Emma Bratislava – Day Four
After our previous day’s adventures, we started day four by heading to Kamzik TV tower, about a 90-minute walk from the old town – well, we were going to walk but the day we decided to visit it started to snow – just our luck! So, Not known to knock back a challenge, or should I say a not attend a pre-booked lunch, we took the easy option with an Uber taxi up to the tower which only took about 10-minutes and cost a mere €4.33.
The snow flurry in Bratislava centre turned into sleet by the time we reached the TV tower. We had our fingers crossed that we would be able to see…something, anything. Apparently, you can see the Alps on a good day! Up we went in the lift to the restaurant – note the shape of the tower on the panel.
The restaurant is located about 2/3rds of the way up the tower, with the more casual brasserie a floor above.
I can’t hide that I was disappointed not to be able to take better photographs due mostly to the windows which were covered in rain by this point! Some windscreen wipers would have been handy.
We picked our lunch and settled back to enjoy the rotation – yes, most of the tables move!
Well, there’s a moving section of the floor, which goes round in a circle, making a complete circuit in about 45 mins, so don’t worry about getting dizzy.
Just like in the UFO, the toilets left you feeling a bit exposed, should anyone have a massive zoom lens down there! Thankfully, I didn’t feel like I was being watched this time. We made our way down after our meal to explore some more below.
It was out of season for the chairlifts, however, we wandered over for a look. The bar below was open, and it looked proper rustic and very cosy inside.
We still had some time to kill before our tour pick up, so some geocaching was carried out! It’s been a while since we have geocached, but we found the cache quickly. If you are a follow cacher come say hello!
Our Authentic Slovakia tour guide arrived to take us on a “village pub crawl” to see some of rural Slovakia and try some beer off the tourist path.
We started at Devin Castle, a stunning ruin alongside the Danube, for some history. Here we had some Borovička (Slovakian gin) in memory of those who died during the Cold War at a memorial to the Iron Curtain. Across the Danube is Austria so this was a popular spot to try to get into the west and freedom. At one point there would have been barbed wire all along this stretch of river and people were killed trying to cross. The names of those who were killed is on the inside of the columns.
A quick bit of urbex at a ruined 1930’s amphitheatre was just around the corner. The building would make a perfect hotel due to its location on the Danube beside Slovakia’s most famous castle but sad to see it has been left to decay…
Our first pub stop was Pivaren u jumbo in Devinski Nova Ves. We sat it in the non-smoking area which had benches and a log fire – perfect!
They had a surprisingly wide selection of beer and a Slovak beer snack of pickled cheese, a creamy Camembert-style with red onion which we had to accompany our Corgon and Zlaty Bazant ’73 (Golden Pheasant’s original recipe from 1973) beers, which were actually pretty decent!
A quick detour to see a bunker, the last remaining pieces of the iron curtain and a new bike and pedestrian bridge built to connect Slovakia and Austria which the public could name but in true internet fashion, the “Chuck Norris Bridge” was was the clear winner but sadly not chosen in the end. Its official name is the boring “Freedom bridge”…
Trying to take a shortcut onto slippery grass I landed on my bum. Or should I say ankle, and gave myself a nice sprain. As well as muddy trousers! Ouch!
Then we continued on our way to three more pubs, including one at a microbrewery but that’s enough blogging for now. All we’ll say is that the “Village pub crawl” is quite a different experience to other pub crawl tours out there! If you’d like to find out more about this tour or other tours in Bratislava and Slovakia visit Authentic Slovakia.
