After sleeping until 10ish in the morning we woke up had breakfast and looked at our plans for the next 4 days. We planned to basically copy the Rollins trip of Romania from about a year earlier, but the last day of that trip included about a 14 hour drive, and we really didn't want to do that again, especially what would have been arriving back at their house and leaving for the airport 6-8 hours later. So I jumped online and starting sending out emails to rearrange our schedule a little. What we ended up worked out almost flawlessly.
We left at around 2 in the afternoon after saying good bye to everyone (expect the Rollin's) since they were all leaving early the following morning. This was hard on Paige as she really had a great time with Emma, and saying good bye is always hard for her anyway. That afternoon, we drove about 4 hours north to the border between Bulgaria and Romania and stayed in a hotel in Ruse. Ruse is actually a decent sized city, but after the trip we had had so far, for us it really was only a stopping place to break up the driving some. Our hotel was nice though, it smell a little of smoke, but we had a two bedroom room and each kid had their own bed. This was great for them as they had been sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor for a lot of the trip. They liked the sleeping bags too, but a bed was nice.
The next morning we woke up had breakfast and by 9 in the morning were crossing the border into Romania!
It was funny, Romain and Bulgaria are separated in this area by a river, and on the Bulgaria side everything is dry and brown, and sage brush like. On the Romania side everything was green, we really liked it. Right as we crossed over we drove past this guy who was tearing down and old building or barn or something. It was really funny, because it was one guy and he has a not very big sledge hammer. It looked like it would take years to tear the building down, maybe it will.
Anyway, after about 4 hours of driving we made it to our first stop; Bran. More specifically, we were visiting Bran Castle. This is the castle that is credited at being Dracula's castle. Dracula was a real person, Vlad Tepes Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) who lived and ruled Wallachia in the 15th century, and it is thought that he was some of the inspiration for Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula. In fact, there is no proof that he lived at Castle Bran, it is actually thought he may have spend a few nights in the castle though. In any case Castle Bran is romanticized as being Dracula's Castle, and in any case, it is simply a really cool castle in Transylvania, which by itself is just cool. So we spend a few hours exploring the castle. It is in really great shape as it was used as a principle residence of the queen of Romania in the early 20th century, Queen Marie. Now it is a museum.
After visiting Bran we drove 20 minutes to the town of Brasov. This was where we initially intended to spend the second night of this road trip, but had now cut out and intended only to spend a few hours here checking out the city. Brasov, was interesting as it had a lot of elements of a small walled in medieval town, but clearly was also functioning as a more modern day city at the same time. We really cracked up at the old church connected to the KFC. It turned only the entrance walkway to the church was here, the church itself was behind with a little courtyard.
Anyway, after walking around a bit and stopping so the kids could get ice cream and I could try a yummy local treat, we got back in the car one last time for the day and drove another hour and a half to Sighisoara. This is where we intended to stay for our third night initially. Sighisoara is similar to Brasov in that it is a old medieval walled town, and has continued to grow into a more modern city, but with Sighisoara the modern area is down below, while the walled town sits up on a hill and it still 99% unchanged. When we got there it was just getting dark, so we checked into our hotel and wow, what a hotel it was, check out our room!!! I normally don't get excited about a hotel room, my general rule is, if it has a bed, I am good, but this was great, and it wasn't that expensive either.
Anyway, after loving our room for a few minutes we walked about 2 minutes from our hotel to Casa Dracula, the childhood home of Vlad Tepes now a restaurant, and had dinner. After we briefly walked around Sighisoara to see the town lit up at night.
The next morning we set out early to walk around Sighisoara and check it out before getting in the car for what was to be our longest day of this road trip. Sighisoara was a great little town. There really wasn't anything there, a few souvenir shops, some restaurants, church's, etc. but the town was really cool. We just enjoyed walking the 4 streets that made up the town on the cobblestone roads looking at the buildings. We go to the top of the clock tower and were able to check out the entire city from above, which provided some nice views. By about 11 though we were down and ready to hit the road again.
Our goal for the rest of the day was to drive the Translyvanian and the Saxon lands, hopefully drive the Transfagarasan road over the Carpathian mountains, visit the ruins of Poenari Castle (Vlad Tepes actual castle), and make it back to the hotel in Ruse, Bulgaria where we stayed the first night. If everything worked out, I thought we would be back to the hotel by about 8 PM. Driving in the Saxon lands was incredible. We drove through several small towns where basically it was a fortified church and several houses, other than the main road everything was unpaved, and most of the people didn't even appear to have cars. We thought it might have been mostly Roma, but don't know for sure if that is correct or if that is just the simple life in this area for everyone. Regardless, it was like being in Amish country in Pennsylvania, and we loved it. We we started to approach the Carpathian mountains, I started to get excited, I really wanted to drive the Transfagarasan road, which is a famous windy road through the mountains. The road though is closed for the winter because of snow (and windiness, not a good combination...) so we didn't know if it would be open yet. To our surprise, and my joy, it was open when we got there. So we started to climb the mountain, it was plenty windy and fun to drive, but really no more so than a lot of other driving we did on the first road trip, especially around Meteora and Delphi. Anyway, when we were getting close to the top we watched as the thermometer in our car told us the temperature was dropping outside. Soon the light rain turned into light snow. As we approached the top of the mountain, which best I can tell reaches a peak but then follows the ridge line for a long time before finally dropping down the other side, we passed a snow plow and then almost immediately came to a second sign that now said the road was closed. This was a total bummer. Really, missing out on the driving of the road sucked, especially because the more scenic and beautiful part was on the other side, but also because we had to turn around, drive all the way back down, and then go around the mountains. This added about 3 hours driving to our day. The kids were also really excited to see the real Dracula Castle, which happens to be located of the Transfagarasan road on the other side, so not only did we completely drive around, but then we drove back up the same road from the other side. In the end, I think the only part I didn't drive it the segment that is famous for it picturesque views of the area with the windy road below. So when we finally got to Poenari everyone was ready to get out of the car. So ready in fact we decided to hike the 1480 steps up to the castle. 1480 is a lot of steps!!! When we go to the top the wind was howling through the area, and the castle was totally exposed. I thought it was cool, Julie couldn't wait to take a couple of pictures and head back down a little to get out of the wind. There really wasn't a lot to see, most of the castle is gone, just the front wall and one tower remains, so the picture from below is really the best view. But we needed to get out of the car, and now we can proudly say we visited the REAL Dracula's castle.
After this we drove for a couple more hours back across the border into Bulgaria, stayed in Ruse again and the following morning headed back to the Rollin's house. About 5 minutes away is Boyana church which is about 900 years old. We had a pizza dinner that night and just relaxed and let the kids play. It was a great way to end a really great (but long) trip!
We left at around 2 in the afternoon after saying good bye to everyone (expect the Rollin's) since they were all leaving early the following morning. This was hard on Paige as she really had a great time with Emma, and saying good bye is always hard for her anyway. That afternoon, we drove about 4 hours north to the border between Bulgaria and Romania and stayed in a hotel in Ruse. Ruse is actually a decent sized city, but after the trip we had had so far, for us it really was only a stopping place to break up the driving some. Our hotel was nice though, it smell a little of smoke, but we had a two bedroom room and each kid had their own bed. This was great for them as they had been sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor for a lot of the trip. They liked the sleeping bags too, but a bed was nice.
The next morning we woke up had breakfast and by 9 in the morning were crossing the border into Romania!
Anyway, after about 4 hours of driving we made it to our first stop; Bran. More specifically, we were visiting Bran Castle. This is the castle that is credited at being Dracula's castle. Dracula was a real person, Vlad Tepes Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) who lived and ruled Wallachia in the 15th century, and it is thought that he was some of the inspiration for Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula. In fact, there is no proof that he lived at Castle Bran, it is actually thought he may have spend a few nights in the castle though. In any case Castle Bran is romanticized as being Dracula's Castle, and in any case, it is simply a really cool castle in Transylvania, which by itself is just cool. So we spend a few hours exploring the castle. It is in really great shape as it was used as a principle residence of the queen of Romania in the early 20th century, Queen Marie. Now it is a museum.
After visiting Bran we drove 20 minutes to the town of Brasov. This was where we initially intended to spend the second night of this road trip, but had now cut out and intended only to spend a few hours here checking out the city. Brasov, was interesting as it had a lot of elements of a small walled in medieval town, but clearly was also functioning as a more modern day city at the same time. We really cracked up at the old church connected to the KFC. It turned only the entrance walkway to the church was here, the church itself was behind with a little courtyard.
Anyway, after walking around a bit and stopping so the kids could get ice cream and I could try a yummy local treat, we got back in the car one last time for the day and drove another hour and a half to Sighisoara. This is where we intended to stay for our third night initially. Sighisoara is similar to Brasov in that it is a old medieval walled town, and has continued to grow into a more modern city, but with Sighisoara the modern area is down below, while the walled town sits up on a hill and it still 99% unchanged. When we got there it was just getting dark, so we checked into our hotel and wow, what a hotel it was, check out our room!!! I normally don't get excited about a hotel room, my general rule is, if it has a bed, I am good, but this was great, and it wasn't that expensive either.
Anyway, after loving our room for a few minutes we walked about 2 minutes from our hotel to Casa Dracula, the childhood home of Vlad Tepes now a restaurant, and had dinner. After we briefly walked around Sighisoara to see the town lit up at night.
The next morning we set out early to walk around Sighisoara and check it out before getting in the car for what was to be our longest day of this road trip. Sighisoara was a great little town. There really wasn't anything there, a few souvenir shops, some restaurants, church's, etc. but the town was really cool. We just enjoyed walking the 4 streets that made up the town on the cobblestone roads looking at the buildings. We go to the top of the clock tower and were able to check out the entire city from above, which provided some nice views. By about 11 though we were down and ready to hit the road again.
Our goal for the rest of the day was to drive the Translyvanian and the Saxon lands, hopefully drive the Transfagarasan road over the Carpathian mountains, visit the ruins of Poenari Castle (Vlad Tepes actual castle), and make it back to the hotel in Ruse, Bulgaria where we stayed the first night. If everything worked out, I thought we would be back to the hotel by about 8 PM. Driving in the Saxon lands was incredible. We drove through several small towns where basically it was a fortified church and several houses, other than the main road everything was unpaved, and most of the people didn't even appear to have cars. We thought it might have been mostly Roma, but don't know for sure if that is correct or if that is just the simple life in this area for everyone. Regardless, it was like being in Amish country in Pennsylvania, and we loved it. We we started to approach the Carpathian mountains, I started to get excited, I really wanted to drive the Transfagarasan road, which is a famous windy road through the mountains. The road though is closed for the winter because of snow (and windiness, not a good combination...) so we didn't know if it would be open yet. To our surprise, and my joy, it was open when we got there. So we started to climb the mountain, it was plenty windy and fun to drive, but really no more so than a lot of other driving we did on the first road trip, especially around Meteora and Delphi. Anyway, when we were getting close to the top we watched as the thermometer in our car told us the temperature was dropping outside. Soon the light rain turned into light snow. As we approached the top of the mountain, which best I can tell reaches a peak but then follows the ridge line for a long time before finally dropping down the other side, we passed a snow plow and then almost immediately came to a second sign that now said the road was closed. This was a total bummer. Really, missing out on the driving of the road sucked, especially because the more scenic and beautiful part was on the other side, but also because we had to turn around, drive all the way back down, and then go around the mountains. This added about 3 hours driving to our day. The kids were also really excited to see the real Dracula Castle, which happens to be located of the Transfagarasan road on the other side, so not only did we completely drive around, but then we drove back up the same road from the other side. In the end, I think the only part I didn't drive it the segment that is famous for it picturesque views of the area with the windy road below. So when we finally got to Poenari everyone was ready to get out of the car. So ready in fact we decided to hike the 1480 steps up to the castle. 1480 is a lot of steps!!! When we go to the top the wind was howling through the area, and the castle was totally exposed. I thought it was cool, Julie couldn't wait to take a couple of pictures and head back down a little to get out of the wind. There really wasn't a lot to see, most of the castle is gone, just the front wall and one tower remains, so the picture from below is really the best view. But we needed to get out of the car, and now we can proudly say we visited the REAL Dracula's castle.
After this we drove for a couple more hours back across the border into Bulgaria, stayed in Ruse again and the following morning headed back to the Rollin's house. About 5 minutes away is Boyana church which is about 900 years old. We had a pizza dinner that night and just relaxed and let the kids play. It was a great way to end a really great (but long) trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment