Let's cycle to the castle, it's not that far!

Devin Castle is only 10 km from the city. In my wisdom, I thought it would be a nice cycle and it would be a different experience rather than getting the bus or the boat to the castle.

I wasn't completely wrong, but it wasn't plain sailing or cycling for that matter!

We had breakfast at the hotel again; maybe my choice of food was better today as it seemed slightly better or maybe my expectations had been lowered given yesterday's experience. It was still busy but bearable. After breakfast, we returned to our room to pack for a cycle in 30 degrees and to try and figure out where we could get a bicycle or two!

We decided to ask at the hotel, thankfully we did; who knew they had bicycles in the garage under the hotel. We rented 2 bikes and helmets for 18 euros each, now it was time to cross our fingers and hope we made it back alive!

You might think I am being a bit melodramatic but both Iain and myself are not particularly confident cycling, even on a cycle path. We decided to walk through the city streets to get to the cycle path which runs along the banks of the Danube. 

The first part of the cycle was easy as we literally followed the river for a few kilometres. It then started to get slightly trickier as we had to follow the path through the forest taking us slightly away from the Danube. We followed this path for another 4 kilometres, before the path ended. 

We didn't really want to go on the road, so we carried our bikes up a steep set of steps to follow a path around some houses among the hills. It wasn't really worth it, as we eventually ended up on the road anyway. 

Thankfully we had our helmets and the traffic was pretty light so it wasn't too stressful. We found another forest path but regretted this immediately as it was all uphill. I know my quads are going to be aching tomorrow. Again, this ended rather quickly and we were back on the road but we eventually made it, delighted that we were still alive!

The cycle was actually quite enjoyable and we were quite surprised when we arrived at the castle to see a hub of activity. The castle is actually a ruin but it is described as one of the best sights in Bratislava. 

Unfortunately, we arrived between  12 and 1 which is the "the sanitary break"; I'm not 100% sure what this means but the castle was closed so we just had to go for a beer instead!

Along with my beer, I had a Kofola which originated in the Czechoslovak Research Institute of Medicinal Plants in Prague in 1959. They were doing research targeted at finding a possible use for surplus caffeine produced in coffee roasting. The resulting dark-coloured, sweet-and-sour syrup Kofo became the main ingredient of a new drink named Kofola introduced in 1960. During the 1960s and 1970s Kofola became exceedingly popular in communist Czechoslaovakia because it substituted for Western Cola drinks like Coca-Cola or Pepsi, which were not generally available. Even today, Kofola is a popular option in restaurants.

After our refreshments, we walked up the small hill to the castle entrance…again!

It was 5 euros each to get in, and the one clear observation we both had was that we were going to have to more hills and steps to climb to get to the top.

A bit of background to the castle first.

It is built at the confluence of the Danube and the Morava rivers. The oldest artefacts show the existence of settlements from the early Iron Age. In the late Bronze Age, a fortified settlement was constructed here; in the mid Bronze age, it was a burial place and at the end of the Bronze Age a fortified settlement was again constructed on the crag. In the Late Iron Age, in the 1^st century, Celts settled in the territory, but this was destroyed by German tribes in the second and third decades of the 1^st century.

By the end of the 1^st century, the Romans extended their empire and Devin became part of the fortification system on the Danube. There have been lots of evidence of various settlements from this period, from the Great Movement of Nations in the 5^th century and the Great Moravian Empire in the 8^th century. The inhabitants of the  area built a village here, which existed from the 10^th to 13^th century.

In the 13^th century, Devin was a royal castle and served as a boundary fortress in the period of the Hungarian Empire. From the 15^th century, the castle  was occupied by a succession of aristocratic families but in 1809, Napoleonic troops blew the castle up; there was no reason for this, but they did it anyway. The last family that owned the castle, the Palffy’s lost interest and its ruins steadily deteriorated. It was only in 1961 that Devin Castle was declared a National Heritage Site and visitors were able to visit from 1965 onwards.

We started on our way before arriving at the lower castle tier; we decided to ignore the first history exhibition and do this on the way back down. There was a large well in the centre of the castle which was 55 metres deep; it was one of the castle guides jobs to demonstrate how long it would take for water to reach the bottom, we obviously obliged with an “ahh, that’s deep.”

We continued on our way again deciding to conquer the upper castle tier. It was a reasonable climb which took us to the top and the vantage point of the two rivers meeting as well as view over to Austria and Bratislava city.

We also went to one of the exhibitions in the caves of the upper castle which housed numerous artefacts from various points throughout history. As we were inside the caves for this, we had to wear a mask which was stifling. Thankfully it was only a small exhibition and we were finished before we knew it. 

After the steep climb, we decided to go back down to the lower level and the exhibition which housed the history of the castle. Again we were masked, but it was relatively small and to the point. We walked around some of the grounds before realising it was now 3pm and we best start the cycle back to Bratislava.

We were both feeling slightly sore, I don't know how cyclist do it, but I had a numb bum! Nevertheless, I was feeling a bit more confident in our cycle back, particularly along the road. We started off pretty well, although I could feel every pothole and uneven piece of tarmac. After about 2 kilometres, there was what looked like a cycle path so we pulled off the main road. Big mistake! 

Only 30 seconds into it and Iain hit a pothole, bang, the tyre burst. He didn't let on and kept cycling on the rim until we got to a gate across the path. Even thought the tyre was flat, he was thankfully still able to keep going, albiet, he had no real control other than going in a straight line. We were still going down this path and seemed to be making progress until we came to a bridge - it was a bridge into Austria and totally blocked off! I'm sure you can imagine the words swirling round my head....

Anyway, we walked back up to the main road, knowing we would have to get going somehow. There was still 8 or so kilometres to go and it was already 3.30 pm. Every time the traffic seemed to dissipate, we would cycle, otherwise we walked along the side of the road with our bikes. We eventually made it to the cycle path which we knew meant no more road and Iain jumped on his bike aiming to make the most of the underinflated tyre. 

It is unbelievable but we actually made it all the way back to the UFO Bridge without stopping. Iain was going like the clappers just to beat friction while I did small pedals then coasted for a while. I have never been happier to see a UFO. Once we had made it to the promenade near our hotel, we dismounted the bikes and walked the rest of the way, albeit a bit like John Wayne when he got off a horse.

We left our bikes in the parking garage, mentioned to front desk that one of the tyres was flat (oops) and headed straight for a cold shower. Remarkably, we made it back by 5pm meaning we had plenty of time to relax and unwind before our dinner reservation at 7.30 that evening.

Although the return journey was not particularly fun for us, I would totally recommend cycling to the castle. The terrain is reasonably flat if you don't go off-road and the traffic is nothing to worry about. I would do it again, if I wasn't all black and blue from the seat!

As I said we had a reservation for dinner at 7.30 pm; thankfully we did not have far to go as we had booked Houdini's, the restaurant in our hotel. We were still to use our free drinks voucher so we headed down 20 minutes early hoping they would happily oblige. We enjoyed a free sparkling wine before ordering the food for the evening. I always like to choose random things so went with the "gratinated while mold cheese" to being with followed by "sous vide roe deer saddle." We ordered another bottle of Dunaj, the red that we had at the UFO, but this one was from a different producer and different year. It was also very full bodied, and much less fruity that the one the previous evening, not that we were complaining at all! I also managed some Mirabelle plum dumplings for dessert which were also delicious. 

We had managed to outlast everyone having dinner and by 10pm, we also decided to call it a night. The great thing about the hotel is that the bar is also part of Houdini's so we took a drink back to the room with us, whether we stayed awake to drink would be another story....