We started today out with Jim & Sherri's second escape game.
We're a lot out of focus, but we escaped.
This is looking up our street.
St. Martina's steeple and a golden fleece.
The UFO again. I think there's a restaurant at the top.
This is St. Michael's Gate. It was built in the 1300s and is the only medieval fortification remaining. The tower houses a weapons museum. It counts as a climbable thing, so we're going to climb it.
This marks where the executioner used to live, next to St. Michael's Gate.
Anyway, onto the weapons! Sherrie didn't join us on the climb as her knee was bothering her.
Swords!
Austrian, Turkish, Shasqua-cossack, and Hungarian sabres from the 17 and 1800s.
A collection of cutlasses from Central Europe, Germany, and Austria.
A model of what St. Michael's gate used to look like before Baroque renovations.
It is also the symbol of Bratislava.
Military uniforms including a drum and a horse harness.
A pocket pistol/knife combination from 1800.
So if your aim isn't great, you can still stab someone.
A look down the street that leads to St. Michael's Gate.
A view over the old city up to Bratislava Castle.
Looking over the roofs of the old city into the modern city.
After St. Michael's Gate, we headed to the Town Hall and the City Museum.
Inside the Town Hall courtyard.
Before entering the museum, there was a scale model of what Bratislava looked like in the 1500s.
Let me also say, the museum ended up being much larger than we were expecting.
The museum started out with a bunch of religious related items, such as this religious vestment.
And all these chalices, monstrances, thuribles, and other metal goods.
Statue of St. Stephan from 1750. He is too fabulous for you.
Head of a Bishop from the 18th century. He looks like he's having a conniption.
The museum had a nice view of the Christmas Market.
And a nice view of the Town Hall courtyard's mini Christmas Market - technically the Eighth.
And another model of Bratislava, this one from 1913.
And an artsy photo of the market.
Some of the rooms of the City Museum were part of the museum.
Then there was this fancy wardrobe thing with Dan looking ponderous.
One of the angels on top is Justice.
This is a lamp made of walrus tusk and amber. It was made in the 1400s and depicts the Madonna.
This is St. Ladislaus' Chapel.
Ladislaus is the patron saint of Hungary. The chapel was constructed shortly before 1443.
I'm not sure if this artist had seen a lion or not. It's borderline.
He's holding the symbol of Bratislava, we saw earlier in the Weapons Museum.
All the seals of the city through the ages.
Ceremonial spear points.
17th and 18th century clothing items.
18th century jewelry set - buttons, bracelet, hair pin, and hat decoration.
Door from the Town Hall from the late 1500s. It has 14 bolts.
18th and 19th century copper kitchen wares.
In the early 1900s, cycling was a big past time.
Here are a bunch of medals from various competitions and this gentleman wearing all of them.
We were getting hungry and a bit worn out by this point, so we breezed through the rest of the museum. Outside in Christmas Market the Eighth (as seen previously from above), we found some sheep.
And later while in search of food we found a family of grass boars.
And another weird people statue.
We stumbled upon the local library which was displaying and selling these beautiful bobbin lace pieces. They ladies who made them were too shy for a photograph, but happily let me take photos of their work. Sherrie and I each purchased some pieces.
We finally found lunch and had a much needed rest.
Afterwards we went in search of St. Elizabeth, also known as the Blue Church.
They were not lying. It is definitely blue. Dan and I decided that it looks like a cake.
It is consecrated to Elizabeth of Hungary.
The Blue church was built in 1907.
It was closed, so we couldn't go in, but you could see into it a bit.
It is built in the Hungarian Secessionist style.
This is basically the Hungarian/Slovakian take on Art Nouveau.
It was designed by Edmund (Ödön) Lechner. He is known as the "Hungarian Gaudí."
We were amused by the little blue bent thing on the rooftop.
Everyone looking up at St. Elizabeth. This building is a school or a gym or a school and a gym. It's built in the same style as the church. It also kind of looks like a cake.
In stark contrast to the quaint blue cake church is the reliefs on this possibly abandoned building.
It is directly across the small street from the church's main entrance.
We left St. Elizabeth and made our way back to our hotel.
On the way back we found this strange man in Hviezdoslavovo Street/Square.
I'm a fan of his giant snail friend. It makes me think he might be Dr. Doolittle.
Jim and I snuck into St. Martina's even though it was technically closed for the night.
We got the stink-eye from one of the caretakers.
Side note, apparently Martin is the English version of Martina.
Dan's parents went back to the hotel at this point. Dan very kindly came with me to explore the grounds around the castle, despite being very tired himself.
An imposing old gate known as Žigmndova brána (Sigmund's Gate).
It is the best preserved gate of all the castle gates and was built in the 15th century.
It's a steep walk up to the castle.
Oh look! More going up.
This is the gateway we came through once climbing all those stairs.
Not a bad view from up here. Too bad it was foggy the entire time we were in Bratislava.
This is a statue of Svätopluk I of Moravia. He was the ruler of Great Moravia from 867-870.
I'm not 100% sure why there's a statue of Svätopluk at the entrance to the castle, but it may have something to do with the town being sort of named for his third son Predslav. The town was named Pressburg - in old German anyway.
The Danube and the UFO.
St. Martin/a's and the old town giving way to the modern city.
Bratislava castle.
A statue of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. For being Slovakia they really like Hungarian things.
And our walk back down the hill, to Sigmund's gate, and home to the hotel.
This concludes our adventures for today.
