Bratislava

Bratislava is done on foot, in one packed day or two easy ones. The Old Town sits at the foot of the castle, right on the Danube, so the whole walk is really one climb: from the town gate up to the fortress courtyard, then back down to the river and across a bridge to a lookout on the far bank.

The walk starts at Michael's Gate, the only one of the town's old gates still standing. Through it lies the Old Town, a knot of narrow streets where every façade is a different colour and where, on the corner of Laurinská and Panská, Čumil, the statue of a worker peering out of a manhole, sits below the pavement. The streets lead on towards the square and further, to the foot of the castle hill.

There, in the shadow of the fortress, stands St Martin's Cathedral. From 1563 to 1830 it crowned eleven kings and queens of the Kingdom of Hungary, back when Bratislava, then Pressburg, served as the kingdom's capital under Ottoman pressure on Buda. The main nave is still open for prayer free of charge, while the tourist zone with the treasury is seen on a ticket.

From the cathedral the path climbs on to the castle itself. The white, square block with four towers burned down in 1811 and stood as a ruin for decades before its 20th-century restoration, which follows the Baroque look it took on under Maria Theresa. The outer courtyard and gardens are free, the exhibitions inside are ticketed, and the terrace looks out over the whole Danube valley, including the bridge the day continues on.

From the castle it's back down to the river and across the SNP Bridge, the only bridge over the Danube here with no pillar standing in the water on the Old Town side. On top of one of its pylons sits the UFO Observation Deck, the disc the bridge has carried since it opened in 1972. A lift takes you straight up to a deck over the river, with a view of the castle from a side most visitors never see.

A second day opens up what the first walk leaves out. The Blue Church, a small Art Nouveau chapel with a blue façade and a blue roof, stands about ten minutes south-east of the Old Town, free to enter. Above the city, on Slavín hill, a large memorial holds the graves of Soviet soldiers killed liberating Bratislava in 1945, with a view that reaches the Alps on a clear day. The last stop is Devín, a fortress on a rock at the meeting of the Danube and the Morava, settled since prehistory with the remains of a 9th-century Great Moravian stronghold — a city bus runs out there, about 25–30 min, much like the ride in from the airport.

Most arrivals come through the city's own airport, then a bus to the main station, about 25–30 min. From there, city transport, €1.60–1.80 (60 min) a ride, is only needed to and from the station — everything else, both days of this loop included, is on foot.