Bratislava

Today we arrived in Bratislava. I have to say it is not my new favourite city but it does have something that other cities on the Danube don't - free toilets. In Budapest you had to pay sometimes 120Ft (about a dollar) to use a toilet, even in MacDonalds. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, which used to be in Czechoslovakia. Like Hungary, it has had a miserable 20th Century from being invaded by Hitler and then to be 'liberated' by the Russians. Terrible things happened to people during Communism. On the other side of the river, is Austria, where there are so many windmills for electricity generation. There is a bridge which they now call the old bridge that has changed its name about 6 times according to who was in charge at the time, whether it was Hitler, or Russia. It was quite funny really. Europe is full of statues and when one regime comes in, they destroy the previous statues, well some of them. You can learn so much from the statues and carvings.
There is a beautiful section with lovely cafes and markets but overall it is not as beautiful as Budapest. They have a big Cathedral which we went into. There is a glass panel in the floor showing the cemetery below where you can see skeletons. Pretty gross really. Then also in the Chapel of St John, within the same Church, is the mummified body of St John the Charitable from Cyprus. Apparently it used to be tradition to give a body as a present at formal occasions. Not my cup of tea. Apparently since they have sent part of his body back to Cyprus. I don't know which bit. Why do they bury people in Churches?
This boat is so smooth it is hard to know we are floating. The river is moving very fast and is high and the water is brown, not blue. The boat is 138metres long and only 11 metres wide. We went through our first lock today. The boat drives through a gate, then they close the gate and fill up a section with water so the boat goes up by 12 metres, then they open the other gate and you drive out the top. We have a really big day in Vienna tomorrow but I am really looking forward to it. I will be too exhausted at the end of it to write so it might just have to wait till the next morning. It is frustrating not being able to post photos as we have some beauties. I can look at them on the computer but cant seem to get at them to put them in here.
Caitlin, if you are reading, I finished the first 'Inkheart' book. The three books in one is so heavy, I don't want to bring it back to Australia. I have also read a couple of other novels, but we don't have much tome for reading.