Sunday, November 11, 2012

czech-oh! - slow vakia

I have just spent most of the last week in Bratislava (Slovakia) and Prague (Czech Republic).

Not a lot of time granted, but Slovakia was a sudden addition as I was heading to Poland from Toulouse and the cheapest flight (by a considerable amount) was to Prague. With Slovakia so close I thought it worthwhile to nip down there and have a quick squizz.

Bratislava has quite a tiny old town with some lovely spots but really suffers in the shadow of her big sister Prague. And after the frenetic evening activity I experienced across Spain and Portugal, where the old towns came alive after 8pm with quantities of the population perambulating the squares and boulevards, and restaurants didn't begin to get going until 10pm - it was quite a shock to find people eating dinner at 5pm and the streets deserted by 7.


bratislava main square

Bratislava is dominated by Hrad castle on a hill overlooking the city. I wandered up there to have a look but then discovered it had been burnt to the ground in the early 19th century and completely rebuilt in the 1950's. Consequently I didn't fancy spending good money to go inside and see a modern interpretation.


hrad castle




danube and ufo tower


still puzzling over the crustacean/pharmacy link


bratislava is full of these small wall mounted memorials


bit of colour


no colour


bratislava town centre


brat panorama (click to enlarge)


lots of street sculptures


bandwagon-biscuits?

The are not many photos of Prague because: a) it is such a photogenic city I could fill 10 pages of this blog with photos and b) as I have been here before I saw all of the usual sights on that visit so this occasion was spent idly wandering the streets and enjoying being here without the frantic pace of sightseeing.


prague nouveau


decoration


more decoration


missed this wonderful 'dancing building' on the previous trip


prague autumn haze


prague old square panorama (click to enlarge)

No comments: