Not Portobello Beach Edinburgh

A state of emergency has been announced in the neighbouring Czech Republic due to the height of the rivers flowing through central Europe today. Here in Bratislava the Danube is flowing fast and furious, but safely below the flood defences in the city centre. At lunch today we visited the point where the former Soviet Union barbed wire border with Austria ran along a tributary of the Danube at Devin. Today emergency services were racing against the clock to instal a steel wall to keep the Austrian waters out. A poignant memorial at Devin commemorates the lives lost trying to flee to freedom in the west. Some tried unsuccessfully to hang glide from the crags beside the medieval fortress. They were machine gunned from the sky. The bullet holes on the modern memorial are a moving testament to that daring endeavour. We stood beside the swirling waters of the rising Danube, with our friends before our reunion weekend disbanded, quietly remembering all those who paid the ultimate price seeking the freedom across Europe we all now take totally for granted.