Thursday 23rd May

After breakfast we walked to the cable car station arriving well before it opened at 9.30am. The car took us to the top of the ridge & we had some fine views of Brasov on the way. The top was a bit of a disappointment as the viewing platform was closed & the surrounding trees limited our sightseeing from the ridge. We descended on the car & set off past the Weavers' Bastion to see St Nicholas's Cathedral in the Romanian part of Brasov.

On the way we passed another smaller Orthodox church which had some of its tombs decorated with a fine display of begonias, which reminded d*** of the ones that his parents grew in their gardens.

The Cathedral was relatively austere by Orthodox standards & the lady in charge was obviously keen to lock it up so we moved on to the Romanian School Museum which is a true gem.

A very kind gentlemen pointed out the features of the place including a very early printing press, the first in Romania & the school desks etc. Upstairs they had the most remarkable collection of books & documents together with some fine pictures but unfortunately, we felt we had to get back to the hotel to check out at mid day.

The bus took us to Count Kalnoky 's Guesthouse in the Transylvanian village of Miclosoara. Here we are staying in a guest room away from the old main building furnished with old Hungarian style furniture.

The first thing we noted was what appeared to be strange, small turkeys in the yard, which are a local breed of quite handsome bare, red necked chickens. The locals here are originally of Hungarian descent & still speak the language, despite having been here for several hundred years.

At 2pm we had a fine, locally prepared, lunch in the cellar of the main house & then all went or a ride on a couple of horse drawn farm carts. This proved to be quite exciting as the route was along rough tracks and across open paddocks & the suspension left something to be desired. The countryside is well wooded & rolling & reminded us of parts of England such as northern Hampshire & Dorset.

After we returned, we went to see the local Catholic church which was also fairly austerely decorated inside. It started to rain so we returned to our room for a rest before dinner at 8pm.

Friday 24th May

Had a late start this morning & visited the Kalnoky Castle, hunting lodge of Count Kalnoky, just down the road from our overnight stay. It is a fine house started in the mid 1800s, taken over by the Communist in 1946 & returned to the family in the 1990s, having been stripped of its treasures. Now, thanks to grants from Norway, Iceland & Luxembourg it has largely been restored & furnished as a museum of the area & includes a range of magnificent small oriental rugs.

From there we drove to the UNESCO recognized, German settled, village of Viscri, where we were shown a typical house interior & had lunch accompanied by the host's schnapps, made from plums & local rosé, neither quite to our tastes. The village had originally been settled by the Saxons 700 years ago but after WW2 the Russians deported most of the German speaking males as POWs, as they had served in the German Army. When they returned many opted to settle in West Germany & now the villagers are largely Romanian speakers.

After lunch we walked through the village up to the oldest fortified church in Romania, sitting at the top of a hill dominating the place. This was fascinating as it has a church with a watchtower & a set of small towers around it, which house a museum of local interest.

Finally, we walked down past a house in the village owned by Prince Charles, to a blacksmith's shop where he made a miniature horse shoe. Here we were told that many of the houses vacated by the German speakers, who went west, had been taken up by Romany people & the blacksmith was one of them.

The bus then took us to Sighisoara for our next 2 nights. We then went out for dinner & back to bed.