Welcome to Slovakia

Slovakia has recorded extremely low Covid 19 cases and deaths during the last 5 months; they went into lockdown early and mandated the wearing of masks almost straight away.

I never imagined that I would ever be basing my holiday choice on anything like this, but needs must.

We booked a Ryanair flight directly from Edinburgh to Bratislava; it has always been on my bucket list, so I was delighted to get a good deal on flights and, as it turned out, hotel.

The flight was super early, so we were up at 3.30am. We decided to drive to the airport, so this was relatively pain-free given the number of cars on the road on a Sunday morning.

I always choose Secure-Airparks at Edinburgh airport; its handy and the service has always been good. We did not know what to expect but the car park was virtually empty. I parked easily, and the bus even waited by our car to pick us up. We donned on our facemask, ready for the adventure ahead. There were lots of hand sanitiser dispensers and most people seemed to be obeying the new rules. There was one guy who had his mask on top of his head; maybe he knows something we don't?

We cleared security relatively quickly hoping for a drink at one of the airport bars; no such luck! Nothing was open, so I had to have a latte and a cheese toastie rather than my usual holiday pint and eggs benedict. The horror!

Our flight was on-time and ready for boarding. As with most Ryanair flights, there was a tense 5 minutes where we wondered if our luggage would fit in the minuscule luggage box that they make you try-out before joining the queue. We had purchased priority boarding which entitled us to two bags, carry on and a cabin bag, and so we were feeling fine with what we had brought. Lots of folk seemed caught out though and so there were a lot of disgruntled individuals being directed to ‘go see my colleague’ to arrange a baggage tax...

We boarded the flight, fully masked and we weren’t even sitting beside each other. I’m convinced Ryanair have done this deliberately; if you want to ensure you are sitting together, you have to pay £7 each and that’s just for one way. We chose random seats which meant Iain was sitting in the row behind; what a con. As it happens, it doesn’t particularly bother us, so we didn’t give them the satisfaction of earning a few quid extra (we did buy wine with our profit though!).

The flight was relatively good, and we were prepared when they asked everyone for the additional form that now needs to be completed before boarding. I think I received at least 3 emails warning me of this before departure but clearly some people chose to ignore them. Ryanair had no spare forms on-board but luckily someone smart had spares – You’re Welcome!

We landed after 2 hours 5 minutes; it was only 10am but it was sunny and warm outside. We had to get in a bus to take us to the terminal but it was literally 100 metres away; It seemed pretty pointless, but I'm guessing there must be some regulation out there.

It took about 10 minutes to clear security and arrivals where our taxi driver was waiting patiently for us. We had pre-booked this through booking.com as I had read a few horror stories about travellers being charged crazy prices. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to be getting into a beautiful mercedes, but I’m not complaining. The ride to the hotel lasted all of 15 minutes, but it was comfortable and stress-free.

I booked Marrol’s Boutique Hotel, a 5 star hotel in the city centre by the old town. As I mentioned earlier, I got a fantastic price which included breakfast. The hotel is named after Lady Marry Ann Marrol, who was the daughter of a wealthy Scottish merchant. She, like me, loved to travel, and ended up in Pressburg, today’s Bratislava. It was on the way to Bratislava from Vienna that her carriage wheel broke and it was recommended she go to the family of Antal Marshal to repair it. Apparently this family owned the workshop and could repair the wheel quickly; they even offered her a place to stay for the night. The following day, as she was checking up on the repair, she noticed the horses were frightened and were thrashing about in the stable; there just happened to be a little boy there and his life was in danger. Apparently, she was very brave and managed to pull him aside which saved his life. As it turned out, he was the nephew of Mr Marshall. Out of gratitude, Antal Marshall named his workshop after Lady Marrol, and above the entrance he placed her portrait which has survived to this day and is now the symbol of the hotel.

Before you ask, I did not know this before I booked the hotel; it’s just a happy coincidence!

Anyway, we were far too early. We were allowed to drop off our luggage and return for check-in at 3pm. One of the concierge gave us a map and pointed out some areas of the city to visit.

We transferred a few bits and piece in and out of our luggage before heading off for a wander around the old town. We didn’t make it far before stopping for a rather large gelato cone. Iain decided we could get one of these then walk towards the castle on the hill which overlooks the city. It is only a 15-20 minute walk, up the cobbled streets but it was starting to get really warm and I was still wearing my trousers that I travelled in. We still made it, but we were both rather sweaty.

The castle sits 85 metres above the Danube and is the symbol of Bratislava. Today the castle is the seat of the Slovak National Museum. As it was so hot outside, we decided to head inside to see what it was like. It cost 10 euros each and we had to have a temperature check; you can imagine the fear given that it was 28 degrees outside, and we had been travelling all morning. Again, we were both relieved when our temperatures came back at 36.2 and 36.3 degrees.

We had to wear a mask the whole time we were in the museum which would normally be fine but there was no air-conditioning and I was boiling. We spent a good 2 hours learning about the history of the castle and Bratislava, working our way around the many floors of the castle.

The first written record of the castle goes back to 907 AD and, but it has seen many a ruler from the Celts in the 1^st century BC to the Slavs in the 5^th and 6^TH century. The present castle was built as an imperial residence in the first half of the 15^th Century and in the 16^th century became the seat of the Hungarian emperors. It underwent the last major changes in the 18^th century at the command of Maria Theresa before falling into disrepair after a fire in 1811. It was only during the second half of the 20^th century that the renovations began, and the castle has been restored to almost its former glory.

In our wisdom, or maybe stupidity, we decided to climb the crown tower to see the panoramic views of the city. This is the oldest standing building of the castle, which was built as a defensive tower in the 13^th century. In the 15^th century, it was named after the Hungarian coronation jewels which were kept here from 1552 to 1783. We slowly climbed the 47-metre-high tower which provided panoramic views of Slovakia, Austria and Hungary. It was worth the climb, but the heat was supressing. We decide enough was enough and a cold beer was required.

On the walk up to the castle, we passed a little beer garden by the side of the road. We decided to aim for here as it also had fantastic views across the Danube. A few beers later and we were feeling much better. It was almost 3pm so we decided to head back to the hotel, have a quick nap then head out for dinner.

Much to our surprise, we both felt refreshed and headed towards Most SNP, the bridge of the Slovak National Uprising. It also has the nickname UFO bridge as there is a flying-saucer shaped structure atop the bridges 84.6 metre pylon; this houses an observation deck and a restaurant. We did wonder if this was going to be a tourist trap and a bit gimmicky, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

The walk took around 20 minutes as we had to walk under the bridge on a pedestrianised walkway. It was still a beautiful night so we were fairly sure the views from the restaurant would be good. We wee seated overlooking the old town, it was stunning. The place was pretty quiet when we arrived, but it certainly filled up throughout the evening. As I said, I was suspicious of the food originally, but it was delicious. Both Iain and I had some strange concoctions, but I think the macerated cucumber for dessert was definitely odd. Funny enough, it was quite delicious and extremely refreshing.

We also enjoyed a bottle of Slovak Wine with our meal which was quite delicious; we will definitely be trying more of it.

After dinner, we took the stairs to the observation deck to view the city at night. We took a few pictures before sauntering back to our hotel for an early night; it has been a long but fulfilling first day.