24th Baile Hercules Romania

Wedding procession

Badly in need of renovation

In the process of renovation

A spa experience

Hercules (it was his favourite spa location)

Diana

We woke up and decided to have breakfast at the campsite restaurant as well. We sat down and the German came out to ask us what we wanted, after ordering ham and eggs and chips (Bek swears this is breakfast, lunch and dinner in England) we watched him leave with his back and brow dripping in sweat (it wasn’t that hot btw), after hearing copious amounts of coughing he then disappeared for a while and came back looking much better so we assumed that his wife was trying to poison him or he was suffering some ill effects from tying one on the night before! Baile Hercules is famous for Hercules and the thermal springs as well as medicinal Roman baths, so off we set on our bikes in search of these; by the smell of sulphur in the air we assumed there would be plenty of options. We stopped first of all at the tourist information and attempted to communicate with a young guy whose English wasn’t the best and whose knowledge of the area seemed to require a little brushing up so we headed out on our own to explore. The town had some lovely old buildings that badly require renovating, most unfortunately were derelict and abandoned. We saw a wedding in the town centre, the procession of cars for the wedding must have been about 50+ and all were beeping their horns continually which seems to be a tradition here, it was rather noisy to say the least! We rode to The Roman Hotel to go to the Roman Baths, the hotel appeared to be having renovations carried out as there were no cars in the car park and workmen seemed to be coming and going, however the receptionist never mentioned this and said the baths were on the 2nd floor, were open and the price was only 2.5 euros and we were to pay after so off we trundled to find them. When we got to the 2nd floor it was very dark with no lights bare wires hung from the ceiling on the floor there were ladders, bags of rubble, pots of paint and general rubbish .There were no signs for the baths and after entering many empty rooms we found the baths. The water was hot and there were no other people using it so we decided to stay, we also had chairs on the balcony which faced a stream down below and the mountains above. Bek got electrocuted in the shower although lived to tell the tale! On our way back to the campsite we stopped at another market for fruit and veg, we were less than impressed when a lady tried to rip us off by charging 2e for 4 pieces of sweet corn. That night there was a huge thunderstorm, the thunder echoed off the mountains, we were quite pleased though as it drowned out the noise of the discothèque next door and the sounds of YMCA could no longer be heard!