2018 Bucharest to Amsterdam

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7-12-18 Thursday. Our Bucharest city tour began with a visit to Revolution Square where we had the pleasure of hearing from a hero of the 1989 revolution in which the Communist government was overthrown. He was only 15 at the time but was out in the streets shouting “down with communism” and many of his fellow rebels and ordinary citizens were shot down in the square. He took a bullet in his hand. He had a Romanian flag from the time with a hole in it where the rebels had cut out the communist symbol. Since then the Romanian flag just has the three stripes.The talk was next to an old Orthodox church which had fallen into disrepair under the Communist government but has been recently restored. The Communist government had intended to tear it down but prominent artists and historians convinced the dictator Ceaușescu to save it for aesthetic and historical reasons. Next we were taken to Caru' cu Bere, a beautiful old beer hall and restaurant that opened in 1879 and is currently in a Gothic Revival building designed by Austrian architect Siegfrid Kofczinsky in 1899. Next door is Stavropoleos Monastery Church, a really beautiful Greek Orthodox Church and cloister. Nearby we walked by the ruins of Vlad the Impaler’s palace. There are artifacts of Roman ruins there around a statue of Vlad, who inspired the character Dracula. After seeing St. Antony’s Church, the oldest church in Bucharest which preserved its original form (founded 1559) we were bussed around the Palace of the Parliament, built under the direction of the former dictator, Ceaușescu. It is the second largest administrative building in the world and is indeed very large, but neither beautiful nor particularly interesting from the outside. In the early afternoon we took a walking tour to the Romanian Athenaeum, a beautiful neoclassical music hall with romantic touches and a mural around the circular interior depicting moments in Romanian history. Simon returned to the hotel with the group while I wandered around taking photos of interesting architecture. Dinner was on our own which we had outside at a restaurant on the nearby wide leafy Catargiu Boulevard with its beautiful old houses. The proprietor was warm, friendly and glad to see us since he'd only recently opened and didn't have a following yet.

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Photos

Caru' cu Bere, Bucharest beer hall
We had a group lunch here.

Comments

[Mary Ann]

Thanks
I really enjoyed reading your blog! It helped me remember all the great things we did and saw. What a wonderful trip.

[WilliamAtkins]

the blogs
I'm glad you're enjoying them. It's slow, but I love reliving the adventure.