A country of castles, food and wine

Wildfox
Anthony Swanston
Mon 4 Sep 2017 03:47

I jump onto a fast catamaran and head off to Bratislava my eighth country without Wild Fox, my 53rd since leaving Bangor.   We run downstream at 32 knots, average, but six knots of that is favourable current so it is a bit slower coming back.  Slovakia’s history is complicated but, as a nation, they are doing well.  They have more castles, per capita, than any other country.


The people are great, the food wonderful, the buildings spectacular.  The roast goose is especially good with the wine made almost next door.  I do several tours including an evening pub crawl where we learn a lot of interesting history.  On another we see the Castle where King Richard was a prisoner for three years.  On a clear day you can still hear him shouting  “John, pay the ransom!”


The Danube is muddy brown.  So why did Johann Strauss call it the Blue Danube? Well apparently when they won a huge battle against Napoleon they threw the dead French into the river and they all wore blue uniforms.  There were so many bodies that the river turned blue.  Believe this if you want to…

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