October 12, 2023

Dateline – Bratislava, Slovakia

The nice thing about a river cruise is that the hotel basically makes its way from city to city overnight and, as you’re on a river, there’s essentially no water motion to disturb you. Therefore it was another dead to the world for nine or ten hours nights last night. I was up to late for breakfast but even on a river cruise there’s somewhere to find food at almost any hour. I went to bed in Hungary but woke up this morning and woke up in Slovakia (again). This was not difficult as they are opposite banks of the Danube in this stretch of the river. Bratislava is located right where Austria, Hungary and Slovakia all come together – where the river cuts through a chain of hills and out onto the plains of Hungary. I went to the Slovak history museum and now know a good deal more Slovak history than I did this morning.

I have been to Bratislava before. Long term readers of these pieces may recall my last visit in July of 2019 (scroll way down. There are three volumes of The Accidental Plague Diaries in between.) The city hasn’t changed much in 4 1/2 years. Three of them were, of course, a world wide pandemic and sort of slowed everything done. I therefore elected not to join the formal walking tour of the city led by our intrepid Tauck Tours guides and struck out on my own. I wandered through the old city, poking my nose into places that looked interesting, had a cup of coffee at a cafe on the central square and spent a bit of time at the Slovak National Art Museum. (Nothing especially distinguished on the walls). I then decided to venture up Castle Hill, which I had not done on my last visit.

If there is one thing I have learned about Europe over the years, it is that climbing hills and stairs will be involved. All of the castles and other areas of interest are always at the top of the high point due to principles of warfare and defense in the pre-gunpowder era. You have the advantage against an attacking enemy if you’re in a position to drop things on their heads while they’re running uphill in armor. Bratislava castle, which has its origins in Neolithic fortifications, started to take its present form in the 10th century as the kingdoms of middle and Eastern Europe began to take shape around the squabbles of the Holy Roman Empire and the need to defend against the occasional incursions of the Mongol hordes. It was well established by the 15th century and later, the Hapsburgs appropriated it as a royal residence under Maria Theresa and gave it a major Baroque makeover. (Gunpowder and cannon having made castles on hills not so much of a military asset). It was destroyed by fire in 1811 and left a ruin watching over the town as the Austrian-Hungarians changed the name to Pressburg (Bratislava being brought back after the collapse of the Empire following World War I).

It was not until the 1950s that the city set about restoring the castle to its earlier state. The chief restorers were punished by the Soviet authorities for not buying into their ideology that good could only be found in the forward movement of collectivism. The same petty stream of thought that caused Soviet planners to place a Danube bridge and expressway on the site of the great synagogue (destroying it) and across the front porch of the cathedral as a measure of spite for Czechosovakia’s Prague Spring in 1968. But, eventually the castle was restored to glory, the Soviets kicked out after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Slovakia regained its independence from the Czech Republic with the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The castle is very nice, but there remains work to be done on the interiors and they seem to keep discovering new things as archeological work is done on the grounds. I was most impressed with the grand Baroque stairway. I felt I needed 18th century court costume to walk up and down it.

Back to the old town for a late lunch, more poking around, and then a return to the ship for a nap before dinner as my pedometer was most happy. Dinner was pork tenderloin with apple cobbler for dessert followed by a jazz combo in the lounge who were really quite good, especially the pianist. Not staying up late tonight. Vienna tomorrow. And that’s one of my favorite cities of all time.