Bratislava

I am writing as much of this as I can while my laptop still has power.  I am having trouble with my power converter. The one I have is set up to handle most different configurations around the world.  The main problem is that it is a rectangular cube and all the European standard plugs on the ship are recessed round holes.  So despite the fact that the prongs are long enough to reach, a rectangular cube won't fit in a round hole so it doesn't connect firmly. I have tried all sorts of Rube Goldberg solutions to get it to stay in place, and have succeeded up until now.  It just won't be coerced today.  The ship personnel loaned me one but it only takes straight 2 pronged U.S. plugs.  That works for everything but my Mac, which requires either a 3 prong plug or a square power brick that, once again, won't fit in a round hole.  I might have better luck when we transfer to the hotel in Budapest on Wednesday but I'm not counting on it.  For some reason I have been unable to publish the blog from my iPad (which I can charge),  but I might have to try again.  At the moment my Mac is at 36% power, so this may be the last time I use it until I get home.

Dawn Over Bratislava

We arrived in Bratislava early this morning and once again went out on an 8:30AM tour.  We are both really looking forward to sleeping late when we get home.  The tour guide, Dagmar, lead us to the bus, which had to park a few blocks away.  We rode around the city for about an hour to see some of the nice homes on the side of the mountain, including residences for the U.S., British, and Chinese ambassadors.  The U.S. Ambassador's residence looks like a mini white house. 


Then the bus left us off in the old section of town for a walking tour.

Slovakia is definitely the poorer half of the former Czechoslovakia.   There are many more austere structures reflecting the Communist era.  Many buildings were bombed during WW II and replaced by uninteresting box buildings. They are trying to restore many of their old buildings but it is obvious that it is taking them longer to do so.  We were interested to see that they still run electric trams through the city.

They do have a sense of humor though. We saw a wonderful sculpture of a man sticking out of a manhole in the old town.  Our guide said he is trying to look up ladies skirts.

Sculpture in the Old City

We also visited St Martin's Catholic Cathedral and the Bratislava Castle.   We were able to go inside the cathedral and learn a little of the history of that church as it survived the Communist era.  Our guide was very good in balancing the positive and negative aspects of their history.   It was interesting to note that, in this area in the 18th and 19th centuries, Protestants were only allowed to build their churches as plain buildings with no spires or other outward indications of their religion.  During the Communist era, only those approved could study for the Catholic priesthood and people going to church wore hoods so no one would know who they were.  Now, Catholicism is the dominate religion.

The Old City Hall

We saw lots of lovely old homes, churches, and remnants of the old city wall.  There is a great pedestrian promenade through the center of town past several embassy buildings, with fountains and a chess board built into the cobblestones that is large enough for people to be the chess pieces.

Chess Board on the Promenade

At the end of the tour We did a little souvenir shopping and went back to the ship for lunch.  We were supposed to go on a tour to a castle outside the city this afternoon, but we were too tired.  This was been a great trip, but the one bad thing is that there have been no rest days.  Both of us have sore legs and backs from so much walking that we are not used to.    

There is a music group coming on board at 5:30 to give us a little pre-dinner concert.  Tomorrow we arrive in Budapest, our last stop and we hope to make it through all the scheduled tours then.