Journey Along Romantic Danube River - Take a peek into Bratislava

Honestly, this is a city I have never thought of going.  Not that I had anything against Bratislava but, I just had very little idea about this city.  I knew that it's in Slovak and that Czech Republic and Slovakia used to be the same country.  That was all about it.  I didn't knew if I should expect it to be as rich as Prague in terms of architecture.  One thing that was clear to me was that the city must be very small as our ship only stop there for a half day, not even a lunch out.
We arrived early in the morning, probably before I woke up.  Today, our cruise offered three types or, should I say, paces of tour; active walk, regular tour and mini train for elderly or anyone with walking difficulty.  Our group separated in two as my brother and I preferred to walk cuz we wanted to take pictures.  The rest of the team took the mini train.  We basically went along similar route.  We could see the mini train passed by almost constantly.

  Our ship docked not very far from the city center, about a couple blocks away.  A short walk from the dock brought us to a Hviezdoslav square where the National Theatre is.  

We stopped there for awhile for our guide to give us some info about Bratislava's history.  I have to admit that I can't remember.  While listening to the guide, I looked around a bit (got the Vox device so, I didn't need to stay at our guide side.)  The first thing that attracted my attention was actually the design of the walk way.  In front of the National Theatre was a round design which was kind of classic and nice especially when it was in front of the theatre.  I think I made the place looked grander.  Looking at the opposite direction and I found images of houses...it was quite cute.  It was such a contrast, classic and older design on one side and cute and childish look an the other side.

The guide brought us to St. Martin's Cathedral (honestly can't remember the direction).  Don't know if it was intentional or not but, we turned left and right on many corners that I got so confused.  I mean it would be alright if I just look at a map and find my way but, after so many turns with guide, I just lost my bearing.  We found ourselves behind the cathedral.  It was a combination of beautiful classic building on one side and very old (almost) crumbled cathedral on the other side plus a tree that hasn't yet recovered from winter. 

It was too bad that the bell tower was under renovation and was covered all the way to the roof.  So, what we saw was a green tower.  We went up the steps behind the cathedral and saw a very decayed building with some paintings.  It looked sad because the building was really in a bad shape.  Bad enough that it could be a haunted house.  But, the paintings gave it a hint of life. 

We went around the cathedral until we got to the entrance and that was it, we were off to another place....Peak-a-boo tour again!!  It was so annoying.  Basically, we didn't get to see inside of any building...insane, do you agree?  Then, our guide confused us again with turns after turns on many small alleys until we got to Michalská street.  There we found Korzo stone.  It was a very strange thing to be in a beautiful old city.  The guide mentioned that it was a monument that remind its people of the time under communist... yeah, spiky stone would be a good representation of that regime.  From the stone, we could see Micheal's Gate & Tower.  This is one of the oldest town building and was built around medieval time, 1300.  It was reconstructed around 1758 in order to place the status of St. Micheal and the Dragon. 

Again, we didn't really get to see it up close.  We walked around quite a bit more and saw many beautiful buildings.  Here are some pictures for you to get some idea. 

Along the way, I noticed that there were some kind of seals on the cobblestone path.  From what I read, it signified the procession route for the coronation.  I kind of made me imagine what it was like in the past.  That we didn't just walk on any street but, quite a significant one.

Then we went to main square and on to Primate's Square to see Primate's palace.  This palace was built between 1778 to 1781 for Archbishop Jozsef Batthyany.  It's supposed to house a famous Hall of Mirror which sadly, we didn't get to see.

After some pictures opportunity, we headed back to the main square.  As the name, this square is much bigger than others we have passed.  Around the square, there are embassies (Japan and France), restaurants as well as town hall.  When we were there, it was just after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  So, there were quite a lot of flowers in front of Japanese Embassy.  It was quite a sad scene.  In front of France embassy, the guide point out a bronze figure leaning against a bench.  It was a statue of French soldier with the uniform of Napoleonic period.  It was quite an attraction.

There is also a big fountain, Roland fountain.  This is probably where their people hang out.  The guide allowed us a bit of time to take pictures then, we moved on to the end of our tour.  After that we had a bit of free time before we had to board the ship. 
One thing that stood out for me, while we were there, was that thereSchöner Náci, a famous clown during mid 20th century.

Another spot, guide took us to see a sign "Man at work" at the junction of Rybárska brána and Panská and Laurinská streets.  I didn't really understand its significant at first cuz, I only looked at the sign.  The real attraction was actually on the ground.  There was a statue, like a miner or drainage cleaner, poked his head out off the drain.  Very creative and people just love it.  We took its picture then when to another place.  When we passed that junction again, I was surprised to see another statue, very similar to the original "Man at work" but this one was a man imitating the statue.  What an idea!!

Well, we didn't stroll around far cuz, we didn't think that we had enough time.  So, we decided to end our Bratislava trip and headed back to our ship.  We cruised all afternoon to get to the next destination, Vienna.

To be continue...