Bratislava, Slovakia-Tues, July 22

We had a bus and walking tour of Bratiskava, Slovakia today, which is very near the Austrian border.  This is the home town of our cruise director, so he was proud to show off his area, which is the capitol of Slovakia.   Although Slovaks have existed for about 1500 years, the Slovak Republic came into existence in 1993 after the break-up of Czechoslovakia.    

The tower over the bridge is a famous landmark.   

We got a good view of the city from the castle, and a nice walking tour of the medieval inner city with its narrow, winding streets, modern & sometimes comical statues, historic churches and buildings. 

 On the way up to the castle that overlooks the city, we passed a number of ambassador residences, including the "White House."  George Bush stayed there on a visit once. 

The afternoon was spent cruising.  They did a strudel-making demonstration.  It was delicious.  Guess I'll have to try to make it with their recipe!

Then, as if we were hungry, we had the Captain’s dinner this evening -- a fabulous dinner.   Six courses!   There isn't assigned seating in the dining hall, so we have enjoyed meeting different people at each meal, mostly all from the United States or Canada.  We sat with two other couples we had become friendly with for this dinner.  Since I usually order a glass of white wine to begin the dinner, and a glass of red wine during the meal (all included in price of cruise), the waiter inadvertently ended up pouring both at the same time, so one of our table mates thought I should have a picture!  The chef and staff do a remarkable job with food presentation and variety.  If I remember before eating them, I try to capture some of the beauty of the food presentation.  It looks like I mostly focus on desserts, but actually John and I declined the dessert more than we ordered it.

We were encouraged to stay up until 11:00 p.m. as we would be cruising into Budapest and it was worth seeing.  It was amazing -- magical, really!   It was pouring rain, so we huddled under the awning on the sun deck, but the view was absolutely awesome.  It was like Disneyland.  But this was real.  All the big buildings and bridges were lit up.  Stunning.  They even passed out little servings of Palinka -- a fruit brandy from Hungary--to celebrate our arrival in our last stop.