Romania Day 2 continues

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I just realized I never finished the story of our day 2 in Romania!

So, Romania Day 2 continues - on highway 13


We took highway 13 to get from Brasov to Targu Mures. Highway 13 was somewhat an adventure!

The road went through numerous little villages meaning anything or anyone - horse carriage, chicken or other farm animals, stray dogs, children or cars coming from side roads, parked cars (yes, they had parked cars on the lane!) - could suddenly be on the road in front of you!


The road also had some very deep ditches that could make severe damage to your car if you hit it. We also recommend, try to stay on your lane and don't swerve too much to the side of the road even though an oncoming car is driving partly on your lane, because the ditch will kill your car for sure!


Besides things mentioned above the highway 13 is a winding road: it snakes through beautiful landscapes of high hills and flat fields as well as climbs up and down those high hills. Heavy traffic is in trouble on steep uphills and slows down everyone. This causes some drivers act recklessly and neglectful: they pass you in curves and uphills without any visual certainty of clear road ahead. Actually, I think they would have driven as crazy as they did no matter what kind of traffic there were on the road.


You can be sure we were happy to arrive at Sighisoara after about 2 hours driving. We parked the car and took a little tour around this (supposed) birth town of Vlad Tepes (a.k.a Dracula). Sighisoara is a very beautiful mediaval-looking town full of historic places and buildings. We headed towards Sighisoara citadel and on our way there we walked through several colorful parks. They were like small green gardens. The citadel is the historic center of the city and a World Heritage Site. One of the most remarkable landmark in the city is the Clock Tower which stands at 60 meters tall and atop the citadel hill. The tower is today a museum of history and holds a great view from the top.


Pekka bought some souveniers and we continued our tour towards covered staircase that my travel book adviced us to look for. The covered staircase is a very old stone staircase with a wooden roof along the whole span. It was quite a hot day and the staircase gave us a nice cool shade while we walked up 172 stairs to reach the Church on the Hill. The church stands high on the hill, on the location of the Roman fort. We spent some time on the hill and walked in the church garden. The way back down the stairs was much easier! The medieval people had a wheather-proof passiage to church; a luxury that few people can enjoy even nowadays! We imagined some 600 years old footsteps to be still visible on the pavement.


On our way back to the car we found De La Teo wine cellar on a side road. We recommend this nice little cellar, excellent service! The owner gave us little tastes of some distilled natural plum and apple liquers and in no time we (slightly 'enlightened') decided to bring back home a few small bottles of this fine natural liquer!


Sighisoara citadel reminds us of the old part of Tallinn, Estonia. They both have unique, beautiful old town centers with corgeous buildings and green parks. And of course, they both haven't forgotten thirsty and hungry tourists, which makes these old town centers also lively and refreshing to visit! If you like to sleep in in the mornings, you should consider staying over night in Sighisoara: we ran into this cool street sign that promised: "horn playing forbidden"!

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Photos

Wine cellar
De La Teo wine cellar

The covered staircase
The covered staircase

Clock Tower
The Clock Tower at Sighisoara Citadel