By the Danube

DOMINANT FEATURE: Bratislava Castle is the main castle of Bratislava. The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on an isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians directly above the Danube river. Because of its size and location, it has been a dominant feature of the city for centuries. Pictures supplied

Gisborne’s Phil and Sue Newdick continue their travels in Bratislava, Slovakia, and Brno in the Czech Republic . . .

As there was no train connection from Poland into Slovakia, we opted for another bus ride to Bratislava. It was a bit of a worry to start with — the bus station at Krakow is very busy and there is no English on any of the departure or arrival boards. Our bus was a twice-weekly service and as such had no real designated space. It was running about 35 minutes late and as we had booked online, we were not totally sure in our own minds if it would even arrive.

By the time our big yellow bus arrived we were two very concerned Kiwis, but the bus and the service provided certainly made up for any reservations we had. The trip took about six hours, and a 15-minute walk took us to our apartment in Bratislava. Even with the delayed departure from Krakow, we had only kept our host waiting a few minutes.

What an awesome guy! There was nothing we could ask for that was too much trouble — even the train tickets we booked online to take us from Bratislava to Brno in the Czech Republic were printed and left on the table while we were out. He gave us a list of must-see places . . . of which, we included the most moving one on our second last day.

It was the monument the Slovaks erected to the 6500-plus Russian soldiers who died in the liberation of Bratislava from the Germans.

We have found so much of this history on this journey. Our knowledge of the Soviets certainly didn’t include the sacrifices they made during the war to liberate the German-occupied countries. Maybe their politics were unacceptable to Western idealism, but the impression we had coming through Russia is reinforced by learning about these sacrifices that were made.

On our last full day we took a leisurely river cruise up the Danube to the ruins of Devin Castle, an ancient fortification at the junction of the Danube and Morava rivers.

Slovakia’s total population is 5.4 million, of which 430,000 live in Bratislava, the capital. The country has been a member of the European Union since 2004, which means New Zealanders don’t need visas. We missed this place during our Balkan tour and were very glad we took the opportunity to rectify the omission.

On to Czech RepublicThe next leg to Brno in the Czech Republic was a mid-morning start, a two-hour train trip then a very convenient tram ride to within 500 metres of our new address. No real drama and even switching from euros to Czech korunas was not a problem.

We managed Poland without using any hard cash, only our plastic, but there are some things in the Czech Republic that only koruna can buy.

Brno has managed to keep some of its old buildings in spite of the war and ravages of time. Like most of the old town areas we have visited, it is small. But because of the narrow streets and close proximity of the buildings, it’s very easy to lose your way in.

Not being highly-profiled on the tourist trail, good souvenirs are not easy to find — we prefer it like that. We still managed to do what we wanted and feed ourselves well.

We investigated the labyrinth under the old town square and market, and also took a bus or two to the Hrad Veveri (Squirrel Castle) which still contains a lot of parts that were built in the 14th century. We had one small glitch: we bought what was supposed to be a train ticket to our next stop (Pardubice) for September 4, and only realised when we translated it that it was issued for the day we had bought it. We returned to the ticket office the next day and after a whole lot of messing about replaced it.

While we were on the job we decided to book our next leg, but were advised to stay with online bookings and use the phone for confirmation, as it would be cheaper. This suited us just fine as online bookings are done in English and wrong dates don’t normally happen. — To be continued