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Bratislava's Understated Charm Provides Welcome Respite - Pt 3
By Tom Kagy | 05 Jun, 2025

As the second stay of our 12-day Central Europe road trip, Slovakia's capital proved the ideal antidote to the tourist frenzy we had just left behind in Prague.

The glass atrium turned out to extend the length of the three-level Eurovea mall as its central skylit promenade.  The mall's shops included an Asian market and a boba shop.  At its halfway point the mall led us outdoor into a central plaza featuring the Fontána Prameň (Spring Fountain) with bronze statuary of a lion and a soldier atop monoliths, and a vast reflecting pond.  Exploring the plaza's river side we discovered, to our delight, that the south edge of the mall superstructure was lined with restaurants and cafes looking across a broad outdoor promenade to the Danube.


We were a little surprised to find a boba shop inside Eurovea Mall.

After exploring the shops on the western half of the mall we went out to the riverside promenade and decided to lunch at Dock 7, the only restaurant that was actually perched on the river's edge alongside its namesake dock.  It is one of several docks along the promenade whose sole function is to allow visitors to walk out over the Danube which, on that Sunday of intermittent rain, was a deep jade green.  


This Asian Shop, featuring mostly Asian snacks, sauces and beauty products, was another surprise in the Eurovea Mall.

Dock 7 was one of the most extensive, not to say cavernous, riverside dining facilities we've seen outside of New Orleans.  Its vast expanse of tables was augmented by an immense central bar and what appeared to be a gleaming functioning brewery on one end.  Several of the wait staff appeared to be Indian, as were the main courses.  We managed to find a table overlooking the river and learned to our disappointment that the oven for the tandoori chicken wasn't available, probably because it was past mid afternoon.  We settled for crispy chicken satay and caesar salad.  


We managed to park on a narrow, congested but charming cobblestone street along the western edge of the hill atop which sits Bratislava Castle.

All in all Eurovea was one of the nicest shopping malls we have ever seen.  Its utter lack of antiquity or even signs of Soviet-era austerity notwithstanding, it's one of Bratislava's three most significant landmarks and tangible proof of the progress and prosperity that had found Slovakia post-breakup.

Having walked far more than we had intended, we took a taxi back to the hotel, emerging a couple hours later on foot to explore Old Town for dinner.  On our way we made a point of passing the expansive black cobblestone Hodžovo námestie (square) and fountain fronting the stately white, black-roofed Palace.  It had been extensively renovated in the 1990s after falling into disrepair during the Communist era when it had become a children's activity center.  The palace had originally been built in the mid 18th century by a Hungarian nobleman in the days when Bratislava served as capital of Hungary under its ancient name of Pozsony.  As the long day turned into evening, we noticed a Korean family were the only other visitors lingering there.  Before the light faded entirely we pressed the tall gray-haired Korean father into camera duty.


This southward view from Bratislava Castle includes the Danube and the SNP Bridge often referenced by its "UFO" Tower.

We continued south toward the heart of Old Town as a light rain started and grew heavier.  We stopped our exploration to duck into Le Due Sicilie (The Two Sicilies), a stylishly minimalist restaurant holding about ten tables, black metal folding chairs and a wait staff dressed in black.  After ordering a Margherita pizza and a salad, we noticed that the servers were putting more food on the delivery pickup shelf than on the tables of dine-in patrons.  The steady stream of Wolt and other food delivery men coming in to pick up orders convinced us that we had stumbled across Bratislava's most popular pizza joint. 


This section of the Castle's Baroque Gardens features low hedgerows shaped in concentric curlicues.

When we got our order we understood why: the pizza's light, chewy dough.  I found myself eating even the sauceless parts of the crust which I normally leave on the plate like bones.  We credited the dough to Slovakian winter wheat, the nation's biggest crop, taking up over a quarter of its arable land area.  Planted in early fall and harvested in summer, the wheat is considered exceptional for breadmaking.


Bratislava Castle's front gate is a focal point of picturetaking.

After dinner we were only about a hundred yards from the heart of the lively tourist district to the southeast.  But the rain, damp chill and leg-weariness, as well as the late hour, dissuaded us from further exploration.  Instead we took a somewhat circuitous course northward toward our hotel in hopes of passing an interesting sight or two.  The streets we passed were dignified, stolid, almost austere, and virtually devoid of foot traffic. 


Our big Bratislava regret was not having time to enjoy a leisurely lunch on the patio of the Castle restaurant with its climax view.

The next morning, rather than heading straight to Budapest — which is only about two hours away — we decided to spend a couple of hours exploring Bratislava Castle first.  The other option, which we had considered and rejected earlier, was to make a side trip to Vienna which is less than a half hour from Bratislava.  Having visited that magnificent old city years ago, we decided to focus our limited time and energies on terra incognita rather than retracing memories of our earlier visit.

We drove down toward the river with the aim of seeing the castle and its Baroque Garden.  We found a parking spot on a picturesque winding cobblestone street at the west side of the castle hill.  The walk we took up to the castle appeared to be the back way, judging by the large numbers of people we began seeing only as we attained castle level after a long series of cobblestone steps the  gave way to a surprisingly steep and narrow dirt footpath.

Bratislava Castle isn't one of the larger ones we've seen in Europe, but it's definitely one of the best maintained, surrounded by broad walkways, and even a playground offering grand vistas of the lovely city and the Danube.  Baroque Garden on the north side of the castle turned out to be a extensive set of hedgerow mazes in various configurations, including concentric curlicue circles.  We contented ourselves with seeing only one section given our time constraint.

We walked to the expansive parapet along the castle's grand main south entrance to enjoy views of the castle's front face as well as the spectacularly open view toward the Danube.  A need to powder our noses before heading down to our car prompted us to venture into the castle restaurant (Hradná reštaurácia), which was just opening.  We dignified our intrusion by buying an iced cappuccino to go, which turned out to be excellent.  We were impressed by the tastefully understated restaurant interior but even more by the dining patio which offered a climax view of the city, including the tourist center marked on one end by the tall green steeple of Michael's Gate.  

So far it had been the first day of our trip thus far without rain, and as we headed down to begin our drive to Budapest our regret was in not having been able to enjoy a leisurely lunch on the patio of Hradná reštaurácia gazing out across the red roofs of Old Town and the jade green Danube.

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The walk we took up to the castle appeared to be the back way, judging by the large numbers of people we began seeing only as we attained castle level after a long series of cobblestone steps the gave way to a surprisingly steep and narrow dirt footpath.

The front steps of Bratislava Castle lead up to a broad parapet with a climax view toward the Danube.

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