What a Load of Bloggers: Transylvania and Bucarest

The flight from Heathrow to Bucarest is under 3 hours. Otopeni is a modern airport and there to meet us was our guide - Tudor. He turned out to be superb. The afternoon drive from Bucarest to Transylvania and our hotel in the ski resort of Poiana Brasov was through pasturelands and forest on good roads. Our hotel - The Rizzo - is at just over 1000m above sea level and the area is quiet in June. Most of the terrain is covered in forest with snow on the mountain tops. Romania has Europe's largest bear population but we don't see any - just overturned bins in the morning that have been rifled through and the occasional alert on our phones warning us about sightings and advising us to stay indoors and on no account to try to feed them!

On our second morning we drive to Bran and the 14th Century Bran Castle. Vlad Tepes (transformed into Count Dracula in popular fiction) lived in the castle. The famous Queen Marie of Romania made her home there in the 1920s, followed by one of her daughters, Princess Ileana, below:

Below: Queen Marie - reputed to be a formidable woman.

Below: Portraits of rulers at the castle, including Vlad Tepes

Below: Clothes worn by 'Count Dracula'

Bran Castle - comfortably furnished.

When Queen Marie got bored listening to the speeches she used her secret staircase.

Staircase entrance.

Music Room

From Bran we drove to the beautiful medieval town of Brasov with amongst other buildings, its Black Church - so called after being charred in a fire in 1689. Brsov is a large town with a lot of industry on its outskirts. We spent our time there in the relatively quiet old town. We enjoyed our leisurely lunch in the warm afternoon and watched the passers-by.

Below: The Black Church

Below: The Synagogue in Brasov - shame about the car! People of many different backgrounds and faiths have lived over the centuries in what is now Romania. Today, most Romanians are followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Below: Dining out in Poiana Brasov with musical accompaniment.

Day three involved a long drive through rolling countryside to the Saxon village of Biertan - a very beautiful rural village with a huge fortified church.

Biertan is not just home to the largest fortified church in Transylvania but also the most ingenious and complicated door lock!

Below: The 'prison' for married couples in Biertan. Quarrelling couples were locked in the room with a single bed until they promised the priest that they would get along happily with each other.

From Biertan we drove to another beautiful town - Sighisoara, home to one of Europe's oldest citadels. We visited the birthplace of Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler and later aka Count Dracula). It is now a restaurant. The cleaner was trying to sweep the floor when we trooped in and she was none to pleased to see us!

Below: The house where Vlad Tepes was born.

June is often very wet in Transylvania but we only had one overnight shower and a brief afternoon one when we visitied Sighisoara. It was warm each day, but as expected, cool at night in the mountains.

Dining out in Romania is inexpensive and the food and drink is almost always good.

Below: Sign on the wall at Vald Tepes' birthplace indicating that his father, Vlad Dracul lived there.

Below: In Vlad's bedroom - mum and dad's pictures on the wall!

Below: The man himself.

Another day, another remarkable building - this time the Saxon citadel at Prejmer, built in 1212. In 500 years it was beseiged around 50 times but only ever captured once, in 1611 by Gabriel Báthori, Prince of Transylvania. The fighters defending the fortress reputedly surrendered after several days without any drinking water.

Below: Living quarters and the school room.

After Prejmer we headed south towards Bucarest, stopping on the way at the majestic Peles Castle near Sinaia.

When King Carol I of Romania visited Sinaia, where the beautiful Peles Castle now stands, he was amazed by the scenery of the Carpathian Mountains that surround it. We liked it too!

The construction of Peles Castle was commissioned by King Carol, and the foundations were laid in 1873 for the building of a hunting house and summer retreat for the Romanian royal family. Peles became the first castle in Europe fully powered by locally produced energy, with the electric system being completed in 1884 and the central heating system in1897. The castle remained a royal residence until 1947. After the forced abdication of King Michael I, Peleș was seized by the Communist regime, together with all the properties of the royal family. In 1948 the whole estate was closed, and numerous pieces of art were moved to the Art Museum in Bucharest. Peles Castle was then opened as a museum in 1953 and remained so until 1975 when it was closed again due to its advanced state of deterioration. Between 1975 and 1989, the castle was constantly renovated and was also used by the communist regime as a retreat for the heads of state that visited Romania. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the castle was once again opened to the public, and in 2007 it became the property of King Michael.

Our hotel in Bucarest was the Union Plaza. It was quite close to the city centre with a comfortable room and good breakfasts. However the 'Skybar' and its surly and unhelpful staff were a big disappointment. Sadly, I cannot recommend this hotel.

Tudor took us on a walking tour old old Bucarest. Below is Stavropoleos Monastery, also known as Stavropoleos Church during the last century when the monastery was dissolved. It is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for nuns who live in small courtyard dwelling to the rear of the church.

Below: Trams run through Bucarest and below ground the Metro has four lines.

View from our hotel looking towards the Palace of Parliament which is the 2nd largest building in the world - The Pentagon in the USA is the biggest.

Below: Caru’ cu bere is definitely a symbol of Bucharest, but the people who started the story came from beyond the Carpathian mountains, from Transylvania. In 1879, on Calea Victoriei (The road of Victory) Street, there was a brewery name La Carul cu Bere (At the beer wagon). The origin of the brewery’s name is easy to guess, as the beer was brought to brewery by horse-drawn wagons. The inside is fabulously opulent and diners enjoy classical music recitals with their meals. We chose to dine outside and once again - the food was good.

Below: The Carturesti Carusel. This wonderful building was built in 1903 by a wealthy family of Greek bankers, only to be confiscated by the Communist regime in the 1950s. It was then turned into a general store and later abandoned and left to decay as Communism collapsed.

The grandson of the banker, who originally bought the building back in 1903 requested that it would be returned to his family, as legal heirs. It took 24 years of battles in court, untangling bureaucratic loops, and finding the proper documents in archives, but he finally took possession of the decaying building in 2007. He then began its remarkable transformation to the Cărturești Carusel (“Carousel of Light”) bookstore that stands today.

It also sells music. I bought two Miles Davis albums on vinyl. The pound goes a long way in Romania! There were over five Lei to the pound when we were there.