Europe

[Visited: May 2011]

After my first exploration of the old town of Bratislava, and having already seen the remarkable bridge connecting the old town with the communist-era new areas of the city on the southern banks of the Danube river, I decided I just had to see the New Bridge as well, if only as a contrasting experience to the old town. I found out that there is a separate layer on the bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. Before walking the bridge, I just looked at it, to take in the view: the characteristic pylon with two pillars, supporting the UFO-shaped structure on the very top, housing a restaurant. In fact, this is such a defining part of the bridge, that the entire New Bridge is sometimes simply called UFO.
Once walking the pedestrian level there was not much left to see of the bridge, other than the grey walls and the view over the Danube river. When I walked down the steps on the other side of the New Bridge, or Nový Most, I found out I was standing almost exactly under the pillars with the UFO on top, which made for a quite spectacular view. I walked towards the communist-era neighbourhood of Petržalka, and managed to reach the middle of the road on the traffic-level layer. Looking north, I now had a clear view of the pillars and the UFO, with the traffic flowing underneath on both sides. I returned to the Danube river bank, still with my head in my neck, looking up at this futuristic structure.
The next logical step was, of course, to go up to the flying saucer-like restaurant, but I unfortunately found the elevator closed. Where the restaurant was called Bystrica until 2005, it has followed popular usage and is now named UFO. Actually, the tower with the UFO on top managed this bridge to be the only bridge in the World Federation of Great Towers, albeit the shortest one of all towers listed. I walked back, and once again stood for a while at the platform right next to the bridge. The area on this side of the Danube has been seriously remodeled, destroying much of the old, existing buildings. Instead, a modern, unique bridge now connects the old town to the new part of Bratislava since 1972 when it was finished.

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Bratislava New Bridge > Slovakia > Europe

[Visited: May 2011]

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