Floating down the river

No classes today due to a scheduled excursion to Bratislava for a trip up the Danube to Devin Castle. Luckily for us, Anna, the English speaking German young woman whom we befriended, mentioned that we needed to be in the lobby at 8:00 to board the bus, not 8:30, which is listed on the schedule.

We mentioned that we hadn't seen any change on the board, and she said that the change was written in Slovak, not in English.  Hmmmmm......

In any event, we were ready to board on time.  We noticed that the rest of the group had blue bags filled with fruit and other items. At this point, Katarina informed us that it would be a good idea for us to register for lunch tomorrow so that we would have a bagged lunch since, tomorrow's trip will not have any place nearby to eat lunch. Apparently, we were supposed to have done that for today.......only no one informed us.  We are definitely out of the loop when it comes to receiving information.  

In any event, please note that I am smiling, because I am really trying to make the best of this situation.  Amy, Anna and I were the only ones to sit up on the deck for the boat trip on the river.  Everyone else was huddled in the lower cabin due to the "cold" weather.  I mentioned that today's temps were hotter than any than I experienced in Scotland, and, even though it was raining, there was a roof on the boat.

We enjoyed the solitude of sitting alone upstairs, and really took in the beauty of the area surrounding us.

We managed to tour Devin castle before the rain began to fall heavily.  One of the amazing features is a well in the center of the castle that is 55 meters deep.  The guide took a cup of water and poured it into the well, and I counted to 10 until we could hear it splash in the bottom of the well.  The sound of the splash echoed up through the well.  Pretty cool, actually.

Here you see Amy standing in the ruins.  That is Anna in the background on the right, and note the sunflowers in bloom in a field in the distance, which is Austria.  It really is a beautiful view.

Above you see the point where the Danube and the Moravian rivers meet.  That is the "virgin tower" that you see jutting straight up.  I'd tell you the story behind the name, but since Amy and I had two different translations from two different people, I'm not quite sure which is correct.  The long and short of it is that the tower involves a young woman who decided to jump from it.  The who and the why are questionable at this point.  

Here you can see Austria in the distance.

After our trip through the castle, we boarded the bus for a ride to Bratislava.  We separated from the group to enjoy lunch in the restaurant on the castle grounds.  We had several hours on our hands until we needed to meet the group for the return trip, but it was pouring down rain, so we headed to Tesco, now called My', pronounced Mee in Slovak, to buy some things. 

The best buy of the day was a fan!  Only 8.9 Euro.  How is that for a steal?

Tomorrow we head out for a trip to a Castle that is closed, and a walk through a cave.  Sounds, exciting, don't you think?  I just hope that we signed the right list for lunch, or we are in big trouble.