Bratislava, Slovakia
Thursday, September 21 – Transition day as we departed Budapest and headed to Bratislava.
The day began with a tabata workout in my playground/gym facility. I got a few strange looks from the commuters rushing to their trams, but the homeless man sleeping on a bench was not at all troubled by my jumping around. Didn’t get 100% through the workout as the sky suddenly opened up–made up for it by having to sprint back to the hotel!
After breakfast the weather had cleared a bit and Dan and I were able to get out for a final walk over one of the Danube bridges. I also got the opportunity to make a quick visit to the Cave Church on the other side.
Hewn into the side of Gellert Hill, it has a fascinating history–established by monks inspired by a similar rock construction in Lourdes, it was forcibly closed in the 1950s by the Soviet controlled government.
With the dissolution of the Iron Curtain, the cave was once again unsealed in 1989 and the monastery restored. It is a lovely testament to the faith of the monks and, for my money, far more interesting (if less ornate) to visit than the basilica (and far less crowded!)
We then departed for the train station where we boarded the train along with a diverse collection of travellers, most of whom seemed to be carting all their possessions with them–I have honestly never seen such gigantic luggage–pretty sure you could have stashed your 5 year old in a couple of them.
Arrival in Bratislava was straightforward, we managed to figure out the tram situation (Dan’s transit background definitely helped), and we located our hotel with no problems.
To stretch our legs we did a long stroll through the town square and down the Danube embankment, but will save our in depth exploration for tomorrow. It’s a pretty small city, we can easily cover it in a day.
Simple but tasty dinner at a cafe off the main square–not nearly as fancy as our last few evenings, but perfect for us.
Tomorrow we explore!
19,528 steps, 8.7 miles
Cave Church (sziklatemplom):
Just across the Gellert Bridge in Buda, hewn out of a rock and now run by Pauline monks. Small ticket fee ($4) includes audio guide that leads through the small chapels and monuments inside.
Train to Bratislava:
Took Metro #3 (blue line) to Nyugati (Western) train station.
Train # 276 (destination Prague/Praha). Leave Budapest-Nyugati @ 11:29AM, arrive Bratislava hl @ 2:03PM (2 hours 37 minutes). Purchased tickets online in before we left home at www.jegy.mav.hu.
Tram to Hotel:
Took us a few minutes to get our bearings, but found the ticket machine (keep in mind, Slovakia uses Euros) and figured out what we needed. Then it was off to find the trams — be careful, there are also electric buses and I nearly got on one of those in error!
Hotel:
Roset Hotel & Residence:
Huge room, great location, short tram ride from train station. Bed comfort could use a little work, but had an excellent breakfast spread and a decent fitness room which was a surprise.
As noted in the post, I found the Cave Church fascinating, even though I had gone in on our previous visit to Budapest. Very small and manageable, but it’s history and the devotion that kept it alive made me want to come back and take a second look, especially as it was 10 minutes from our hotel.
Bratislava is a very compact city, with the historic center and the Danube an easy walk from our hotel. No major sights, just a nice place to stroll.
Breakfast:
Loaded up one last time at the hotel breakfast buffet
Lunch:
Grabbed sandwiches at the bakery Dan frequented a couple of days ago which was right near the Ferenciek tram station. We had those with a couple of bottles of water on the train.
Dinner:
https://www.dolnozemskakrcma.sk/en
Traditional Slovak food while sitting outside in the historic city center.
Brataslava tram ticket
Hotel
Dinner
It is always a little sad to be leaving a place where you have had fun, but we both felt we had really had gotten a lot out of our time in Budapest and were very happy we had returned — our first time was too short. Even with this visit, there are plenty of sights we “left on the table”. We did not explore the Opera House or the inside of the Parliament Building or Castle. We only saw the Great Synagogue from the outside and did not visit a Ruin pub. All trips require prioritizing your interests, and we felt these four nights complemented our earlier trip quite well and we were excited to move on to a new country (for us)!
We have become very comfortable with using trains in Europe and I find having assigned seats so much easier than the general scramble on Amtrak in the Northeast corridor. In addition, the excellent local mass transit in both cities made getting between hotels and train stations very easy.
Today we did our basic orientation walk — tomorrow we dig a little deeper!