In Moldavia, Romania

Voronet Monastery

Regular Highway traffic

So our next destination is the painted monasteries of Moldavia and area close to the Ukraine border and Suceava. Our route, aided by our host in Sighisoara, was beautiful through the Carpathian mountains  - still. There was a lot of winding, narrow roads but scenic towns and characters we would meet along the way. Romania, as well as Bulgaria has many horse and cart ’vehicles’ on the road, as well as farm implements like John Deere Combines. It adds another dimension to how you drive here, basically expecting anything including cows, pigs, sheep to come out of the woods so to speak. We watched village people walking to stuke steep fields with their long had scythes, and fields with hay ’Stukes’ that are meant to store the hay in place in the fields and allow it to dry. These are techniques we haven’t seen in Canada since I was a kid, and that’s a long time, OK a really long time.  They actually deliver milk by carts here still, un-pasteurized,  what they term ‘coming from a real cow’, and then they boil it themselves before serving it. We had this kind of milk at Yanka’s house in Bulgaria as well.

Stuked Hay

Guys here are still very interested in the motorcycle, and when they look at the speedo, their way of evaluating if it is powerful or not, they wave their hand as if it is too hot. And the kids all want to hear the bike rev up. Then they get into, how did you get it here, where are you going, etc. all in a different language, but we get the message across. Universal hand language.

Catholic Clergy enjoying the Orthodox church

Our B&B here in Vama is operated by a family whose head of the household is a police officer. (We’ll leave the name out to protect the innocent). Last evening we sat around drinking ‘Schnapps’ of the homemade variety and he brought out old Russian handcuffs, an old Billy Club, and then finally his unloaded pistol, a 6mm. (small) Romanian built gun. He only does this when there are visiting foreign police officers in the crowd ( I qualified). We ate supper at the house, typical Romanian dishes, all with liquor of one type or another. Don’t try doing any of this if you plan on driving in the next month or so after.


Today we toured the painted monasteries of this region. These churches are of the eastern Orthodox variety and the paint works on them date back almost 600 years. And we travelled over one high pass that was very scenic. Like everywhere else, where a tourist is likely to stop there is someone selling a souvenir. This time it was exactly what we wanted for our tree.

Buying a Romanian Egg

We can’t say enough good things about Romania. It continually exceeds our expectations, and even though some of the roads are in poor condition they are way better than many we’ve experienced, across Morocco, Greece, the rebuilding of roads in Turkey and definitely Bulgaria. Tomorrow we leave to see if we can cross into the Ukraine.

Altar of Orthodox Church

Ceiling Fresco

Outside FResco

Old Lady taking home her communion bread
 she had blessed

Inner church looking out

Sighisoara (Siggy- Shore- Ah)

Sighisoara Clocktower

Our Room

1797 Marking on beam

We’re still in Transylvania and onto Sighisoara, only 92 kms from Sibiu but very rural in feel. Again, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, this time the whole old town. Our pension there, the Scheiderterm building is a heritage building as well and it was superb accommodation. The owner is hilarious, and at one point after we were telling our Turkish carpet story he mimic’d it by telling of some carpets he had hanging on his clothes line, and then saying they were from Turkey, but the IKEA there, but very valuable indeed. We’d recommend this place for sure. We met some very interesting 

Part of Town Wall

people as well who provided us with more background on what’s happening, or not, in Romania. This coupled with others will be somewhat shocking to you when we write that piece.


The clock tower has characteristics of the clock tower in Munich, back from our 1991 trip. Only these figures do not do a dance, only one rings a bell to mark the time. But our walk about town was very enjoyable as many of the sites are really authentic and haven’t changed yet.

Figures ring bells

One area we really enjoyed near 5:00 pm. was as we walked near a music academy you could hear a piano recital going on in one studio, and then on the opposite side an opera singer was practicing with her coach. It provided an air of magic as you could hear the sounds waft thru the air. We sat at a bench overlooking the countryside and listened for awhile. That evening we ate out at Rustic an authentic Romanian café located down in the lower town. Don’t get caught up with eating at the tourist restaurants in the upper old town, you’ll pay twice the price for so-so food.

Opera Singer seen thru window
Am I a peeping Tom?

Romulus and Remus or what I did
 for supper when I was a kid

Sibiu

Piata Mica

Woodworkers Tower

We had never heard of Sibiu before planning our trip. It was voted best cultural centre in Europe in 2007. The old town centre is well preserved and there are a lot of beautiful places to see. It’s a mini Salzburg and coupled with the Transfagarasan or Transalpina roads an excellent motorcycle destination. We thank Szabi for suggesting this one.


The south end of town has a beautiful old wall section with three towers still intact and there is a carpenters gathering right now that highlights the skill of many crafts.

Woodworker

The main square is large and has a kids type water feature on it that kids on vacation love to watch and play in.

Catholic Basilica Stained Glass

And the Catholic Basilica here has beautiful stained glass art and a beautiful interior.






The Evangelical church has the clock spire that is the most photographed landmark and we loved Piata Mica, where we ate out last night. It is the most intimate of the town squares. On the far SE end of the square is the Bridge of Lies also shown in the spire picture. Be sure to donate to their roof renovation work if you go here or this place won’t last long. Their interior is quite plain compared to the Catholic church, in keeping with the Reformation era.

Evangelical Tower and Bridge of Lies

Beautiful Old Streets

Sandra enjoying the Wall

Sibiu also is reflective of how Romania is coming alive with a new future and shedding the drab communism color of gray. I took one photo that really indicates this. This is a bank of communist era housing similar to what we saw in Shumen, but here they have repaired 

Soviet Era housing Dressed Art Deco

The Carpathian Mountains and Transfagarasan Pass

My very own Hot wheels track   the Transfargarasan Pass

The Carpathian mountains are a large set of older mountains that run east /west through Romania. They are very beautiful and provide many of the same picturesque views as the Swiss Alps, without the above treeline component. Water and green foliage are plentiful.


And the Transfargarasan pass was built by Nicolei Ceausescu between 1970-74 after the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 68 to quell an uprising. It was a strategic military road, apparently kept hidden from Soviet knowledge. Over 40 soldiers died in its construction. Wikipedia has a very good piece on it. Elevation at the summit 2034 meters.


Our route took us thru Campulling from Rasnov and was very scenic (E574). Excellent route for motos with many on it.  We then chose to take route DN73C over to Curtes De Arges. It was a very bad choice. This 42 kms is nothing but potholes with vehicles dodging them by jumping into your lane, buses strewn about, what a mess. It took about 45 mins to travel the distance.

Countryside in the Carpathians near Rasnov

When we arrived in Curtes De Arges it was just after 1:00pm. And the sun was popping out in spots from the overcast skies. The route DN 7c to the north over the Transfagarasan looked promising.


We decided we’d ride it the Pass today and not chance a poor day tomorrow. About 20 kms north of town it began to sprinkle a bit and then stopped. The road in this part is also very bad, so you don’t want to do this part on a sport bike if you can help it.

VStrom on the Transfargarasan

First of many tunnels through mountains

As we headed north the pavement improved with sections of repaving. With each section there seemed to be a rain shower and then it would stop. There were a lot of southbound bikes on the pass at this time.


As we got closer to the summit it got a bit sunnier, but colder, we were nearing 2034 Mtres. The switchbacks were extreme, and the scenery spectacular. Waterfalls, alpine vistas, tunnels, rock, viewpoints, and sheep by the hundreds. You definitely want to take this road for the experience.


As we neared the summit I could see that the road entered a tunnel. And then the GPS indicated a straight road for awhile then many switchbacks. What we found was the road did enter a tunnel that went clear through the mountain (straight)  to the other side. When we came out we were faced with fog so thick it was hard to tell if the road went left or right. About 2 switchbacks down (about 200 meters descent) the fog lessened to the point I could take a picture of the remaining ones. This is one spectacular area and I now I understand why it is rated the #1 motorcycle road to travel in the world by a British publication. You will not see anything as spectacular as this.

Sheep near the summit

Looking Back down south

The Big Tunnel ahead

The rest of the ride to Sibui was pleasant with our favorite hotel in our radar. The IBIS. It did not disappoint either, with the staff wanting to move the bike into their private yard for protection. We are staying here awhile. It is gorgeous. Both the town and the hotel.

Transylvania Romania

Romania,  Bucharest to Transylvania

2nd largest building
 in the world in Bucharest

A reminder. Click on any photo for the enlarged version of it for clearer viewing.

Us at the 'other' Arch D' Triumph

Our arrival in Romania was a bit early and we actually took advantage of it by travelling through Bucharest on a Sunday afternoon and seeing the Palace of Parliament, which was Ceausescu’s Palace until he was strung up by the revolution. Then onto the Arc D’Triumph, a copy of the one in Paris. Actually before we arrived in either spot we crossed Bucharest and both of us saw a lot of similarities to Paris. Obviously Ceausescu’s ego left some nice stuff around town. In fact we are very impressed with Romania. It’s far exceeded our expectations.

Sinaia and Peles Castle

Peles Castle

We continued on to Sinaia where Peles Castle is, but a combination of the extra mileage I put on the bad road, the late start, and the traffic on the highway, left us missing a tour of the castle. We found a beautiful pension “Maria” located right in  the town of Sinaia. 

A very large room, like very large for $38 a night. It was super clean and we appreciated how much care they took to ensure the moto was safe.

We actually took it to their house for the night and he drove me back and forth to the B&B. The BCR bank looked after our exchange of Bulgarian currency to Romanian. 

The next morning we were able to walk the gardens of Peles Castle. By chance, I was attracted to a classical guitarist, 

Cătălin Comnoiu

Cătălin Comnoiu playing in the gardens. Having been trained classically myself I watched him play and was so struck by the talent on display. He had a small basket beside him with CD's for sale and without knowing the quality of the recording I bought it. It is called "Altitudine". I hope you are as amazed of the talent on display and to this day in '24, it takes me back to Peles castle in Romania.

Enjoy this sample on youtube.

https://youtu.be/wnHle-ZAI0I?si=poRHdDuQUV1qm-c1

Clock Tower

Peles Castle at Sinaia is such a beautiful place with its gardens and Palace that looks a lot like the Chateau at Lake Louise.

Artistry at Peles

Sinaia is the Banff of Romania, close to Brasov ,Rasnov and Bran. 

We then headed for Rasnov where we had selected a B&B to stay at that was excellent with a great cafe as well and breakfast.  Given that Bran is a very touristy destination,  Rasnov, which is only 11 kms north on DN73 is less busy. We visited the fortress at Rasnov on the recommendation of Mike and Ruby. It was impressive from it’s presence on the hill overlooking the town, though it is in very poor shape with many areas under renovation.

Us at Rasnov Fortress

Dracula's Castle

BRAN CASTLE
Once located in Rasnov  the next day, we then headed out for Bran Castle to tour. Bran castle has the legacy of being the home of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. You will have to read the information on the picture explanation for full details.

Explanation on Dracula

This castle was the actual home to many different people. Queen Maria, King Ferdinand, The Teutonic Knights, and the Count .

Entrance to Hidden Stairwell

hidden stairwell

My favorite place in the castle was the hidden staircase leading to the study and music room of Queen Maria. It was a very worthwhile castle to stop at. 

Exit into Music Room

Music Room

Order of the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Clothing

As we headed out today with rain threatening we weren’t sure how far we’d go but we really enjoyed DN73 from Rasnov to Campulla. 

This stretch of road through the Carpathian mountains is every bit as scenic as the best of Switzerland. Its such a joy to see people renovating their places, painting, landscaping . Romania really wants to get with it and be the next tourist destination, and it should be.

Transylvanian Countryside

A view to a Village