17 October 2025

Have you heard of a “Botel”?

It is what it sounds like – a Boat plus Hotel. As we pulled into Bratislava, we passed this. It looked a bit too tired to be an active boat. I was wondering if it was a hotel. In fact, we could see people having breakfast on the top floor. Once we got to the land, we walked past it – and sure enough… it is a hotel. “Botel Gracia” said the board.

17 October 2025

What are those?

We saw a lot of those small houses by the river as we sped to Bratislava. They all seem to have some kind of fishing apparatus nearby. Wonder if these are vacation getaways… Given that they seem to be also on stilts, they might be the famous Kritzendorf stilt houses. Need to do some research.