Day 49 - Into the East

Europe » Slovakia » Bratislava Region » Bratislava
August 19th 2023

Published: August 19th 2023

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Mark63

Leaving the house in Vienna

It was a shame to have to leave Vienna, both from what a wonderful city it was, as well as the salubrious accommodation we had at our disposal.
As we left we saw one of the neighbours and asked if he'd take our photo. He asked where we were heading and with a slight air of cockiness we tell him London to Istanbul, 4,500kms. Oh, that's great he said, I rode around Australia a while back and did 6,000 miles (9,600kms). We left with our collective tails behind our legs.
It was a short 5km ride down to the river bank. Google wouldn't give us a bike route to Bratislava so we relied on my Eurovelo files. Again, it would have been hard to get lost with the signs that are up.
Today the feel definitely changed. For a start we did a lot of the trip off the river. We were on a levi bank in a green belt for most of the day until we emerged and the city of Bratislava came into view. We had entered Slovakia as we crossed the the Danube and rode into the old part of town. We had completed our

The Danube as we left Vienna

63km trip by 12:30pm, way too fast for my liking.
We got some lunch and then made our way to our accommodation which was also in the old part of town. In fact, it is directly beneath a city clock tower (I just hope it doesn't ring it's bells overnight. Our accommodation now has to cater for the 3 of us and our luggage so things are a little more cramped. The room itself is great though, it also has a kitchen with a fridge, microwave and cook top and washing machine in the bathroom.
In the afternoon we did a loop around town. The stand out tourist attraction is the castle on the hill. Built in the 1200s it was extensively damaged in the 1800s and not rebuilt until the early 1900s, so it's hard to know what's original and what's not but it is definitely impressive. Bratislava became the capital of Slovakia after the split from Czechoslovakia in 1993 and has a population of over 420,000 people. They speak their own language here which is close to Polish and Russian apparently. I've learnt one word only, Dakujem (pronounced dja-coo-yem), which means, Thank You.
Distance travelled