge itself is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge to have only one pylon (which the UFO lookout is built on) and one cable stayed plane.  Built in 2005, the UFO restaurant and lookout tower, is 95 m (311 feet) tall and takes 45 seconds to reach by elevator.  Once outside, you can see for 100km all around on a clear day.  We did not have a clear day, but we did get to enjoy some amazing views.

They looked like aliens, fittingly.

The restaurant.

Back on terra firma, we wound our way back to the other side of the Danube and towards the castle.  Which took us back up, up, up but this time we didn't have an elevator, just our own two feet.

We made it to the top and wandered around for a bit.  We didn't take the tour as it was over an hour and we still had to have lunch and make one last stop so we wound our way back down, down, down...And we ran into this...

Who can say no to visiting the International House of Art for Children?  Especially when it only cost 3 Euros for all 3 of us to visit.  And play.  And goof off for half an hour or so...

We made silly faces in the mirrors.

We tried on a whole slew of crazy hats...

We climbed, and slid and bounced to our hearts content.

We even learned a few things...

Sadly, we had to leave, but not before leaving them a note about how "vere vere fun" it was!  We grabbed a quick lunch, packed up the car and headed to our final stop of the day, Devín Castle.