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Today started with glorious sunshine, which stayed with us on and off throughout the day. The wind had calmed down which meant it didn't feel quite as cold as it had.
As I strolled through the old town I passed a couple more quirky statues. The first is a guardsman in his box, commemorating the wooden structure that stood in the same place in the 17th and 18th centuries, until it burnt down.
The second is Schöner Náci. The only silver statue in the city shows a man lifting his hat to greet passers by. His real name was Ignac Lamar and he lived in Pressburg, as Bratislava was then known, at the turn of the 19th-20th century. If there wasn't a legend attached to this man, then there wouldn't be a statue! The story goes that he fell deeply in love with a woman who did not feel the same for him. His frustration led to madness and he would don his hat and be seen giving out flowers to random women he met in the streets. I guess at !east his madness didn't lead to worse actions.
After reaquanting myself wth Cumil, I eventually arrived at Novy Most (New Bridge) to cross the Danube to the UFO Observation Deck. Having ascended in the lift, the 360 degree views on this sunny day were very rewarding. Before descending I popped into the toilets. Due to the glass just behind the urinals, it felt as in I was relieving myself onto the traffic passing far below!
I then wondered along the north bank before crossing back over courtesy of Apollo Most. This brought me into the business district with the kind of glass tower blocks seen in CBDs the world over, and plenty more being built.
I then arrived at a bus stop just in time to catch the 29 to Devin. The town of Devin is situated about 7 miles away where the Danube and Morava rivers converge, on the border with Austria. In such a strategic location there happens to be a rocky crag perfect for a castle. Occupied since Neolithic times by the Celts and Romans, a castle was built during the Great Moravian period of the 9th century. In the 13th century, a stone castle was built to defend the western frontier of the Hungarian Kingdom.
In the15th century, a palace was added and the castle was reinforced during the conflict with the Ottomans. However, once they had been defeated and the Hungarians joined the Habsburgs, Devin was no longer of strategic importance and it changed hands several times. Following Napoleon's unsuccessful seige of Pressburg in 1807, as he retreated Napoleon blew it up, possibly because he was in a hissy fit!
During the Cold War in the latter half of the 20th century, the area marked the border between the Communist East and the West. A fence of barbed wire was the physical manifestation of the Iron Curtain. When the Warsaw Pact collapsed in 1989, Devin played an important part. Situated within the grounds of the castle is the Iron Curtain Memorial sculpture by Slovak artist Milan Lukac , which was unveiled in 2011 by none other than Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. Situated at the bottom of the castle crag, where the rivers meet, is the Gate of Freedom memorial, dedicated to those killed by the Czechoslovak regime while they were attempting to escape to Austria.
As well as all the fascinating history, it's a classic ruined castle which was a joy to explore with great views of the surrounding landscape.
After the return bus ride, I popped into the Bratislava Flagship Restaurant, literally just up the road from me. Here I tucked into a peppered steak with chips. The steak was served on a slice of bread which soaked up the lovely gravy.
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