Some days when you travel like we do the day is about chores and not experiences. That is what we expected today, but it ended up being one of the best days of this trip.
The water on our toilet has not worked since we arrived. For readers who are non-RV’ers it is not as big of a problem as it sounds, especially if you use a cassette toilet like we do, but something you do want to get fixed. I have been doing google searches of shops, and sending emails to try to get an appointment at each city we have visited. At each destination we either didn’t get a reply, or we were told they were too busy. I didn’t have much hope when I sent an email before heading to Bratislava, but was pleasantly surprised to get a quick reply saying if we came in on Monday they could do it. So we were up bright and early and made a short run to a family run business. They took us right in offered us a seat and coffee, and an hour later we left with running water in our toilet. The family running the shop were charming we mentioned we had been down into the city the day before and saw the race. They went and got the two employees who had run the race and brought them to meet us. It was a much nicer experience than you usually have in a repair shop. The price was also great.
We decided to head out into the wine country near here and picked the village of Modra as a target. After a short drive we were in the center of Modra and walking down the main street. It is a very small town and as I walked thru it I was thinking that we have driven thru hundreds of small towns like this over the years without stopping.
We noticed several small cafes advertising coffee in the morning and wine in the afternoon. One ally way caught Tons attention, it was lined with tables and there was a worker hanging things on the wall. He greeted us and said come on in this is my winery.
We thanked him and while Ton took a couple of pictures, he and I chatted. Before we knew it he spontaneously gave us a tour of the winery telling us about not only his own wine but some background on the region and grape varietals in Slovakia. He walked us thru his entire facility from the crushing area to the barrel room. It was one of the best wine tours I have ever had. Early on he handed Ton and I glasses and would periodically stop at a tank and pour us a hefty sample while he explained the grape and the technique he used to produce the wine.
At the end of the tour we met an older gentleman and Fedor introduced his father also called Fedor. His father was a professor of enology at the University in Bratislava for decades. He has toured the world studying wine making techniques and varietals, and has even been recognized by the French government for his research. He has written over 30 books. It was a joy to talk to him also. I asked him his favorite wine and he said he loved wine from Uruguay which was a surprise to us as we did not know Uruguay even produced wine.
At the end we asked Fedor for a lunch recommendation and he told us to try the hotel around the corner if we wanted Slovak food. They had 5 lunch specials but the descriptions were only written in Slovak, the waiter brought us the dinner menu which they had in English but we were fascinated by the Slovak meal. I got out google translate and was able to figure out what the dish was made of. When the waiter came back I ordered the chicken dish, and Ton ordered the mushroom dish. The first thing that arrived was a huge tureen of soup made of smoked sausage, potatoes, and shredded dumpling.
This alone would have been a meal and it was delicious. We then received our main courses which were also delicious, and at the end we received a custard desert. We did not expect a three course meal when we sat down, and each of our meals cost €8.50. We were amazed.
A day we had absolutely no expectations for turned into the most memorable of this trip, and one of our most memorable ever. Slovakia is exceeding our expectations because we keep running into friendly amazing people.