Yesterday we had lunch in a building that was completed in 1070.  Since then it has been a monastery and brewery  (700 years), barracks (50 years), restaurant 250 years with part of it being used as a picture theatre for 50 of those years. Boughen’s Electrical in Rosewood is in an old picture theatre but it isn’t quite the same.

Bratisalva’s old town was relatively unscathed by WW2 and is UNESCO listed. We took the one hour rail trip to Slovakia’s capital (Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest capital cities in Europe) Its railway station survived the Soviet era only to be invaded by homeless men who have enthusiastically taken up smoking and public urination as pastimes – a boy needs a hobby I suppose – from there it was a short trip into the centre.

The centre is stunning.  We loved the Christmas Markets – all locals and local products, we loved the buildings and we loved the fact that there seemed to be far fewer people like us.  And  we appreciated that all the homeless, urinating men were concentrated at the railway station rather than the old town.

We will come back to Bratislava.  Rosewood doesn’t have Christmas markets, Boughen’s Electrical isn’t that interesting except for its weirdly sloping floor from its movie theatre days, and the food from the King George Hotel doesn’t really compare with that of a 250 yr old restaurant in a 1000 year old building. Pity about the train station – there Rosewood beats Bratisalva hands down.