Central Romania and Transylvania

From Northern Romania, we headed into the heart of "Dracula country", trying hard to avoid the touristic tat associated with the Dracula legend.

Highlights were:

Braşov Old Town, we went on a free walking tour and learned a bit about this medieval Saxon town. It was the first rainy day we struck this holiday.

Raşnov Fortress was an impressive stop over for an hour or two.

We weren't expecting the tourist town of Sinaia to be so nice. We stayed in Le Petit Chateu, a historic home in the center of town. It was really interesting to meet the owner who explained how the house was taken from her family by the Communists, and she was slowly trying to restore it after a 15 year court battle to regain ownership.

We visited the royal Peleş Castle. We were reticent at first having visited so many royal households but this was something different and special. So much timber!!!

We then went up the gondola to one of the highest points of the Transylvania Carpathian mountains (2100m).

Up the top was the biggest bbq ever. A great selection of meat and more meat. No sign of greenery here!

We ate kürtőskalács, a traditional sweet like a massive spiral doughnut barbecued and covered in sugar. Margaret ate most of it; I thought it tasted like a burnt doughnut.

Sigişoara was another impressive medieval town built on a surrounded by a fortress. It's where a lot of iconic photos are taken, but we didn't have great weather for photography.

This how it looks on a nice day (and a bit of Photoshop)

Our next stop was Sebeş, a tiny one street rural village about 20km south of Făgăraş. We wanted a base to explore the Bâlea glacier lake (2000m) and the awesome Transfagaraş Highway rated by TopGear as the best road in the world. 

When we arrived at the lake, the fog rolled in. We nearly lost Margaret in the lake!

But only about 30 minutes later it cleared to a beautiful sight

One of the great aspects of hiring a car, is the ability to staying in unusual accomodation of the main tourist drag.
Casa Macarina was a monastery and religious retreat also open to the public. It had a haunted feeling with a seriously scary castle.

We also stayed at the stately home of Conac Polizu. We slept in the room previously stayed in by Queen Maria of Romania!

Driving the countryside was a bit stressful at times; the Romanians (like most East Europeans) are crazy drivers. The roads are pretty bad so it is slow going most of the time. The Romanian method is to drive as fast as possible on any part of the road, while avoiding potholes, pedestrians, cattle, horse and cart and other obstructions.

But it was in the countryside that we saw the real Romania and we were so glad we hired the car.

Wells are still commonly used for fresh water and they come in all shapes and sizes

Well, well, well....that's it until the next blog - Western and Southern Romania (Wallacia)