Bratislava Hrad Castle

It takes a bit of a steep climb up a hill, not too taxing, but once you are there, the views are magnificant. From our vantage point, most of the view was of Austrian fields with the foreground comprising of the newer side of Bratislava on the opposing bank. The new bridge crossing the river had a large observation deck in the shape of a 1950s era UFO. 

The smallish city of Bratislava is almost on the Austrian border, while I wasn't going to try, it would be possible to walk to Vienna well within a day. Not that far from the Czech border to the north, Bratislava is pretty close to its neighbours with Hungary very close to the south, this tiny little city on the Danube River dates right back to Roman times, it is hard to believe this is the capital city of Slovakia. 

The castle overlooking the city is strategic, you can see armies advancing to the edge of your sight, plenty of warning to prepare and lock your inhabitants behind the safety of the walls. However, we now look out over carefully plowed fields, with a thick forest all round, maybe spotting advancing armies was a more difficult issue.

Around midday on Sunday, six howitzers fired from the opposing river bank rang out, at first I was unable to locate, the surrounding smoke after the multiple rounds were fired gave away their location, I was able to see the muzzle flash through the smoke.