Saturday, June 25, 2011

Slovakia - Bratislava & Banská Bystrica

As we mentioned in our previous entry, we are heading to Slovakia the capital city called Bratislava and a small town called Banská Bystrica. We caught a picture of some spring flowers on the way!

And here goes Jolly Wolf again on the way to Slovakia. Our first stop is Bratislava!

We passed by Orava Castle of Slovakia, a beautiful renaissance structure of the 16th century surrounded by Orava river.

Bratislava Slovakia, being a not very popular tourist attraction compared to other major cities in Eastern Europe, you don't see many people on the streets.

We stumbled upon a Bratislava road sign, their signs are English translated below.

Michael's Gate Bratislava

Next we head to the Bratislava Main Square or Old Town Square first. Its considered a very small main square with not many mobile stalls selling Slovakian souvenirs.

What happened to Jolly Wolf all this time? He was left in his owner's bigger bag as we walked down with just our cameras to travel light. Poor Jolly Wolf, but we got him a pint of Slovakian beer as a solace.

Now we arrive at Banská Bystrica, we are 1188 feet above sea level and the weather is much warmer here. It spikes a high 25 degree Celsius instead of the normal spring temperature of Europe.

Banská Bystrica Castle laid upon our eyes as we walk further uphill

Walked to the very top and this is the whole view of Banská Bystrica old town. Opposite is the new town where there are modernized buildings.

Banská Bystrica fountain in the middle of the old town

We were excited to see flowers in Slovakia! This is springtime

and more flowers

Banská Bystrica old town is a very small place, the people here can speak English and they are friendly with smiles on their faces.

If you walk into any building or house at Banská Bystrica, you can see there is a huge courtyard behind. The houses are not just the front, it has a big area on the inside.

As we descend the hilly area, we found a small chapel with a very nice door.

As we leave Slovakia, we pass by Tatra mountain range with beautiful bungalow houses built on the mountains.

The houses are so far away from one another. It must be great to live here with fresh green air and high altitude.

Then we passed by a ski hotel which we are told that during winter time, this is a popular location for skiing. Tatra mountain range is a border between Slovakia and Poland. So guess where we are going next?

13 comments:

  1. @Unscha(r)f
    No plans yet but we definitely want to visit this beautiful country again! Perhaps we will post some Vienna pictures from our previous trip ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like a really nice place to visit. Too bad though, that you included so little sheep in the pictures ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. @potamotrygorgeous: That's our only regret as during the time these pictures were taken, we weren't big fans of NICI yet. Now, we are taking more pictures of our flock wherever we go instead of ourselves ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Minghui: Yes, Slovakia was a huge surprise for us as we did not expect it to be so beautiful :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing the pictures of this unique country :) Glad to know it is a tourist-friendly place.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Brigette: Yes Slovakia is definitely a place worth to visit, food and stuff there are much cheaper compared to other popular Europe countries :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Many thanks Hugo for the beautiful photos of Slovakia! My grandmother is born in the region of the Tatra mountains and so your post is very special for me :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Leona Löwenherz: Thank you Leona, its so sweet to hear that our humble post meant something to you :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Hugo WolfAh, I understand. Eagerly waiting pictures of sheeply vacations then ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. @potamotrygorgeous: Thanks a lot!! It will be coming soon :-P

    ReplyDelete
  11. soo beautiful :) will you come to serbia? :)

    ReplyDelete