Mon 30.Jul.2018
Bratislava, Slovakia
How to be sure that I post some Slovakia pictures while I am still here in
Slovakia?
Here is one way: skip Prague, and go straight to Slovakia. And start with The
Beautiful (Brown) Danube and the New Bridge, as seen from Bratislava Castle.
For good measure, show a less-cliched angle on the New Bridge as well.
There is our old buddy Bratislava Castle at the end of the street.
Up The River
As long as we are in Bratislava, this must be an afternoon visit to Vienna.
A Shopping court off of Mariahilferstrasse.
Romantic CANDLELIGHT DINNER in the Vienna Giant Wheel
No - really!
I don't do romance or candle light with the friend I was with that afternoon, but we
did ride the Riesenrad, just like the guys in The Third Man. I enjoyed it ...
... if only because you get a new view of the rest of the Prater.
Meanwhile, Back in Bratislava
Somebody has turned DESIGNERS loose on the restrooms in my favorite shiny new mall
by the Danube. Even on the approach corridors. When you go for a pit stop here, you are
no longer off in the service corridors - you are still part of
The Shopping Experience!
Actually it is kind of more fun this way. On a smaller scale, it is like the effect
in the vast neighborhoods of high-rise slab apartment blocks, when suddenly one
year they turned
from endless bare concrete to random patterns in pastel shades. Sometimes you don't
realize what ugliness you have been tuning out, until you don't need to do it any
more.
Temps in the 30's C, and these Misty Arches - hey, that's a good name for a girl
you had
a crush on in high school! - anyway these guys get plenty of appreciation.
The coffee house I am sitting in has been playing non-stop stamping-mill music.
In fairness it is a lighter variety. Like stamping out legos or kid toys, not
auto bodies.
Up On The Hill
High on a hill behind the city proper, in the midst of a vast forest park, stands
a prominent TV tower. Near the base is a picnic and playground area. I don't remember
noticing this wheelie sled with ski lift before. I'm sure it must have been here all
along. I just don't climb up here more than once a year.
The sign in three languages calls this a Sommer Rodelbahn in German, a Bob
Transport in Slovak, and something unclear in English. It compares to an Olympic luge,
the way a mini-golf compares to Laguna Seca. Mini or not, kids were having a blast
on it. This guy rode at least seven times in a row!
The kids were having such a blast! Then this trio of English twenty-somethings
rode it, and they loved it too.
What the hey! The three English folks together totalled about my age - if they
could, I could! So I did. Here is a selfie on the return to the top. The going
down part was more exciting, but I wanted both hands, to work the brake and hang on.