Bratislava - the old city

We took a walking tour thru the city, first a short one with our tour guide in the afternoon, then with the same guide for a longer late afternoon tour.

There is no love lost for Napoleon here - there are a bunch of these subtly snarky guys around old town.

Tuesday - Devin and Bratislava

The tour we set up was wonderful! Our guide Dagmar provided a wealth of information about Slovakia and life during communism,. We took the road from Bratislava to Haimburg, Austria during which she explained how difficult it was to leave their country during communist rule, that it often took six months and many, many signatures to get permission and then up to the last minute they could decide to stop you.

A view of the castle in Devin from the road to Austria. The castle was destoyed by Napoleon and his forces.

This is another castle on the Austrian side

The Danube from the Austrian side. The international bike route runs along here

This is the presidential palace. The greek flag is flying because the greek president is visiting to talk about getting help for his country due to their financial crisis.

Thursday - Esztergom - The Cathedral

Another beautiful church today

To give you a sense of scale, the letters above the painting are 2 meters high - that's taller than my brother Don and he's 6'3" at least

I'd love to make a quilt out of this pattern, but it might drive me crazy

Here's a view of Slovakia from the hill above the church

Thursday - Family pictures

Lauren seemed to draw all the stray cats as we walked through villages.  I love this picture

Jackie and Lauren.  The wind was really blowing here

Jackie, Lauren, Don and Fran

Lauren and I

Saturday - Rossatz to Melk - via our guided tour

Today we have a private tour....um, maybe not. We woke up this morning to learn that the engine on our boat seized up around 6 am this morning which caused it to run into a private yacht. Yikes. We were supposed to meet up with our tour guide at 8:30 for a tour of Durnstein. Unfortunately, when he arrived he told us that the ferry wasn't working and he wouldn't be able to do it. There was also a lot of uncertainty about when the boat could be fixed and when it would be able to leave. Our group of intreped travelers decided to head off on our own. The plan was that we would go to Crema if we couldn't go to Durstein, then take a bus to the next stop the boat was making, Melk. Once we got on the road though we saw that the ferry to Durstein was working and so we (Don and Fran, Jackie and Lauren and Cathy and Mandy) called the ferry over and make our way to this wonderful village.

This is the view of Durstein from the ship

This was the bell we rang to get the ferry to come pick us up

This is our view from the boat

and this is the map of the village

Saturday - Durnstein

Such a lovely village, cobble-stoned paths, a monastery church and views down every lane.

Standing at the railing surrounding the tower of the church

Saturday - More Durnstein

View from the tower of the church. we have had our share of rain - so we had rainbows a plenth