23 April
2025 – Getting Our Teeth Into Transylvania
Miles
driven today = 73
Total Miles
to date = 4,090
If yesterday’s
journey was less than inspiring then today’s was the complete opposite.
Almost as soon as we had we left the campsite
we were into our first set of S bends and for the next 60 kilometres they just
kept on coming as we snaked our way through the Bucegi Mountains.
There was a
constant bombardment of fabulous scenery to admire from alpine meadows and
chalet villages to densely forested hillsides.
We had a
brief stop at Cheia so that Lisa could eat her breakfast without throwing it
all over the cab and while she was doing that I hopped out and took a few
photos of the local Monastic buildings.
Shortly after
we left Cheia things got really interesting as we climbed a ladder of 14
consecutive hairpins.
Then once we had
topped out we followed the path of the Tarlung River as it meandered back downhill
towards Brasov.
I had
designs on visiting Romania’s 6
th most populous City.
It has an interesting sounding old central
area.
But streets are narrow and we
could find nowhere convenient to park the van within easy walking distance.
So we skirted around and through some newly built
suburbs and headed to the town of Rasnov instead.
Rasnov has
an old Castle which sits high on the hillside overlooking the town.
There is a
large carpark nearby but we didn’t count on the fact that it is shared with the
“Dino Parc” theme park and a number of shops and restaurants and, given the
kids are all still on their Easter breaks, it was busy to say the least, with
the tractor pulled trains doing a roaring trade hauling excited youngsters up
the hill to meet Bertie the Brontosaurus and friends.
Thankfully
not so many of them made it up to the top of the hill to the Castle, which was
built by Rasnov’s Saxon community between the 14
th and 17
th
Centuries.
The outer Castle
is entered through this impressive gatehouse.
The inner
Citadel is unfortunately closed currently for a major restoration project.
We were told that the castle’s “gardens” were
open but we couldn’t find anything which would match that description and
assumed that they were simply referring to the outer castle which is
predominantly laid to grass now.
But it was
still well worth the effort for the views.
We decided
to have lunch at one of the restaurants before we moved on.
Lisa had trout again while I went for a stew
of pork, chicken livers and sausage on a bed of polenta.
The chips were completely superfluous.
Really not sure why I ordered them.
We’ve moved
on just a few miles further down the road to Bran, with it’s famous eponymous
Castle of Dracula fame.
Our home for the
night is the fabulously named Vampire Camping, although I’m afraid the reality
doesn’t really live up to the name or the price tag.
But it’ll do for a couple of nights and give us
a chance to go out armed with silver bullets, wooden stakes and garlic in the
morning.
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