Bratislava

This morning we sailed to Bratislava. We approached the first of 68 locks we will pass through in the next fourteen days at around 10am.

Entering the Gabcikovo Lock...

...and less than thirty minutes later the water level had risen to the top...

...and we were on our way up river.

We arrived at Bratislava, capital of Slovakia at 11am for a thirteen hours stay. We had three options here, a guided walking tour of the old city of the capital, a tour of buildings and locales from the Communist period or just wandering around on our own. We chose two of the three declining the undoubted charms of Stalinist architecture.

Our local tour guide was a comparatively young man, huge in stature and girth with a fantastic sense of humour. He had a joke for every building.

The old city area is compact and has the air of 1940s Hollywood. I could imagine the three Marx Brothers hamming it up here as residents of some loony imaginary East European kingdom. It is quite pretty and contains many attractive outdoor eateries.

It also has a zany collection of statues.

Andy Warhol in cafe

Man poking his head out of pavement

Paparazzi

Napolean and our local guide

We departed Bratislava at 11.30pm to cruise overnight to Vienna.