Saturday 11 May, Day 8
We were to be picked up at 8:00, so were up early, but
no-one came until 8:30, then we were off to Transylvania. First stop was Sinaia, and Peles Castle.
In the mid 1800s, Romania decided they wanted
a king, and having no ‘royal blood’ of their own, they imported a minor German
prince to be King Carol 1, and from 1873 he built this fancy palace, with many
different designers decorating different parts.
We were herded along in the huge, multinational crowd with our little blue overshoes,
through many
extravagant rooms,
The Moorish room
then got out to wander on our own, and eat some luscious
strawberries. Then we went to Brasov, where
we were pointed towards a traditional restaurant. After eating, we went to the Black Church, a
now Lutheran building so filled with light in stark contrast to the Orthodox
churches we’ve seen. Just as we were
leaving, someone started to play the organ, which is very famous, so we stopped
to listen (and tape) for a while.
We
only had time to walk around the block before re-meeting the guide, and heading
for Bran. Here is the castle made famous
by Bram Stoker for Dracula. It is much older than Peles, with ups and downs and
secret passages and great views front and back.
We had a bit of time for wandering through the tourist market, then it
was back to Bucharest, by about 20:30.
We walked around to the station KFC (5mins) and confused ourselves and
the poor serving girl with our order, but had some dinner and came home to bed.
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