Our last few days in Romania

'You can't come to Romania and not discuss Dracula. You just can't. So...

Whilst we'd been to Vlad Tepes REAL castle; one that LOOKED like Dracula's castle and one that is SOLD as Dracula's castle ( but has nothing to do with Dracula or Vlad,) we felt we really needed to visit the Hotel Castle Dracula.

Positioned roughly on the promontory where the Count's castle would have stood (on the Tihuta Pass, or Borgo pass as it's called in the book) the hotel has made an effort to be both a nice place to stay and a gothic, cranberry carpeted, Dracula inspired place. 

We even visited Dracula's tomb in the basement, A creaky-stepped, ghost house-style crypt, with murals telling the story of Dracula. His tomb lies in the middle of a darkened room, lit by a single candle. Suddenly the tomb burst open, Dracula sprung up fom the grave and the candle was extinguished!!!! (Apparently, on the 1990s someone had a heart attack.). We giggled. 

 Coco pops for breakfats at Hotel Castle Dracula 

Leaving Translyvania we briefly popped in to Moldavia province to visit a couple of 'Painted Monasteries'. Expecting little we were somewhat blown away by what we saw. (That's the point of travelling I suppose). There are several painted monasteries in this area and they are amongst the most distinctive in all Christendom. What makes them unusual is that they have frescos painted on the OUTSIDE and they have survived several hundred years of exposure to the elements (a miracle?). 

Tracy was particularly drawn to the devils who are trying to pull the scales down so the person goes to hell - in the middle of the picture.

This one was called Voronet Monastery, where the colour ' Voronet blue' come from. Bet you didn't know that did you?

Heading north, towards the border with Ukraine we enter Romania's poorest province - Maramures.

Bumpy, potholed roads meant we were reduced to around 30 miles an hour and Tracy really suffered as it took us several hours to get where we were going. This was the roughest day's riding for her and when we got to out 'Pension' all she wanted to do was sleep. We were greeted, very enthusiastically by our host who was very pleased to see us. She reminded Tracy (both in looks and mannerisms) of Luna from the Harry Potter films. 

"Hello, and welcome. You are most welcome." She said in quite good English. 

I got my passport out, ready for the inevitable paperwork.

"No, that's OK. Maybe if you were from Bucharest, or a little bit black."

Not quite sure how to respond to this apparently overt racism, Tracy picked on the lesser of the two evils and said. "Don't you like people from Bucharest?"

"I mean Gypsies." Luna replied. "We don't like people who give our country a bad name."

We quickly changed the tone of the conversation to explain what a wonderful time we'd had in Romania and what a great place it was. Luna was overjoyed to hear this.

Perhaps we should have discussed her comments but it's really hard, when you're a tourist and a guest at someone else's place. We had the same experience 10 years previously in a town in Siberia where our host practically told us it was our duty to have (white) children, as the UK was becoming overun by blacks and Asians. I find it ironic that UKIP would find some it's most fervent supporters amongst the communities it so passionately rejects. 

Pictures of our Colourful accomodation in Maramures.

 A vegetarian picnic - bread, cheese, crisps, bananas, wine.

While I'm on the subject of UKIP, later that evening (Tracy was having a snooze) I met another guest, a Romanian guy called Lucio. He'd spent six months working in the Kent countryside. He has a PhD in Agriculture and has returned to Romania to work ( he is a buyer for one of the large supermarket chains). It was fascinating to listen to him talk about how Romania had suffered in the past but now, with the help of the EU, it was beginning to fulfil its potential and develop as a country. He felt passionately that it was the duty of his generation (he's 30) to help build Romania's future.

He was exactly the sort of person who should be portrayed on TV in the UK. An articulate, intelligent Romanian who, with the help of the EU, is making his country a better place. He loved his time in England ( except for the 'rain and the rabbits') but wouldn't want to stay there and certainly wouldn't want to live off benefits. As he said, he's Romanian and wants to live and work and his country. 

We don't hear enough from people like Lucio and the BBCs obsession with giving airtime to Farage and the xenophobic, irrational, small minded UKIP is becoming dangerous. Two weeks in Romania has shown me what the EU can do, that (not surprisingly at all, of course) Romanian's are just normal people. I feel proud to belong to the EU - a club where the richest members help the poorest for the mutual benefit of all. Every time we passed an EU flag or sign saying how the EU had help build this road or support that project, I felt proud. In one of the small Saxon villages the EU had helped local women organise a project whereby they sold handicrafts and ran a cafe to raise money to help educated the village children.

If that fills you with fear, then vote UKIP.

We had planned on taking a steam train ride in to the hills of Maramures, but it was a Saturday when we arrive at the station at 07:30 to get tickets for the 9 am train and already we were numbers 34 and 35 on the waiting list! So we gave up on that idea...

What do you do with dead people? In one small village in Maramures you bury then under a humorously carved cross. In the 1930s a local woodcutter, Stan Patras, started carving crosses to mark the graves in the old church cemetery. He painted each cross blue (the traditional colour of freedom and hope) and on top of each he inscribed a witty epitaph. Of course, we couldn't read the epitaph but some of the drawings were certainly amusing. 

They all had different pictures on each side of the cross. This was on the front of one lady's grave...

And this was on the back!

There seemed to be quite a few traffic accidents for a small village...

 And a drowning

Death and humour - draws in the tourists...

In the nearby town of Sighetu Marmatiei, we visited the 'Sighet prison'. 

In 1947 the Communist regime slaughtered, imprisioned and tortured thousands of Romanians who could or might oppose the new leadership. Between 1948 and 1952 about 180 members of Romania's academic and government elite were imprisoned in Sighet. Some 51 died.

 One of jobs prisoners had to do was build motorcycles.

Now the prison is a memorial to them and all who have suffered at the hands of the Communist regime. Each cell telling the story of one aspect or Romania's recent past, from evidence about prison poetry, torture, life in the prison or more widely, the 1956 uprising in Hungary, Solidarity in Poland or the fall of The Wall. All very moving and beautifully done (WITH EU funding!!! #UKIPSUCK)

*Tracy loves coming on holiday with me - Sighet prison, Killing fields of Cambodia, Auschwitz, Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam, Siberain gulags...

Maramures is also famous for its wooden churches. In the 14th Century Orthodox Romanians were forbidden by their Hungarian rulers to build churches in stone. So they built them from wood. The ones we saw dated from the 17th or 18 century.

It was quite amazing to be there on a Sunday morning. The roads were full of people, in traditional costume, walking to church. I took a video which for some reason I can't put on my blog, but I will upload to my Facebook page soon.

And that was Romania. Probably my favourite country in Europe right now. 

Don't tell everyone, but Romania's great.

As I think Tracy's Dad is about the only person who reads this - Ian, don't worry your daughter is having a good time. Romania has chocolate!

Transfagarasan Highway. Possibly the best paved road in the whole world - or something like that. It was wonderful and we had reasonably good weather at the top ( torrential rain coming down the other side for a while but then the sun came out and we dried off). 

The one and truly legitimate 'Vlad the Impaler/ Dracula castles sits atop a mountain at the southern end of the Transfag. We walked the 1480 steps up to the top - this took us 25 minutes!!! So you'do better appreciate the photos.

 Tracy counted the steps and made it 1390. But it certainly felt like 1480. 

 Nice greeting at the top.

Apparently the villagers killed Vlad's father and brother (?) so he had them build this lookout/castle and impaled the towns elders on spikes. Like crucifixion, it often took hours, if not days, for people to die this way. Really rather gruesome.

We then based ourselves in Bran for three nights. Bran is famous for its Dracula Castle and although it is a nice enough place it has nothing at all to do with Vlad. Of all the Dracula castles this is the one with the least ( i.e NOTHING) to do with Vlad and yet it's the famous Dracula castle.

There was also a beer festival going on in town, so we made up for last year's alcohol free tour of Scandinavia. 

Another day, another Romanian castle. This one ( Peles castle) was built just over 100 years ago for the King of Romania to live in. 

Romania is home to 60% of the European brown bear population. Something to do with the fact that during Communism no one was allowed to hunt bears ( except the President). But with the collapse of Communism and the onset of unfettered capitalism bears we take and use to 'entertain' tourists. Around 80 of these bears now live in the wonderful LiBEARty bear sanctaury near Bran. A very worthwhile visit.

 Not a selfie I would have wanted to see in Canada! 

Other highlights of the last week...

Walking in the Translyvanian woods

Colourful Saxon villages and their religious art....

Dom with Vlad Tepes in his hometown of Sighisoara ( where I'm posting this from)

 Tracy posing on the medieval covered walkway, built in Sighisoara so the citizens can walk up to the church and the school children can walk up to the school. Very considerate.

As I was typing this up three BMW 1200s turned up at out hotel ( We're staying right in the middle of the historic centre of Sighisoara in a 4* hotel and it' sonny £40 a night!) so I quickly took this picture of the rear end of Heidi and three Italian bikes.

And finally a HUGE thanks to Gavin. Gavin is a UK citizen living in Romania. We met up with him this week and he have us a few tips on what to do and where to go. Thanks Gavin.

 And to finish. In Bran castle there were some scales to weigh witches. I'll let you decide what happened to Tracy! 

Romania

 A lot has happened in a week. Tracy arrived as planned last Saturday and on Sunday we headed to Kecskemet, Hungary. Which was a bit of a shock. Riding in, it looked like a normal non-descript town but in the centre we found several enormous churches ( Catholic, Lutheran, Franciscan, ). Kecskemet ( which I think means Goat market) was a huge centre two to three hundred years ago and known as a centre of religious tolerance. 

Tracy cooling off in Kecskemet.

The following day we crossed in to Romania. For the first time since Dover I had to show someone my passport. The border guard took a quick glance at both of our passports and we were through. We stopped that night in Oradea and had a pleasant evening strolling around their city centre. Oradea was littered with huge and often, but not always,crumbling buildings. 

 

This old Art Deco building was next door to our Hotel.

What do you do for breakfast in Romania??? Mint tea of course

On Tuesday we only covered 50 miles as we were going to see some bears in a cave. Admittedly these bears died thousands of years ago. The cave was uncovered in the 1970s and along with the usual stalagmites and stalactites caverns found remains of over 140 cave bears. Now extinct, the cave bear was huge and roamed around Europe 30,000(?) years ago. They believe that these bears were hibernating in this cave when something ( an earthquake?) blocked off the entrance. 140 bears, fighting it out as they killed and ate each other?!? That's what we were told - or rather we read that, the guide spoke Romanian ( not surprisingly). 

Weather wise the mornings have been warm and sunny but it's rained and thundered quite a lot each afternoon. This happened at the bear cave and the owners of our a 'Pension' kindly told me to move my bike inside ( I think they thought it might get washed away in the rain and once the rain started they may have been right.)

Leaving the bears we headed for Corvin Castle. Absolutely nothing to do Irish Vladimir the Impaler/ Dracula but just abou the spookiest castle we've ever seen...

(Sorry about the rubbish photos! but these are all taken on the ipad or on my phone)

We also saw our first Gypsy home. Very garish...

In the Middle Ages, when the Hungarians ruled over this part of the world they 'encouraged' ethnic Germans to populate this part of the world, I assume, was a sort of buffer against maraudering Turks. Those 'Saxons' build their villages and thrived. Those villages are now tourist destination in the foothills of The Carpathian mountains in Transylvania. 

We spent two nights in Sibiel, a quiet, rustic Saxon village. We went for a walk into the woods ( where there are bears and wolves and vampires.... Tracy says...'Company of wolves' meets 'One hundred years of solitude'. 

 Not much happens in Sibiel.

Tomorrow we're off to ride the Transfagarasan! Followed by some more Translyvanian castles and bears. This time real live bears, I hope...

 

Slovenia. It's got LOVE in it for a reason.

Slovenia is simply wonderful. The Julian Alps are lovely and as the sun had finally come out I managed to ride without my rain gear on. I spent Friday riding the 1600m highest pass in the country. OK, it's not going to break any records but it with 45+ hairpin turns it was a great ride. I'd found a leaflet in the tourists office which highlighted four different motorcycling routes through the Julian Alps and I had a great day riding around 200 miles over 9 hours.

 I wonder what it actually says!

I finished the day in Ptuj, Slovenia's oldest town (?). Red roofed houses, a castle on the hill and an arts festival. Plus one of the nicest family run hotels I've staying in for a long time. Friday reminded me why I do this sort of holiday and it really reminded me what my GAP year trip had been like. There's no point trying to put it into words, so I won't!

Julian Alps, Slovenia

Saturday I moved on to Hungary. Although, with European borders, it can be easy to miss crossing from one country to another. I set the GPS to shortest route, avoiding tolls and motorways and rode across country on minor roads. I passed into Hungary at a v small border crossing which looked like it had been deserted several years ago ( as Slovenia and Hungary belong to the Schengen Agreement they have open borders now) but somehow it felt a little weird. The History teacher in me was moving from 'Yugosloavia to Hungary' and it was all too easy. 

 Slovenia/Hungary border. Can you see all the 'Economic migrants.'Mr. Farage?

Hungary is certainly poorer. The roads aren't as good, lots of our cars around, rusty telegraph poles, people throwing litter out of cars and slightly worse driving. Nothing amazingly different but I felt like I was now moving across Europe and heading east. Everything is also slightly cheaper, with petrol at £1:10 a litre and signs for Rooms from €17. Oh, and rather bizarrely, copies of BBC History magazine for sale in the petrol stations, and I've passed at least three TESCO's. 

I'm now at Budapest airport hotel waiting for Tracy to arrive. She lands later tonight. We're leaving Budapest for the end of the trip ( I've booked a hotel in the middle of the capital for Tracy's last three nights which coincides with her significant birthday) so tomorrow we're heading towards Romania, getting there on Monday. 

Heidi goes to Switzerland

How could I call my bike Heidi and NOT take her to Switzerland? Indeed

So, three days in; three countries crossed. I started on Sunday making my way down France to Verdun. Heidi gave me a little scare by lighting up the red warning triangle on the dash ( which supposedly means there is something wrong with the brakes) but it went away overnight, so I'm 'monitoring the situation.'

Monday I crossed in to Switzerland. The weather forecast was bad and the BBC world weather ( which I always mock) actually mentioned thunder storms on the French/Swiss border. I was one mile from that border when the heavens opened and I found myself in he middle of a summer thunder storm. I stopped the bike ( under some trees- I know, I know) and stood there for 20 minutes. If you've read 'Gone Riding' then you'll know how I felt.

Switzerland is obviously lovely but it hard to appreciate when it's either raining, or about to rain. Shame really. I had planned to ride the Grimsel and Furka Passes but the forecast was for snow flurries, no visibility and about 4 degrees C. I gave it a miss - after all, I've done The Sani pass I think I can miss this one for now.

This trip is slightly unusual for me as I'm not carrying any camping equipment and have actually booked my accommodation for the first week as I head for Hungary where Tracy will be flying in, on Saturday. It's weird to set off for the day knowing exactly where I'm heading for, and what's more I've got a GPS. So today I set my route and followed it. I still poured over my maps last night, working out where I wanted to go but once it was keyed in to the Garmin I just followed it. Very disconcerting in many ways as I didn't really know where I was. But also quite liberating as I could concentrate on the road and view ( when I had one) confident that the GPS would get me to my ' final destination'.

Switzerland has toll roads which I wanted to avoid ( it costs £30 for an annual pass to use them) and anyway, what's the point in being in the Alps and riding the motorway? So I took the (lowland) minor roads today and it took my 6 hours to cover the 140 miles to Chur. Lovely minor back roads twisting through farmland and small villages with very little traffic.

Another thing I'm getting used to is not having a camera. Or to be more precise, not having a dedicated camera. I have my smartphone and ipad so it can take pictures but no camera. This was a problem in the thunder storm on the border as I wanted to take photos but couldn't as the wet weather meant that my phone wouldn't react to my touch. Technology eh! This means I haven't got many photos and haven't worked out how to put photos I've taken on my camera onto this blog. Sorry.

As I got near to Chur this afternoon I realised ( because I was using my map NOT JUST the GPS) I was only 10 miles away from Liechtenstein. It seemed rude to pass a whole country by just for the sake of a 10 mile detour so I went to take a look. I didn't know much about the place so now I've been I've done my research. With a population of 35,000 Liechtenstein is one of the richest countries in the world.  Women only got the vote in 1984 ( the last country in Europe to do so) on a male only referendum vote of 51%!!!!!

Liechtenstein  Castle

This was my second visit to Liechtenstein. I first came here 28 years ago when travelling around Europe after my A Levels. God,  that makes me feel old.

Vaduz Castle stands on the hill above the town and is the private residence of the prince. I'll try to post a photo of the castle, either here or on my Facebook page.

Italy tomorrow, followed by Slovenia and then up to Budapest to meet Tracy.

Dom