A day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia to buy Museli

On Saturday we travelled to Bratislava for the day, not really to buy Museli but to sightsee on the Danube and in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

The day began with an early call at 0600 in the camping ground at Klosterneuberg, just outside Vienna, Austria. We caught local OBB train number S40 towards Vienna, changing to the U line 4 (almost underground train) at Helingstadt. Then we changed to the Twin Cities ferry at the river terminal adjacent to Schwedenplatz U station.

The early start was to ensure we caught the 0830 catamaran ferry, the one we wanted at 0900 was fully booked. Obviously travelling to Bratislava is popular on a Saturday morning for the Viennese! The run in the CAT ferry takes about 75 minutes down river, passing quite a bit of commercial river traffic each way. We intend to return by train, its only 60 kms and one hour in the train back to Vienna Sudbanhof from the Hlvansti Stanica station in Bratislava.

Bratislava has quite a small but beautiful city centre and is not yet tourist overloaded. Lots of public transport, buses, trolley buses and trams, you can purchase a 15 or 60 minute ticket, or 24 hour.

There is quite a contrast between the old town and the 1950/60’s Soviet Communist housing development on the other side of the Danube. 

We did run out of Museli at the camp ground this morning and have not found a shop in Vienna that we can get to in opening hours, so when we found a food shop in the old town of Bratislava we stocked up on museli!

Friday night we went on a “third man” walking tour of Vienna. Dorothy missed out on this tour four years ago as it only runs once or twice a week. For those not in the know, “The Third Man” was a famous B/W movie produced in 1948 and set and partially filmed in post war divided occupied Vienna. It has cult status and we went on the walking tour of the scenes used in the movie. For quite a few of the dramatic scenes in the movie, the backdrop buildings still exist today. The tour guide was well qualified and bilingual, his mother began the tour some 23 years ago and she has written a coffee table book on the subject.

Well bye from an internet bar in the old town of Bratislava, must catch the number 13 tram and that train to Vienna.  WIFI internet access is not that easy to find, much like food stores!