bratislava reality

Bratislava Main Square fountain, street scenes...Liam's first ride on a tram...the blue church in our neighborhood...beautiful window in our neighborhood

Above, the Belvedere, Vienna Austria and the cathedral in the main square...

yesterday we discovered what bratislava is not.  it took riding on a train to vienna, austria to find out.  why, no, its not vienna. and, no its not paris. nor, is it venice or rome.  at this point we can only be fairly sure that bratislava is somewhat like a scaled down luxembourg, budapest, avignon or prague--of course, give or take some things. right now vienna and bratislava are working on a twin city marketing campaign.  we wonder what are they talking about?  vienna is on a very grand scale...and, that means everything.  vienna offers just about every designer storefront that you could dream of and many that you wish you had.  vienna's views are filled with grandiose buildings that would take up the entire downtown of bratislava.  when we arrived in bratislava last night at 9 pm, children in tow, we felt like we were home again. things once again slowed down to our pace where the quiet walk home was greeted with whispers from street cafes. our footsteps chattered through the old town air. familiar tables greeted our walk --open air cafes with candles---huge planters filled with flowers smiled at us.  we are happy to call bratislava our home if just for a short while.  what an amazing little city and what an amazing simple reality.

Home Sweet Home in Bratislava

Hey Austrian Air rocks!

After a short stay in a pension near the castle in

 Bratislava, 

We checked into our short term apartment on Monday.  Wow!  What a gorgeous place. Very old on the outside and incredibly modern on the inside.  See? It is spacious, fun and close to everything. Yesterday I explored the local larger grocery store...more on that later I am sure.  We took a stroll after dinner tonight into town. There is a large playground nearby.

I cooked our first meal tonight tasting fresh corn and aubergine from the market. Delicious. We found a small market set up by the playground and park.  Here Liam and Scarlett are enjoying running around naked with some other children at the park and exploring the many fun sand play things...