We were awake before the alarm this morning. Up dressed and medicated in almost record time. We bagged a stray wheelchair that had been left in the hotel lobby so the journey to the terminal was super-easy.
Unfortunately nothing happens at Heathrow until 5am, so I pushed Sacha (that's my wife) through security myself. This wasn't straightforward and I struggled to hear the bloke on the scanner - too much background noise - and he got shouty with me. No meltdown, but close.
The BA Club lounge didn't open until 5 either, so we stood in the corridor queue with the other posh punters. Once we were in, it was certainly very nice. There was a decent breakfast with English, continental and porridge. The decaf coffee was really good. We eat breakfast and waited for the assistance person looking at dawn coming up over the taxi-ways.
The flight was uneventful, as flights should be. I must say though that the BA breakfast omelette was superb.
The assistance at Vienna Airport worked faultlessly getting us onto the station platform just in time to miss a train to the main station!
It was a half hour wait for the next service, which was running about 10 minutes late - so 40 minutes in all. The effect of the late arrival into Hbf was that we got the Bratislava train by the skin of our teeth, avoiding an hour's wait. It did rather push poor old Sacha to the limit as there only seemed to be stairs to the platform rather than a lift.
The train to Bratislava wasn't the original one because of engineering works, it should have been a fast service from the airport. The one we got was a local stopping train that took us to the secondary station (Petrzalka) in Bratislava. It gave us the chance to see some boring countryside on the way!
Rightly or wrongly we decided to walk towards the city from the station. It was pleasant weather and we were very early.
It started out as an interesting stroll through a 'plattenbau' type estate with lots of handy seats. We bought ice cream from a nice lady who'd lived in Watford and eat them watching children playing.
Unfortunately it didn't stay interesting, so we got on a bus, and got to our hotel easily.
It's a nice place, good, not great, but the bed seems OK which is what matters. I did a bit of shopping and was slightly, ever so slightly, awed by the city. Pretty much as soon as I got back I dragged Sacha out to see the sights. It's a real gem! Considering it's the capital city it's really, really lovely.
We had tea in the hotel restaurant - easy and not too spendy. I had some Slovakian gnocchi and Sacha had something claiming to be chicken (but I doubt it ever clucked).
It's been a long day, and now it's an early night!