Bratislava
Today is the day we get to try out our super dooper audio-guides as we're breaking up into four bus-loads each with a different local tour guide for our exploration of Bratislava. We had all gathered together in the lounge yesterday afternoon to be instructed on our to use the equipment, tune it into the correct channel, adjust the volume on the ear-pieces etc. Given that the average age of our group is 70, inevitably people still got it wrong!
Our group was lucky enough to score a lovely guide called Katerina to lead our group. She had a fantastic sence of humour and told us lots of stories and history of Bratislava as we drove around the streets. She really made the trip wonderful.
We had a little red Noddy train this time. We had arrived up at the castle very early, but by the time we'd finished our tour of the castle and the lovely parterre gardens surrounding it we came back to find our little Noddy train severely parked in by several large touring coaches that had arrived after us. How our driver untangled himself from this mess was a sight to behold. He must be used to it though as he seemed completely un-phased by it and got us out of there with no scrapes or tooting of horns.
Bratislava is a lovely place. It is now the capital of Slovakia and has been at various times part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some of the buildings in the city showed signs of the various wars it has been through, with cannon balls still embedded in the walls, but most of the city has gradually been re-built and now it is a very busy and bustling city. Sadly we are not seeing it at its best as it's another rainy day. At least we don't have the 40 degree heat they suffered here last week.
We loved some of the quirky sculptures around town. The one that tickled us most was the one with a guy peeping up from a man-hole! There were lots of fountains and green avenues where you could sit in little trattorias drinking coffee.
After returning to our boat we had some relaxing time on the upper deck, surveying the view and chatting with our fellow passengers. It is a very friendly group and we have gotten to know so many people as we sit with different groups for our meals or see them on deck.
That little fellow peeping out of the manhole was one of our favourite too, along with the red pokka dot coffee vans we spied around town...
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