Today's Daily Adventurer:
During breakfast, Lisa shared a picture with me of the bridge that was right off to the left side of the Viola - I had to look it up but it was called the UFO restaurant. UFO as in unidentified flying object, not a Slovakian word. LOL.
We got our safety cards and were assigned to the yellow group (although the card really looks orange). Today, we had to climb over an Emerald ship which was particularly circuitous. So far every time that we've had to climb over/though another ship - it's been just one ship although at times we saw 3 ships docked together.
Our guides today were Birde and Veronika. We also met our local guide, Eva, who handed out Walking Monument quiz books and pens to everyone. The idea was that during the walking tour of Bratislava we would solve a puzzle using letters, pictures, and monuments that we encountered. The letters in the correct order spelled out the old name of Bratislava right after World War 1.
The walking tour was very nice and Eva was very knowledgeable. Bratislava would not have been a city even on our radar of places to visit but it's an absolute jewel with wonderful old streets with a ton of outdoor cafes and beautiful old buildings. It was very accessible from the ship.
The transition was perfect as we smoothly arrived at our bus location with the bus waiting to take us to the Devin Castle. The ride to the castle was about 20 minutes long. This time, the castle wasn't nearly as high up as the Durnstein Castle was. We walked right through the ticket line and made our way up a fairly steep hill. As we walked up to the castle, we saw a donkey, some sheep, and goats. Unfortunately, the top of the castle was closed for renovations so we wouldn't have the opportunity to climb to the very top.
We used the restrooms up at the halfway point in the castle. I had to chuckle at the name of the toilet paper in the bathroom. Europeans just seem to have more of a sense of humor when it comes to biological processes.
After out potty stop, we took in the views and heard about the history of the castle. Eva did a well "experiment" with us by taking a bucket of water and using a cup to pour the water into the well and had us count how many seconds it took to splash at the bottom - it took at least 6 if not 7 seconds for the water to reach it.
Eva then took us down the hill to the medieval activities that had been specifically scheduled for Adventures by Disney. The first station we went to was the candle making, coin making, and calligraphy activities.
It seems like we took an awful long time at this activity and it was getting just a little warm standing in the sun. We finally moved onto the next activity which was the archery station. We relaxed in the shade while the kids and some adult Adventurers tried their hand at shooting arrows at a target. None of us were really interested in archery - I'm sure it's a lot harder than it looks trying to hit that target.
We then went up the hill to an armory demonstration. It was just a little corny but the kids really seemed to enjoy it. They did a fighting demonstration with spears, swords, and short blades, shot a cannon, smashed a few innocent plastic bottles of water, and then gave a group lesson on how to handle a weapon followed by a photo op with the swords. It's not often that you'll hear a Disney Adventure Guide say: "Guys, be really careful with the weapons please!".
When we completed all of our medieval activities, we walked back down the hill where we could order soft drinks and ice cream. Disney is always so so great about covering little incidentals like this....buying snacks for us, paying for the toilets, etc.
I picked up a Bratislava magnet at the little souvenir stand and then we loaded up onto the bus off to our next adventure which was about a 45 minute bus ride away crossing the border again into Austria. We had been advised to bring our passports along today just in case.
Schloss Hof was built by a French prince in the Baroque style but it wasn't nearly as grand or beautiful as Schonbrunn Palace. We met up with our local tour guide in period costume who was giving this tour for the first time and it was a bit obvious that he wasn't normally a tour guide - his broken English was a little tough to listen to. The tour of the house was ok - we were shown a series of rooms and given some history and then did a quick Baroque dance lesson. We stopped to admire the garden which was very pretty and then headed down to the cellar which was much cooler then went back upstairs to do a schnapps tasting. Schnapps just won't be one of those drinks that I would ever appreciate.
From here we had a little free time so we headed for the cafe and enjoyed some Melange (Wiener Melange or "Viennese Blend" of coffee kind of like a cappuccino) outside on the patio. We were joined by a few other Adventurers and our Guides, Birde and Veronika. We were on the patio overlooking the goats with that...well, goat odor....but I still really enjoyed the relaxation and good coffee.
We returned to the Viola after our visit and cleaned up a bit before the Captain's Farewell cocktail reception. I have some closing thoughts about the ship, about this ABD adventure, and other things in general that I'll put down in a final post. Dinner this evening was at The Chef's Table - the AMA Viola specialty restaurant. The view was great because we were in the back of the ship and it was leaving Bratislava headed to Budapest so we got to see some of the scenery before it got dark. The menu was fixed - several courses with no options.
The food and the service in their specialty restaurant was quite good. There was an "open kitchen" where you could see the chef working. Their rhythm was a little thrown off because 2 of the tables had to get up and leave for a short while because their kids were putting on a marionette show in the lounge. This was no biggie - we still really enjoyed our dinner. Because the menu was set, we were served very timely and finished our evening without much waiting. Maybe the only thing that would have really added to the menu was a true wine pairing. We were given the same choice as every dinner - a red and a white wine.
After dinner, we headed up to the sun deck where everyone was gathering to watch our last trip through a lock - it was the biggest lock to date that we would be passing through and it was the fastest - taking only 20 minutes to drop the boat down about 60 feet. It was actually a little chilly on the deck but Viola staff had blankets ready for us.
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