Day 46 - Going Up in the UFO (And a stat update!)

You know a hotel breakfast is quite upmarket when you are offered Prosecco with your cornflakes. I didn’t take them up on the offer, but it was nice to be asked! Today’s breakfast has taken the award for best breakfast of the trip so far (knocking Warsaw into silver medal position) on account of choice of tea, fruits and pastries. Still no Cheerios though, so it is all to play for.

Whilst enjoying my breakfast, ChatGPT helped me to come up with a route for today that would take me to all the main sights of Bratislava. The first stop was Castle Hill. I appreciated the honesty of the name as it was, indeed, a decent hill to climb in fairly hot weather. Sadly the castle museum was closed, but it was still lovely to admire the castle, the views, and the gardens.

I was also able to find a couple of excellent geocaches (which would be a theme of today!), so was super content.

The next stop was St Martin’s Cathedral, which used to be used for coronations. I have been rather spoilt for churches on this trip, and this wasn’t one of the prettiest, but I did appreciate it being out of the sun and allowing me a short sit down!

My next objective was the UFO - a 95 metre tower that is one of the smaller members of the World Federation of Towers. Getting there required a walk across the bridge, which was only a little unnerving, as the pedestrian part is under the main traffic bridge! Again, I was delighted that my route took in an absolutely brilliant geocache - essentially a baking tray hidden in the side of the bridge.

The area around the UFO Tower was under construction, giving a somewhat eerie feel to the experience - all the more so when I had the 45 second lift to the top to myself. The views from the top were totally worth it though, and I loved them being able to enjoy a Diet Coke in the bar. Another drink with a view.

I then crossed back over the bridge into the Old Town, where I stopped for a lovely dunch - a delicious salmon bagel and salad. Nom. I then pottered around the Old Town for a bit, including visiting the famous statue of Cumil, Man at Work.

He was a very popular attraction with tourists groups, which made extracting the geocache that was hidden on the bottom of the manhole cover very difficult! I did manage to stealthily find it, but a man gave me a rather funny look when he spotted me putting it back afterwards.

My final planned stop of the day was the Blue Church. I just about managed to figure out how it got its name - it is definitely different to the other churches I have seen on my travels.

It was then back to the hotel for some downtime, as it was the evening already! I got a drink and a snack to have back in my room and have now turned in, making sure that I have figured out how I get to the station for my train to Budapest tomorrow.

Before I sign off though, some stats for the stats fans. I have lost count of my church tower climbs, but will endeavour to bring that, and other categories, back soon!

Countries visited: 12 🇬🇧 🇧🇪 🇳🇱 🇩🇪 🇩🇰 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 🇪🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇹 🇵🇱 🇸🇰

Towns/cities visited: 17

Countries passed through: 2 🇫🇷 🇨🇿

Distance traveled by train 🚆 : 3543km (according to the slightly unreliable Railplanner app!)

Distance traveled by coach 🚍 : Approx 660km

Distance traveled by ferry ⛴️ : Approx 846km

Geocaches: 716 (540 AdLabs, 83 traditionals, 82 virtuals, 5 mysteries, 2 webcams, 1 letterbox, 1 Earthcache and 2 events)

Parkruns 🏃‍♀️: 5