Danube Bike Tour Day 28: Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia
Posted by Cassie, December 3rd, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Distance: 26km
In contrast to yesterday’s nice weather, today was a cold, gray, wet day. Last night, the sky was so clear that I was surprised to wake up to the sound of rain on the tent. Jonathan had a pretty miserable night because his Thermarest was punctured last night when he sat on the pot holder that was lying on it. He patched his Thermarest, but it still leaked air. It was cold last night, so he didn’t have much insulation between him and the cold, hard ground. This morning, Jonathan tried re-patching the Thermarest. However, after he re-patched it, it was still leaking air. It was really frustrating, and we wouldn’t be able to camp again if his Thermarest was busted. Then, Jonathan realized that the Thermarest had been punctured through to the other side. He only patched one side, so air was still leaking out the other side. However, we had used up all the patches for the Thermarest. But, we still had lots of bike patches, and he was able to patch the Thermarest with them. His Thermarest seemed to be fixed, so we would still be able to camp. 🙂
We got a late start with Jonathan fixing his Thermarest. Petronell-Carnuntum had a large archaeological park with Roman Ruins, but we didn’t have time to check them out. Instead, we rode by the Roman Heidentor (Heathen’s Gate) on the way out of town. It was not actually a gate, but one of the four entrances to a victory monument for Caesar Constantine II around 354-361 AD.
Heidentor at Carnuntum
We had a wet, cold ride to Bratislava. We experienced the most defined border crossing of the trip between Austria and Slovakia. There was a large border checkpoint, but it was no longer in use since Slovakia joined the European Union.
Border checkpoint between Austria and Slovakia
Originally, we were planning on continuing on to Hungary today, but it was such a miserable day that we decided to stop for the night in Bratislava. We found a great hostel near the city center. The hostel was run by Hostelling International, but it was much different from the Hosteling International places in Germany and Austria. The hostel was located in an old building with lots of character, and it was conveniently located. We got a large double room with high ceilings, and it even had a balcony!
Our awesome room with a balcony!
We were really glad that we decided to stop in Bratislava. The old city was really neat, and it was closed off to cars! It was fun to walk around, and there were a lot of other tourists. I didn’t think that Bratislava was big tourist destination, but it may be a tourist stop because of its proximity to Vienna. We got roasted chestnuts from a stand in one of the squares. I had never had roasted chestnuts before, and they were really good.
Bratislava old city
The old city of Bratislava was really neat, but the rest of the city was not so nice. Once we left the city center, we encountered the dull, gray, ugly Soviet apartment buildings. Slovakia was the first Eastern European country we visited, and it was a whole different experience from Western Europe.
Abandoned Soviet apartment building
However, in the midst of all these dull, concrete apartment buildings, we found a beautiful, blue church. I think it was my favorite church we visited on the trip. The design of the building was very unusual, and it reminded me of the buildings that Hundertwasser designed.
We also went to the observation tower on the New Bridge. It is called the UFO because of its shape. It looked similar to the Space Needle in Seattle. We had a great view of the city from the tower. It was so windy at the top of the tower that I felt like I was going to be blown over!
UFO on New Bridge
View of Bratislava from UFO
Petrzalka was the city across the river from Bratislava, and there were Soviet apartment buildings as far as you could see. A guy we met told us that Petrzalka had one the highest concentrations of Soviet apartment buildings in Eastern Europe.
Petrzalka
I was worried about going to Slovakia when we didn’t speak any Slovakian. We were only going to be in Slovakia for a day, so it didn’t make sense to try to learn the language. Fortunately, it was not a problem at all! Everyone spoke English really well, and a lot of the signs were in English, too.
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