Trains in Slovakia
Trains in Slovakia, are a little more grittier then in Austria, or the Czech Republic, but not terrible, and in my opinion slightly better then Amtrak, and the seem to run just a tad late. Slovakia being slightly off the beaten path for tourism, there is not a lot of English at the stations, and what announcements are made in English are barely understandable, yes I understand I am in a foreign country and I have put in a lot of effort to at least have a basic understanding of their language. Slovak is ~90% Czech, but I swear, everywhere we went they were only speaking the 10% I do not understand, add to that the terrible speakers at the train stations, it was nearly impossible for me to understand. BTW I can’t understand a single word of the announcements in Washington D.C. or Philadelphia Amtrak stations. The Slovak railroad website seemed to flip back and forth between Slovak and English depending what page you were on, a pain but were were able to get our tickets.
The other interesting thing about the Slovak Railroad is when you pass most rural road crossings or stations, is that they have people at the road crossing and at the stations who stand outside at sort of attention as the train passes and the ones at the stations have cool old school soviet looking hats. Sorry that the picture below is so blurry, but rainy wet windows, and the train moving through the station at ~50 mph, but you can see the cool hat.
Bratislava Main Station
It was a 12 minute tram ride to the station, that drops you right at the door to the station, really nice on a rainy morning. We were early, and the station itself is really small, for a city of roughy half a million people. The Bratislava station originally dates back to 1848, and was rebuilt in 1988, so it still has the communist feel. There are plans dating back to the early 2000’s to do a complete rebuild /upgrade of the station, that apparently has been stalled since about 2007. So be prepared for a cramped station, and last minute track/platform announcement.
Rainy Train Ride to Prievidza
Yes, I know I said we were headed to Bojnice, but there is no station there, but there is in Prievidza, which is only about a mile and a half to the hotel in Bojnice, keep that in mind because the Slovak rail website won’t tell you that to go to Bojnice, you have to go to Prievidza, just says nope we don’t go there.
The ride was nice, on the main line, but got a little rough after we moved to the rural track, but still better than Amtrak. We passed through beautiful country and farmland.
The cars themselves, seems to go back to communist times, no AC but really good heaters, worked out perfect with the small windows open. Immediately outside the city, you start seeing small allotment gardens along the tracks about 30 to 50 feet wide and about 100 feet deep, with a 10×10 10×20 foot shed or cabin, some had greenhouses as well. These date back to the communist era so that city (Panel house) dwellers could have a place to relax and escape the city.
After that, you are into farmland lots of farmland, starts feeling like Ohio, not to flat not to hilly. all in all it is a very relaxing ride
Prievidza
Prievidza, is a medium size town, with just under 50,000 people, with a light industrial manufacturing economy. unfortunately we did not really get to explore any of Prievidza due to the crappy weather.
The train station is real small, and almost all outside, maybe 10 seats inside, and there is no cover to get to the trains…
Taxi!
Getting a taxi out of the station was nearly impossible, a bunch drove right by and did not stop. We figured rather than just standing there getting wet, we would start walking to the hotel, we got about a block away and finally were able to hail a cab. 5 minute ride, and we were at the front door of the Hotel Lipa, I think it was 4 euros, and I tipped him another 4 euros for not being a schmuck like all the other cab around, and my wife unknowingly gave him an umbrella.
Hotel Lipa
We chose the Hotel Lipa because it seemed nice, and it was, but also for the history or story behind it.. It is a comfortable family run hotel, with very reasonable rates. Reservations can be a little bit of a pain though, it is almost all email after you fill out the online form. The pain comes from the deposit, they don’t take credit cards for the reservation I think it is most likely the GDPR rules, which are a pain in them selves, our deposit was $100 USD to be wire transferred, if you stay here just make it easy on your self and send $110, trust me it will work out better for everyone involved. The food in the restaurant is good, we had a variety of meals and all were good, I had ham and eggs a whole new way, and the staff was very friendly. The only drawback of the hotel is that there is no elevator, keep that in mind when picking a floor and that the ground floor is floor 0, and that floor 2 is actually 2 flights up.
Tomorrow Bojnice Castle
This part is taking the longest, I think I shot over 300 pictures inside the castle, I hope to have it complete in the next week or so. Here is a picture to hold you over…
Links
- Slovak Railroad (English & Slovak)
- Hotel Lipa (English)
- Bojnice Castle (English)