Day 2-Bratislava Part 1

We got up early and had a wonderful breakfast and said goodbye to our friends who were off to a day in Vienna. Mark and I been there several times, so we stayed in Braislava for today.

We started our walk up to the Bratislava Castle first thing. It is large and the view is amazing, the historic Danube river, the famous modern bridge and numerous communist housing high- rises across the river.

                           

We enjoyed St. Martin's Cathedral. I loved hearing the bells.

 The Crypt and steep stairs to it.

 Cardinals burial coffins.

We went to lunch at a 250 year old restaurant, well the place was that old but the actual restaurant was only 40 years old. We had the local specialty--roasted duck, purple cabbage and potato pancakes. It was so delicious and as we sat looking out over the Danube, I thought about when I was in Europe the first time when I was 17 and came to Vienna with two other younger girls, we could not visit Bratislava. Mark and I talked about the history of the Soviet Union and how happy we are to be here in this beautiful free country.

We walked along the river and visited the shopping mall that looked suspiciously like malls all over the US--even the same stores and brands. I got way too excited when I saw a Spencer and Marks store that is from England. Mark started laughing at me scouring the store for my favorite cookies, the ones with shortbread, carmel and chcolate. My mouth was watering, but they did not have them. I guess we will have to go back to London sometime to get them.

We met our friends the Ringgers for dinner tonight. Nathan is the #2 guy in the US Embassy here. They used to be our neighbors in Draper.  They took us to a restaurant where we got our own room for our small group of Draperites.  Here the bathrooms were marked with even different letters.  It is so confusing.  I was so hungry again, so I ordered two entrees.  Only one came and so I ate it all and we ordered dessert.  Just before they brought out dessert, my other meal came.  Oh well, we all had a taste of it.  It was good, but I was too full to eat it.  It was so much fun to be with Tammi and Nathan.  Nathan did a lot of translating for us and taught us about the area.