Bad Deutsch-Altenburg to Bratislava

Today we took an alternate route to Bratislava via Schloss Hof. Schloss Hof is the largest country palace in Austria. We arrived right at 10 AM and it felt like we had the place all to ourselves. We wandered the palace and the extensive gardens. The gardens are breath taking. I took a lot of video but part way through some setting got changed on the camera so a lot of the video for the rest of the day appears washed out.

After walking the palace grounds we enjoyed coffee and the requisite Apple Strudel and this time we added Raspberry cheese cake. Both were outstanding, and the on the Apple Strudel rankings, this one rivals our top 3, and might land in 2nd place. It could have perhaps taken the top spot, but I did not order it with ice cream so I can’t be sure since the Abbey top spot did include ice cream. (Yum, now I want some more…)

We departed Schloss Hof and headed towards Bratislava. We were across the border in no time with little signage etc. But once we crossed you could begin to notice the differences. The cycle path was far less maintained – rugged might be a better description. The pavement on the cycle path was filled with tree root bumps making the ride a bit white knuckled. Upon crossing the border we joined up with the Iron Curtain trail and followed it into Bratislava. One particular section had us riding in a “bike lane” on the road. “Bike lane” is being generous as it was mostly pot holes and the shoulder of the road in which the pavement sometimes existed. Drivers felt compassionate to give us 6 inches as they sped past and then quickly drove into the bike lane after passing us. After a short while we were elated when a real bike lane appeared and we could get off the road. Soon we found ourselves in a very nice section of riverfront apartments and restaurants. Not having a proper lunch and knowing our hotel for the night is not close to many restaurants we stopped at a delightful pizzeria and enjoyed some delicious pizza’s on the riverfront.

Belly’s full we rode the last kilometer on the river and turned into the heart of “old town”. Old town is a quaint cobble stone section of shops and restaurants. We continued through old town and into “yucky” town as Lori calls it for another km until reaching our hotel. The hotel is actually quite nice, one of the nicer ones we have stayed at. But the surrounding district is a bit sketch. After stowing our bikes at the hotel we wandered back down to old town and explored a bit. We found a church and stepped in for a few minutes before it closed. It was a peaceful way to end the day.