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| Bratislava Hrad |
01/02-09-12
Bratislava’s centre is another of those cities where the old
buildings have been largely preserved and become museum pieces that have little
to do with the day to day life of most of the people who live around it. There are
signs of prosperity outside the tourist centre, however there are also signs of
the soviet legacy.
I quite liked the centre as it is not too big and not too
showy. Although, as usual, the castles and churches are a reminder that in the past
the wealth and power rested with the rulers and the church and were probably
built at the cost of the lives of the rest of the people.
The main squares and the streets around it in the
‘Historical Centre’ were lively with tourists, craft stalls and street musicians.
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| Everyday scene in the streets of Bratislava |
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| Bratislava Hrad from across the Danube |
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| P95 and 6.50 Euro |
One major soviet legacy is the busy dual carriageway that
chops the city centre in two – separating St Martin’s Cathedral from the
Bratislava Hrad (Castle) quite brutally – and introducing a continuous roar of
traffic. The road as it crosses the river has a restaurant at the top of a
tower – I decided against bagging the tower as it is only a P95 and costs 6.50 Euros.
So, instead, I cycled alongside the rivers Danube and Morava on the Slovakian side to
Devin castle, up on a crag overlooking where the rivers meet. Although the idea
of following those rivers sounds romantic it wasn’t that much different an
experience as cycling the towpath on the Huddersfield Narrow canal. However, you cannot look across
to Austria from Marsden.
Just one word of advice to anyone thinking of using the Bratislava campsite near Zlate piesky - don't. It was dirty, noisy and they obviously have serious problems with security - it has its own police station - not even with wi-fi as a compensation. Shame, as I used a couple of other campsites in Slovakia and they were fine - and really cheap.
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Devin Hrad
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