BRATISLAVA

Moved just down the river to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. Weather's has been brilliant, over 30 degC yesterday in Vienna.

 Matej, our guide was brilliant today. Had loads of little stories & quips for us, many featuring his mother-in-law. He said the man at work was typically communist, doesn't move all day, but still takes home the same pay as you. You can see lots of people touch his head for luck - Matej says it's bad luck, as hundreds of dogs piss on his head every day.

Kofola is the communist version of coca cola. It got so popular that people still bought it when the real thing arrived.

Nice town with squares & boulevards in the historic centre, surrounded by drab communist suburbs.

This old derelict house is being converted to flats, it's on the internet with pricing around €1 million. The country has booked with the motor industry moving here making 1 million cars pa with Volvo moving in to make an extra 400k. With a country population of 9 million, it's some industry. They are very anxious about what Trump is doing - bust on the horizon?

Narrowest house in Europe.

Rather grand Post Office, more working counters than in Enfield Town.

This is Matej, he said if you want to get a woman out of your life, buy a mouth organ. Then proceeded to get one out & play us some traditional tunes. He's wearing a shepherds hat with sea shells around it. Apparently, shepherd's took their goods down river to trade at the mouth of the Danube & sewed on a shell after every successful trip. You could then tell if you were hiring a good river navigator judging by the shells.

This was a guy who was jilted on the altar in the early 1900's who never changed out of his wedding suit until he died in the '60s.

The story behind this is that 2 men were building adjacent houses & wanted to marry the same woman. Whoever builds the nicest house gets my hand. This house won & the guy put in this effigy blowing a raspberry & with a big set of family jewels, so the loser had to face it every time he left his house!