Bratislava and Prague are not bicycle-friendly, in the way that Vienna, Salzburg, and Budapest are. But Bratislava does have a very welcoming bicycle path along the north side of the Danube that I need to mention.
Today it's in the high 30s (Fahrenheit, obviously), sunny and clear, so it seemed like a nice time for a quick walk around the neighborhood. This is the sign marking the start of the path. The bridge in the background is the New Bridge built by the Communists. That railing on the lower edge is the pedestrian sidewalk on the bridge, which seems to get a lot of use.
Here's the path headed west on the Danube. A path for runners and walkers is marked out separately. To the right just out of view is the Bratislava Castle on the hill. 
If you head north from that bicycle sign, you enter the Pedestrian Zone of Old Town, but the path seems to end just on the other side of this building, by St. Martin's Cathedral. 
And wouldn't you just know it. . . while I was looking for the end of the bike path, I discovered yet another museum I have not yet had time to visit. This is Bibiana, the International House of Art for Children, established in 1987, two years before the fall of Communism.Here's their web site: http://www.bibiana.sk/uvod_e.htm
To the side of the Museum is a Bibiania poster. It appears that the children have decorated the overpass with colorful paintings that are a refreshing change from the all-too-familiar graffiti. In the background in the right is the lower part of the hill for Bratislava Castle.
The most intriguing thing about Bibiana is a plaque in Slovak and English commemorating the deportation of thousands of Hungarian children in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was posted in 1998 by the Ministry of Culture.My students have educated me about the long history of tensions between Slovaks and Hungarians. Many blame current nationalistic politicians for pouring salt in those ancient wounds, and they praise those politicians who are trying to pursue healing.
NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.
2 comments:
As an avid cyclist, I had looked forward to renting a bike in Bratislava to ride on some of the bike paths nearby, including a great path which runs from Budapest through Bratislava to Vienna and beyond. However I was not able to find any place to rent a bike. I was told by the tourist office that there was one place in Petržalka which rented bikes so I set off to find it. After a couple of tries I finally found it and saw a sign that it was open only two evenings a week for a couple of hours as well as Saturday morning from 8:00 to noon. I finally reluctantly gave up. I was told that more places did not rent bike because of the danger of theft. There are lots of places to buy bikes or bike equipment, just no place to rent bikes.
However Bratislava is more bike friendly than you give it credit. During the warmer weather periods, there is a special bus, which pulls a trailer for bikes which goes out to various parks on the outskirts of town to take cyclists out to excellent mountain biking terrain. Near the High Tatras I saw a large bike ride, with thousands of cyclists one weekend. Many of the cyclists had jerseys from a Bratislava biking club. For more info on biking in Bratislava, see http://www.bratislava.info/trips/bike/
You've wrongly stated that the plaque commemorates the "deportation of thousands of Hungarian children" whereas it actually reads "thousands of Slovak children deported to Hungary".
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