(Bratislava, Slovakia to Harmonia)
View 2008-05-21 Bratislava to Harmonia, Slovakia in a larger map
Highlights: morning walk thru old-town Bratislava, rain stops, muddy road, a few nice villages, helpful Slovaks, searching an hour for a place to stay
Picasso would be proud (Bratislava)
The world's only statue in a manhole! (Bratislava)
Obstacle course (east of Vrakuna)
Curvy concrete bridge (east of Vrakuna)
Journal: Rain persisted thru much of the morning, so we decided to not start pedaling until the afternoon. That gave me time to work on my journal and to walk around the historic area of Bratislava (which is quite nice). Lots of people about, although very few of them were on bike. Leaving town was a bit of an adventure since we were taking a short-cut on busy city streets with no bicycle lanes or shoulders. Once we connected with the main Danube River trail (for only a mile or so) we were pleasantly surprised to find another bicycle path & route heading north in the direction we wanted to go. After several easy miles on a paved path along a tributary of the Danube, the route turned into a muddy unpaved road circumventing the main Bratislava airport. It was slow going at times due to the obstacles on the road, but traffic was very light so we had the road mostly to ourselves.
When we reached the village of Most (about 8 miles east of Bratislava) we were able to join one of the "recommended" bike routes for the rest of the day. Conditions felt quite similar to riding in the United States for a variety of reasons: not much of a shoulder, roads are busy at times but drivers are fairly considerate, very few cyclists on the road, trash along the roadside in places, and dogs bark at bikers. In general, conditions are not terribly bike-friendly in Slovakia (& it is a pleasant surprise when they are) but neither are they bad or dangerous. Coming from Germany & Austria bicycling is far less enjoyable, but compared with the States it is not much different.
We arrived at the attractive center of Pezinok around 4:30 and started to think about accommodations for the night. There are no campgrounds in the area & it is supposed to rain again overnight (plus all day tomorrow) so we wanted to find a cheap hotel or pension. The town of Modra (5 miles to the north) looked promising since there were eight hotels listed in our guidebook. After reaching Modra, we were surprised to discover all the places in town were booked up. We are in the wine-growing region of Slovakia next to the Carpathian mountains so it can be quite popular I guess...but still, it is mid-week in May and, compared with the Wachau wine-growing area in Austria, not that exciting. A helpful local man told us there were plenty of places to stay a few kilometers out of town in the resort area of Harmonia, so we heading up the hill in that direction. The first place we found was also full, but the young man there spoke good English and offered to call a few places to see if they had room. On the third try, he found space at the Pension Harmonia for us, so off we went. When we got there, the place was locked up & noone was there, so we rode to another nearby hotel (also full) where we were able to communicate enough with the reception lady for her to call around and find a place at...the Pension Harmonia!? After getting directions from her with hand signals, we realized we had gone to the wrong place (Hotel Harmonia instead of Pension Harmonia) and were relieved to finally find a place to stay for the night after quite a bit of searching.
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