Tuesday 21st May

Left the hotel at 9 am but the minibus was held up in traffic, so we got away at about 9.20 & crawled out of Bucharest at snail's pace for 15km. Eventually we cleared the city & drove past the world's oldest oil refinery & an abandoned power station from the Communist era at Ploiesti. We also later passed a couple of modern oil donkeys pumping it out of the huge plain. A nearby city was the target of American bombers in WW2 to knock out the refinery & the oil field but they only succeeded in destroying the city & not the real targets.

Soon after we stopped for the driver's enforced 45min break at a service centre, with its café etc housed in a flying saucer, complete with extra terrestrial figures & signs on the toilet doors.

Moving on we visited King Karel 1's summer palace, Peles Castle, in Sinai in the mountains. This extraordinary complex built between 1876 & 1914 in a very Germanic style is amongst the most over ornate, if beautifully realized, buildings we have ever seen. Obviously, no expense was spared but the overall effect is of a bizarre mixture of styles & objects within the place. It reflected his love of all things Germanic, where he had been a minor royal before being chosen by the Romanians as their king.

We moved on to a 'Champagne' cellar not far away where we enjoyed an excellent lunch before seeing the cellar. The base wines are brought from 3 regions of Romania, blended & bottled with added yeast & are allowed to age in the cellar for a year before the yeast is disgorged & the level of sweetness is adjusted by adding syrup as required. The process is quite labour intensive & it is vital that the cellar temperature is kept stable throughout the year. The tasting session followed but, to our surprise, no attempt was made to sell us any bottles.

Finally, we moved on to Brasov in Transylvania, where we checked in to our hotel at 5.45 before a walking tour of the town. This was interesting but our enthusiasm was somewhat modified by the rain & after an hour, we returned to the hotel, confused & bedraggled.

Had a strange dinner & retired once more to the hotel.

Wednesday 22nd May

After a leisurely breakfast we walked up to see St Nicholas's Orthodox Cathedral but had to race back for our bus at 9am to go to Bran Castle, the legendary & completely mythical, home of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" on the border of Transylvania & Wallachia in the middle ages. The castle was built on a ridge by the Teutonic knights in 1377, to protect a customs point. They were expelled by the Hungarian king & were replaced when the country feared a Tartar invasion. It fell into disrepair & was extensively renovated for Queen Maria of Romania in 1920.

Now it is the centre of a "Dracula" industry with stalls at the base of the entry path selling anything & everything vaguely connected with the character. The castle is small & picturesque but is massively overrated in our opinion as a tourist venue. We pushed through with the hoards but were glad to leave it for a well earned coffee.

Leaving Bran, we drove though some downpours to see a Saxon, fortified church on the plain, not far from Brasov. This was a true eye opener as it was a massive walled enclosure protecting the church, which had rooms for all the Saxon families from the village, in the event of war. Externally the walls are full of embrasures to fire on enemies & inside there are 3 levels of rooms connected with timber walkways. It is one of a series of such communities on the plain. The Saxons had been invited in by the Hungarian kings in the 14th century to bring their artisan skills to the country. We thought that it was far more interesting than Bran Castle & far less crowded too.

Back to Brasov we went & luckily, it stopped raining.

With the rest of the day free we visited the Jewish Reform Synagogue which was light, airy & beautiful & then we found the Weavers' Bastion on the old city wall. This again was most impressive.

In Brasov the Germans lived within the city walls whilst the Romanians lived outside the city walls. Each guild had to man a Bastion on the wall, in the event of an attack, so they were like a militia. The bastion was of similar construction to the fortified church. In one room was huge model of the walled city of the 14th century together with another, of the adjacent Romanian town, outside the wall.

We retreated back into the town to see the "Black Church", the largest Gothic church between Vienna & Istanbul.

It is most impressive although it is Lutheran rather than RC & has a remarkable organ together with a huge collection of fine Anatolian carpets. These were given by Silk Road traders & are hung around the walls.

At 4.30 we gave it all away & searched for refreshment, well satisfied with our efforts.