Tag Archives: Michael’s Gate

Bratislava Blog

Ice Hockey World Championship coming to Bratislava

Upcoming Ice Hockey World Championship will take place from 29 April to 15 May 2011 in Slovak cities Kosice and Bratislava.

This will be the third time that Bratislava has co-hosted Ice Hockey Championship (with Prague, former Czechoslovakia) but for the first time, this popular sport event will be hosted completely by Slovakia.

In Bratislava, the hockey matches will be played in Samsung Arena in wider city center (see map below) which is currently undergoing the complete reconstruction. Teams of Russia, Slovakia, Germany, Slovenia, Finland, Czech Republic, Latvia and Denmark and teams in semi-finals and final will play here. Due to the convenient location of Bratislava, you can expect a lot of fans coming to support their teams during the Championship.

Ice hockey ranks among the most popular sports in Slovakia. Players like Marian Hossa, Jaroslav Halak or Zdeno Chara are starring in NHL, the game also has got the top national attraction after successes of Slovak national team at recent World Championship tournaments. Tickets for the Ice Hockey Championship in Bratislava and Kosice can be bought here.

If you plan to come, you will realize that it is also no problem to get from the Ice Hockey Arena to the Bratislava center. Do not miss this opportunity. Take the trolleybus No.212 at the bus stop named Zimny Stadion (unsurprisingly meaning Ice Hockey Stadium) and in 8 minutes (6th stop) you will get to the Hodzovo namestie. It is where President Palace is located and where our Bratislava Audio Tour ends.

If you want to get to the Bratislava Castle, switch there to the trolley-bus No.207 and in another 4 min you will get to the Castle- beginning of our city audio tour. Bus ticket should cost about 0.7EUR. You need to buy it before entering the bus in any newstand or vending machine at the bus stops.

Perfect planning is always worth the effort. Download the city audio tour now, enjoy the tournament and your stay in Bratislava.

Audio Blog

Crazy facts about Bratislava tour- elevation, mileage, calories

If you are a planner personality and prefer to know every piece of detail about the planned tour around Bratislava center, here are some facts we were able to digg out about our Bratislava tour.

You should already know from the introduction that the whole tour should take about 2 hours in the relaxed pace, with about 40 min of audio listening.

Using the online service called Pedometer, you can find some more interesting details.

Total walking distance is 2.4 km (1.5 miles) if you start from the Bratislava Castle Hill to the Michael’s Gate (Michalska brana)

Elevation is about 50 meters and mostly downwards. You can see the details on the attached graph:

Walking complete tour, you would burn about 200 calories (836 joules) assuming the average body weight of 80 kg(176lb). You can input your details directly  at Pedometer page.

What does 200 calories look like? Same amount is in about half liter of Coca Cola or 90 grams of flax bread or less than one blueberry muffin.

Enjoy your tour around Bratislava.

Download from Bandcamp

Audio Tour

12. Michael’s Gate

Michael’s Gate is the only remaining gate from the original medieval fortifications. The original Gothic tower from 15th century was redone in Baroque style in 1750s. It is named after angel St. Michael whose copper statue from 1728 you can see on the top of the tower.

In this audio track you will also learn:

  • Legend explaining why there are clocks only on three sides of the tower.
  • where is the narrowest building in Europe (with 130 cm front façade)
  • Why to avoid going through the smaller entrance of the Barbican gate.
  • and last but not least some brief history of Presidential Palace and adjacent garden.

Listen to the audio track or download it now: