Day 32 - Day in Bratislava

I am finding that a day off still has enough tasks lurking in the shadows that the hope for a lengthy period of empty-minded nothingness is usually not much more than an aspiration. However, I was aided this morning by being unable to sleep and getting up at 5.30am, giving me a period of grace before breakfast and the day's start.

Apart from wandering the old town a little more with its pedestrianised and narrow streets, I had two aims today: the city museum in the old Town Hall and a museum of arms which - more interesting to me - also showed the development of the city and its protective walls. The city museum turned out to be an eclectic mix of the history of the Town Hall building itself, religious artefacts and the history of various institutions within the city. The most interesting thing though was a video that described with old photographs the life story of three local people who had lived through different political changes in the city - one for each of the two World Wars and one for post war communism - and the personal upheavals these entailed. The repeated theme of questioned nationality and not feeling like a citizen in the city and country where you were born and in which you grew up because of deep rooted political change makes you appreciate the stability the UK continues to enjoy despite any current issues. 

The second museum turned out to have been closed. It had been located in the tower of Michael's Gate, the one remaining gate into the original city. I could pay to go up for the view but I had seen views yesterday from above the bridge and today from the Town Hall tower so I explored the city's back streets and then took the opportunity to find that elusive period of empty-minded nothingness.  Eventually those lurking tasks had to be addressed so the bicycle got a check over in readiness for tomorrow and I looked in more detail at the route to Budapest having learned of the closure of a Danube ferry on the route. Dinner at one of the ‘authentic Slovakian cuisine' restaurants in the old town and a final wander through the evening streets rounded off the day and then it was back for an early night in readiness for a long ride tomorrow.

I’ve traded in the bike…