Good Evening All,

Today was a day in Bratislava.  Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia.  We began the day with a walking tour of the city.  Our tour guide was a local and gave great personal and inside information about the way the city developed.

Some of the surprising things were that the city of Bratislava was not destroyed during WWII.  There was some bombing towards the end of the war but the only destruction was a arms plant on the outskirts with no civilian casualties.  The bombing was done by the American forces at the request of the local resistance.   In the end, the Russians were the liberators.

The citizens of Bratislava endured the Russian reign until the end of the cold war and the fall of the Soviet Union.  I say endured because the people we’ve met all talked about the oppression of the Russian occupation and the restrictions that affected every facet of their lives.  The were not unhappy when the last Russian soldier/administrator left the country.

There is a wonderful Cathedral in the center of the old city which was a part of the original double walled city that existed until the 1600’s.