Day
Well we arrived at our motel after 5 1/2 hours travelling rather than 3! Colin can't wait to stop riding on Rumanian roads! We travelled the first 50 miles through road works which took us over 2 hours, we also had to contend with numpties driving cars, vans, lorries and trucks who overtook on blind bends, cut you up on roundabouts and turnings and also when lorries and vans were hurtling towards them- it wasn't a smooth and easy ride.
About 10 miles from the motel we came through a gipsy village. When we first came into Romanian we came across a couple of houses that looked to us as if they were built in a chinese pagoda style but with lots of silver bell decorations hanging as fretwork. Last night whilst talking to another hotel guest who worked as an independent guide we got talking about the gypsies and it was he who told us about the ornate houses they build but either live in the back garden or just one room; it is almost like a status symbol for them to show off that although they are still looked down upon by most of the population they can afford to build much bigger and ornate houses than most people who have small one storey properties. As we rode through the village I have to admit to feeling concerned about the safety of our bike as once again we were drawing a lot of attention to ourselves, so I was relieved when we continued away from there.
We carried on riding and came to a disused factory which turns out to have been the largest steel works in Romania at one time but it is now closed as are the associated museums and mines! I could sense that Colin was getting worried about our motel and it's surroundings but it is set alongside a lake (photo is taken from our window) amongst lots of trees, so he is relieved. The staff have limited English but we managed to book in, reserve a table for tonight and ask about any walks close by; the answer to our walking query was to gesture to the lake and say "drive around", so we're assuming that there isn't a culture of walking here; ad they still have wild brown bears and boats I'm not that surprised! Con is now busy researching what we can do tomorrow even though there are numerous sun loungers and an adequately sized pool to spend our REST day by!
When booking our table for tonight the waiter pointed to a flyer which is advertising a rock and folk evening tonight; we can't wait!
Well the meal tonight was probably the tastiest and most manageable one I've had.
The folk and roll music was exactly as expected!!!!!!!
There was a man at the next table dressed in a purple track suit that probably fitted him 15 years ago who was obviously high on drugs and hugging people, I said to Colin, if he hugs me Colin was to thump him!!
Day
Breakfast was interesting, it consisted of a 3 egg omelet stuffed with cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms; Colin decide to forgo this and just have a fried egg and ham!
We went off to visit the local castle in Hunedoara. It had remained very well preserved from its beginnings in 14th century through to last alterations in he 19th century. Looking around we could imagine what the castle we visited the other day would have been like. They are starting to renovate the exterior replacing the moulds obviously this is going to be a huge undertaking and a long term project with this in mind the scaffolding they have erected is all wooden so again you gain an impression of what it would have looked like under construction centuries ago.
As we came out of one part of the castle we hear beautiful singing so went to find out what was happening. In one of the rooms we had already been in there had been a man playing a glockenspiel as we went back in he had been surrounded by a group of tourists who were singing to him; they looked and sounded as if they were a choir on tour, the acoustics in the chamber were just superb and it was very moving to hear them.
We we came out the whole courtyard was filled with bikers!
On returning to our hotel we passed a few bikes coming down through the switchbacks and joked that probably they had all come to the hotel- they had!
As we parked up the main organiser, Kaleem, came and introduced himself and invited us to a huge bike rally about 30 kms away. As he was talking to us lots more bikers came over and encouraged us to join them so in half an hour we're off to try and find them!
They say we will win the prize for having travelled the furtherest to be there!