Phot-o' the Day: Trolley Cars, Old Town Bratislava, Slovakia

Trolleys and trams always make the best public transportation pictures.

These particular trolley cars ply the rails encircling Old Town Bratislava, Slovakia. This is the north side of Old Town. Old on the right side of the photo; new (-ish) on the left.

Bratislava is not really a travel destination in and of itself. But it is a perfectly pleasant manageably-sized capital, with some excellent food and beer. So if you are ever in the general neighborhood -- Vienna definitely, or maybe Budapest or even Prague -- a few days in Bratislava would be a nice detour.

Visited October 2011.

To (But Not In) the Castle

The sign says to go to the Castle.
Graffito says "Mass Tourism = Human Pollution"

This morning's tourism experience was a visit to Castelo de Sao Jorge.  I use the term "morning" loosely, given that I am old and was jet lagged, so I didn't get out of bed until 11:00AM.

The Castle is the center of the original Moorish settlement of Lisbon.  The area around the Castle was lousy with tourists, thick as thieves.

I was going to go, but there was a line ...

A long line.

That went on and on and on.

So I didn't go in.  I've seen enough castles, I guess.  So I explored the neighborhood around the castles.  Where once this neighborhood teemed with Moors living in the shadow of the castle for protection from the crusading marauding Portuguese ...

Now it's narrow streets teem with souvenir shops

Or restaurants that proudly proclaim, "We have sardines!"  "Temos Sardinha!"

The neighborhood also teems with trolleys.

Teems.

Or maybe it's just my photo file that teems with the trolleys.

Or maybe there's a metaphor here I can end with.  Castles in Europe are like trolleys.  You miss one and another will come rolling along in minutes.