2018 Bucharest to Amsterdam

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Simon and I flew out of San Francisco on Sunday, July 8 and 17 hours later we arrived in Bucharest, Romania. Our first hotel was near the old section of the city.



7-10-18, Tuesday. Bucharest. On our first day a small bus picked us up for a tour to Transylvania. En route we passed through fields of sunflowers in bloom and young corn plants that stretched to the horizon of the flat landscape. Saw an enormous oil refinery with smokestacks and huge cooling towers. Romania has its own oil but also imports it from Russia. Our first stop was at Sinai, a village in the Carpathian Mountains and the site of Peles (pronounced pailish) Castle, built in the late 19th century by King Carol, the first Romanian king. He was royalty imported from Germany to satisfy the perceived need for a monarch. Like Neuschwanstein in Bavaria, it isn’t a fortress, but a large, lavish palace in a forested mountain setting built in a romantic style harking back to medieval times. It has a huge clock tower, 3 other towers, many rooms, a grand staircase and rich, gorgeous interior detail. Very storybook. Next stop, Brasov, a Transylvanian city that has an old town center with a town hall with clock tower and many shops and restaurants facing a large open plaza. We had a lunch of traditional pork-stuffed cabbages served with polenta and bacon before exploring the cobbled pedestrian streets that led from the plaza which are lined with shops and restaurants on the ground floors of the charming old buildings with a backdrop of green mountains. Our walking tour took us by the huge old Black Church, once Catholic, now Protestant, a red and white synagogue and a medieval gate tower. Final stop of the day was Bran Castle, one of a few different castles that were supposedly Dracula’s. We climbed a steep cobblestoned walkway up a hillside to the castle which was built on an ancient fortress. It was a favorite residence of Queen Marie who had it renovated after 1920. It has charming architecture with small, irregularly shaped rooms and an interior courtyard, is made of plastered brick with red-tiled steep roofs. While pleasing, the place is a major tourist trap so it was difficult moving around inside because of crowding. A dramatically suitable thunderstorm with lightning commenced as we exited the castle.

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Comments

[Chris]

Bran Castle
Hi Guys, sounds like a trip with a difference you have planned. Romania brings back so many memories. I worked on the Danube in Calagat in 1995 and went to Transylvania for the weekend including Bran castle. I think the locals now have the difficulty in distinguishing between what’s legend and what’s factual history. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures. See you both soon in SF

[WilliamAtkins]

on the Danube
Do you mean Calafat? What did you do there?