We disembarked early this morning, 8:30, for tour of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The population of the country is 5.5 million and .5 million are in the city. The country is smaller than Massachusetts, they’ve been part of the European Union for 11 years. From the city, we could easily see the Austrian border, and Hungary was only 5 minutes away. Other border counties are Poland, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. Our guide, Suzanna, grew up in the city, and did a wonderful job describing her city and country.

It was part of Czechoslovakia from 1918–1939, during WWII, it was part of Hungary, then under communist rule from 1948-1989. The country became an independent state in 1993 after the velvet curtain and the end of communist rule. Suzanna’s parents used to say, that during their lifetime, they lived in Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and never left their home, the borders had changed ever so slightly over the years. During communist rule no one was allowed to travel, so when they were able to travel in the 1990s, they crossed the border to Austria 5 times in the same day, just so they could.

The city was not in great shape. You could see the deterioration. They are in the process of rebuilding since the communist rule, but are still in a state of transition. The average wage for those in the city is 800 euros a month. The main industry is the production of automobiles. We drove through both poor and Beverly Hills areas of the city, including the house where the US ambassador lives. It looks a little like the White House. We also drove by Grassalkovich Palace, where the president lives. We could tell he was there because the flag was up, and the guards were outside.

We stopped at the castle with four towers, which was in its greatest glory during the time of Maria Theresa. We then drove into Old Town to the pedestrian walkway where we saw Michael’s Gate. It’s the only city gate that has been preserved of the medieval fortifications and ranks among the oldest town buildings. We had coffee, tea and desserts in Kaffee Mayer where everything was delicious. It was located in the square where we also saw the French Embassy, the Bratislava Museum, that looked like a church saw the famous man in the manhole, the Slovak Theatre that had small busts of famous musicians. After our free time we walked back to the ship and left almost immediately. We are spending the rest of the day in the boat cruising down the Danube, we wish the weather was a little nicer. We entered the largest and last lock on our cruise. We learned that it was 60 feet high, but couldn’t determine the depth while we were in it. It took about 10 minutes to descend.

At 10:30pm, we Approached Budapest and what an amazing site. Everyone went up to the top deck of the ship to, get the full experience, and the of course the best photos. OMG, I’ve never seen anything so spectacular. Parliament was amazing, and the lighting was so bright it almost felt like day light. Other buildings were the Technology university, 4 bridges (Chain, Liberty, Margaret, Elizabeth), Royal Palace, and multiple churches.