Meet Naci. He’s one of several statues scattered around Old Town, Bratislava designed to give the city a new image following the dark days of Communist rule that ended in the mid-1990s. Naci was actually a real person who would dress up in elegant clothes and wander the streets of the city. He liked the ladies. He was known to pick out a woman at random, tip his hat, bow, give her flowers and sing her a song. Here, our sister-in-law, Frances, poses beneath his top hat.Here’s a statue the Communists left behind. Quite the contrast, huh. It says a lot about Communist Russia’s rule of the Eastern Bloc countries. And, traveling much further back in time, I decided to throw in this statue. Not because of the Madonna standing on a crescent moon, but because of what else she is standing on…That is one depressed dragon! Check out the eyes and ears. You can almost hear it whining: “Damn, skewered again. And all I wanted to do was give her an apple.”And then there was this guy, inviting visitors into a restaurant that featured sausages.We spent our time in Bratislava exploring the Old Town section. This is a view of the tower connected to the Old Town Hall built approximately in 1370.Views of the tower can be seen from many different locations in Old Town.Here, it peaks out from behind the Old Town Hall. Its top features the same striking green we saw on several buildings in Vienna.The historic old pharmacy building also featured a green top.St. Martin’s Cathedral, known as the site where 11 Hungarian Kings were crowned between 1563 to 1783, has a dramatic green and golden steeple.A closer view.The church backs up to the ancient city walls. It actually served as a part of the fortification.As might be expected, a statue of St. Martin is included in the church. At first I thought he was threatening to kill the guy on the ground. Instead he is cutting his coat up and offering half of it to a poor man he had found outside suffering in the cold with minimal clothes, a saintly act for sure.A number of attractive, classic buildings are found in the Old Town. This is the Primate’s Palace.These buildings grace Bratislava’s main square. The steeple of St. Martin’s Church can be seen in the background.A street view leading off of the square. Part of the Old Town Hall is on the left.And finally, even the Carlton Hotel was a class act. That does it for Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Next up, we continue down the Danube to Budapest, the Capital of Hungary.A view looking up a hill toward Matthias Church in Budapest.
Wandering through Time and Place 