The Blue Church, Bratislava Castle, and Old Town

An early alarm nudge for Sarah by me – I was under instructions to wake her at 6 am. The Blue Church is only open for viewing from 6:30 am until 7:30 am today, and not until 5:30 pm tomorrow. The preference was to visit it early with fewer people there.

It was just a short walk away, and it certainly is blue. Quite different to any other church we’ve seen – and it feels like we’ve seen a lot of them. Welcome to Europe! Google was right, it was open. However, a service was starting at 7 am, just as we arrived, so we didn’t stay very long. Being an inner-city church surrounded by other buildings, it was hard to get good photos.

Given we were up early and had time on our side, we decided to visit Bratislava Castle next, which was not near the church. We also didn’t take a direct route to it. Instead, we crossed the Danube River on a pedestrian-and-tram-only bridge called Starý Most. But it looked very new to us, so it must have been recently renovated. It did, however, provide a good view up to the castle and back towards the Old Town, which helped with our orientation. It had been hard to mentally picture the layout of this city compared with looking at it on a map. Every time we start a walk from the apartment thinking we know which way to go, Google tells us to turn around. 😂

The other side of the river has a pleasant walkway with mainly parks and very few roads alongside. A nice place to stroll by the river. There are a couple of restaurants (not yet open), but generally the area looks underdeveloped compared with other European riverfronts. The side we started from has a busy road running right alongside it, which is less pleasant. That side is also where the river cruise boats dock, like the ones we saw in Budapest.

Once we reached the next road bridge, we crossed back to the castle side of the river. The pedestrian walkway is underneath the road traffic – you can feel the whole bridge rocking and moving when large vehicles pass overhead. From the bridge you can’t really see it, but on approach we noticed the UFO-shaped restaurant that sits on top of it.

After leaving the bridge, we found ourselves beside a very busy four-lane road, but mostly shielded by a wall. To reach the castle we walked alongside this road but also next to the old city walls. Eventually, we crossed the road on a footbridge and started heading up the hill to the castle. Lots of steps again! 😀

The castle grounds are open every day from 8 am until 10 pm. We timed it perfectly – it was now 8:08 am. We decided just to walk around and look at the exterior features of the castle (no paid entry). From in front of the castle there are great views across the river to where we had just been walking. Wow, that’s a lot of apartment blocks over there. They look very Communist-era, though I could be wrong. In the distance we could see a large wind farm as well as some coal smoke stacks.

After grabbing a few nice photos of the castle and some statues, we exited on the far side and looped back towards town and our apartment. It was 9 am, which seemed like a good time to pause for a coffee before doing more exploring.

Refreshed with caffeine, we went around the corner from the apartment into the Old Town. It’s right on our doorstep, yet our street is very quiet. Within one block, though, we were surrounded by hordes of tourists. We suspect they were mostly from the river cruise boats we saw earlier. We decided to see what they were all looking at and discovered a lovely walking street with historic buildings, statues, and fountains, all shaded by beautiful big trees. Its official name is Hviezdoslavovo námestie, which we only learned later. (“Námestie” means “square” in Slovak.) The street ended at a statue of Hans Christian Andersen, who was Danish but apparently visited here at some stage – hence the statue.

We took a side street deeper into the Old Town, heading in a roundabout way towards the Old Town Hall. Roundabout, because we wanted to check out the Sladovňa – House of Beer beer garden on the way. It was only 9:30 am, so too early for a drink – just! 😉 But maybe later!? 🤔

The Old Town Hall sits on the side of a lovely large square called Hlavné námestie. It has a fountain (Maximilian’s Fountain) and a statue of Napoleon. The most interesting thing – which Sarah pointed out – was the cannonball embedded in the wall of the town hall. It’s a reminder of the Napoleonic siege of 1809.

Our next stop was the beautiful Primacial Palace. It has several inner courtyards, one of which features a fountain statue of St. George slaying yet another dragon. No wonder dragons became extinct!

By now it was edging towards lunchtime, and we’d already walked more than 8 km. We set off in search of food and/or a cold drink. After failing to find a suitable lunch spot, we backtracked to the House of Beer and enjoyed two local brews – Sladovňa Mini Max and Sladovňa Svetlý Ležiak. Both were good, though I think mine was better. They don’t list the alcohol percentage on the menu, only the beer’s density. The waiter explained you divide that number by three to estimate the alcohol content. Ours worked out to be around 3.5% and 4.5%, fairly typical. The two beers together cost €6.20 – about $12 NZD. Not bad at all!

After our drink, it was nearly 12 pm, so on the way back to the apartment we picked up some Belgian-style fries. Very tasty – like Kiwi fries if you like them crunchy. At €6.50 they weren’t quite the same value as the beer, though.

The afternoon was spent relaxing at the apartment, including a nap for someone who doesn’t like 6 am wake-ups. 😉 We also watched videos about potential places to visit before leaving Europe. One location Sarah hadn’t been keen on is now back on the list, which should help with planning. We also need to start thinking about booking flights soon to somewhere closer to home.

For dinner, we had marinated pork medallions, Chinese-style chicken noodles, coleslaw, and a very fresh bread bun – so fresh it was still warm when we picked it up from Tesco.