There were beautiful wildflowers growing along the path by the lock.
After breakfast our cruise director, Bart, gave a talk on the rise and fall of Communism in Europe as we continued on to Bratislava. We enjoyed looking out the window at the scenery as we listened.
We also noticed many of these "tiny" houses all along the river. This one was in great repair but many of them were so tiny and definitely not luxurious! They are small fishing houses.
After Bart finished his talk they gave a VERY brief demonstration on how to make apple strudel. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but they gave us the recipe so I might try it at home after I convert all of the measurements from liters and grams to cups and tablespoons!
We had free time until noon when the dining room opened for lunch followed by a walking tour in Bratislava. I LOVED Bratislava and wished we had another day there!
Our tour guide gave us so much history of the area and town of Bratislava it was almost overwhelming. As we got off our boat and heading into the city we could see the Bratislava Castle on the top of the hill. We did not have time to climb up there and tour so we need another day here!
This was our first view of St. Martin's Cathedral. The Gothic three-nave church from the 15th century is considered the coronation church of the Hungarian kings. Ludwig van Beethoven performed his work Missa solemnis for the first time in Bratislava in 1835. A few years later, in 1884, Franz Liszt also conducted a Hungarian coronation mass here. The top of the cathedral's 85-high tower is decorated with a gilded replica of St. Stephen's crown - a copy of the Hungarian royal crown. We came back after the official tour and went inside the church to check it out.
The building below was built along the original wall of the city and is just outside of the cathedral.
Looking up this street is where the Jewish quarter in Bratislava started with the yellow building on the left. It is very near St. Martin's Cathedral.
The pink building is was once the Archbishop's palace. In 1805 Napolean signed a peace treaty, "The Peach of Pressburg" in 1805 here. Today it serves as the mayor's seat and hosts the City Council.
The concrete and glass building with the green sections under the windows is from the communist era in the city. It definitely looked out of place compared to the other architecture.
You can see the beautiful tile roof on this building.
St. George slaying the dragon
This is one of the oldest buildings in the Old Town part of Bratislava. Our guide told us that the person who had owned it was convicted of embezzling money and put in prison. Whoever buys the building will have to pay the money back that was embezzled before they could even begin to fix it up!
There area statues all over the city. This one commemorates the 1805-1809 time period when Napoleon's army was in Bratislava and the French army bombarded the city. The local legend claims that a French soldier named Hubert fell in love with a local girl, stayed in the city, and began producing sparkling wine.
Several buildings in Bratislava - especially around the Old Town, have cannonballs embedded in their walls from the 1809 bombardment by Napoleon's army. It is lodged high up on the town near a window, dating back to the siege of Pressburg. Our guide said that it is thought that the government would give the citizens money to rebuild after the siege, but they had to have proof of damage and many people gathered up cannonballs and inserted them into their buildings. Who knows?
Street views
Bratislava is about 70% Roman Catholic but they did allow other religions to have churches here - with some conditions. The white building below was originally a Lutheran church. They could not have their main entrance in the front or have spires. This is now a Catholic church but
There was a mass going on so I snapped a quick picture from the entryway behind the glass windows. The altar is made with a green marble and not nearly as ornate at the Catholic churches.
One of the biggest highlights of the day was a competition of young people doing traditional dances and songs. We saw this first group and they posed for pictures for us.
Later all of the groups processed through the old town then ended at the square where their competition/demonstration took place. I have videos but the internet on the ship is not very good so I will have to update this post later with some of the actual dancing/singing. We spent 1-1/2 hours watching and had a great time. Needless to say, we had to be back on the ship so we didn't get to see many of the other sights in Bratislava!
Wendy and I did split a poppy seed filled bagel and a cinnamon chimney cake. Both were really yummy!
Back on board they had a disembarkation talk before dinner. It's hard to believe our time on the Danube is coming to an end. We have to remember the saying, "Don't be sad it's over, be happy you experienced. it."
