Day 21 Bratislava, Slovakia. New Country, New Fun

Joan's View

It took a little time to navigate the city streets of Vienna before we got back on the bike trail that took us through the island where arrived into Vienna. Thank goodness it's Sunday and that it rained yesterday instead of today. We did get to see, as we rode out of the city, this old ferris wheel which is famous in Vienna. It was built in 1897 and at one point was scheduled for demolition, but they didn't have the funds. Now, it is a landmark and still runs.



Another interesting sight on our way out of Vienna was this water arena. Hundreds of swimmers with wet suits were warming up for what appeared to be a long distance swimming competition. Nick, Tisha, Angie, Kaye or any of you other marathon runners may want to put this on your bucket list. We could see as we followed along the Donau, the buoys that marked their swimming route. Tony thought the buoys in the river went about 1.50 miles from the start.

We also saw this ingenius slide in a childrens park. We could have done this at our house when our kids were little.

We rode for miles pretty solitary on the Donau trail, so it was very peaceful. It would have been that way almost entirely to Bratislava except that we were detoured because of a dam reconstruction. It took us a while to figure out which way to go when we got stopped by the trail closed sign. Once again, we asked a local for directions. This girl was out for a jog and even jogged back to clarify with us the directions. I guess she sensed the confused look on our faces. The detour took us several miles out of the way, but we got to ride through some great small towns and see more of the countryside. At one point,  some other riders asked Tony for tools to fix their bike seat, but Tony kept his tools to a bare minimum so the wrench they needed is at home. The down side to our detour was all of the gravel roads that really mucked up our bike. With the rain from yesterday, Tony had to dodge mud puddles. The gravel splattered all over the bike and mud caked on the frame in some spots. It's still better than riding in the rain though! At one point the path took us right up to this castle. It looked like we might have to ride through it, but you can see the detour sign turned us left before we got there. We also saw lots more Mary shrines and crosses which is always neat to see.

Eventually, we entered Slovakia. We saw signs of communist remnants, and again, there was very little marking the border into Slovakia.

Bratislava is beautiful city. We did a little exploring here already. Shortly after getting settled in and feeling really hungry, we found a cute outdoor restaurant to sit, eat, and people watch. Tony got his usual LARGE beer, and this time they filled it up beyond the fill line on the glass. Things are also a little cheaper here. Tony said that that restaurant was his best meal yet on our trip (It could have just been the beer talking).  It's crowded here probably because we are staying in the old city which is a tourist magnet. There are lots of Asians from cruise ships snapping pictures. We watched tons of people get their picture with this statue (above), which we deduced must be famous. After getting Tony to pose with it and then later looking it up, it is a famous local who followed in his Grandfather's footsteps as a clown, and loved to bring smiles to the locals. 

One of the other fun photo spots was this polar bear. This is for all of my ONU pals. Speaking of ONU, we could have used Tom, who rode with us in February, behind us today to keep us entertained on the long straight ride. 







We managed to find ice cream again today, and I even got more vegan ice cream, coffee flavored this time. Tony had ice cream twice today so here is a quote that we captured in a picture to share in his enjoyment.

The street outside our airbnb. Umbrellas

One more thing to add - yesterday's wifi was extremely weak so here is a picture of Tony last night enjoying the opera that is broadcast live on a big screen outside of the Vienna Opera House. I told him that he got to hear opera music also at St. Stephen's while we waited for the English mass. The German mass with the bishop had an opera quality choir and orchestra. He wanted to go to the German mass after all. Our family calls that a "Frason."

Tony's Extras

We crossed another country border today, so I stopped and got a picture of the Austria sign on the right. We didn't get one the first time. The picture to the left was a pretty cool bridge. The cables were orange, which I knew Marla would like because orange is her favorite color. This bridge was over a mile long to cross the Danube flood plain. It must really flood at this point. It was actually scary riding across it because it was only about 4 feet wide. We only crashed once. I ran into the guard rail on the left and bruised my arm and shoulder and cut my small finger on the left hand. Nothing Neosporin and a band aid can't fix.

 The bridge to the left is also super cool. It has a restaurant on the top of the middle pier. I like Bratislava. It is one of my favorite. Large beer is only 1.90 Euro. 😀 We went into the cathedral in town and this church to the right, both beautiful. I'm looking forward to walking around the city tomorrow. Hopefully not too much rain, but it's better to rain when we aren't riding. I will need to take some time to clean the bike and oil the chains.