Monday 23rd August Bran to Poiana Brasov

Tortoise and the sheep

Tortoise hiding in the trees

We aimed to beat the queues of tourists so departed the campsite early and walked the 4 km’s to Bran castle Aka Dracula’s castle. By the time we arrived the coach loads had beaten us to it and there were large queues for tickets although there was only one booth to buy tickets from and the queue was less than orderly. The castle was a huge disappointment and if it wasn’t for the large volumes of people traffic we would have walked in and out in 5 minutes.
From Bran we drove through the Bucegi Mountains to Poiana Brasov where we stumbled upon a large plain surrounded by mountains and fir tree forest. People were camping , having picnics and Bbq’s so we decided to free camp here for the night. Later that day we watched a shepherd and his dogs bring a flock of sheep and goats to graze in the field. The dogs were more interested in seeing what food they could scavenge, after half an hour the shepherd started running and crossed the road back into their previous field, he returned with four sheep which had been accidentally left behind.

Sunday 22nd August Sinaia to Bran

Peles Castle grounds

Peles castle

Our first stop of the day was Peles castle we walked here early from our free camp stop to try and beat the hoards of visitors. Peles castle was built in the early 19th C by King Carol 1st ( a German king) he aimed to invoke jealousy in those who visited and each of the 161 rooms are decorated elaborately with a very eclectic style to each. The castle is full of antiques and throughout there are secret doors some were masked as a wardrobe or a bookcase and it was only when the guide pointed them out that we noticed. We initially purchased a ticket for the first floor only (tour groups see this level only and another of Lonely Planets recommendations) however after seeing the magnificent rooms on level one we wanted to see more and purchased a further ticket for the remaining levels. The remaining two levels were again fantastic and we were surprised to be the only two touring this part of the castle. You could easily spend a day marvelling at the décor, we would have visited the castle again if we had remained in Sinai. Later that day we arrived in Bran and were glad to have missed the traffic which was at a standstill and tailed back 15 km’s in the opposite direction, which is a daily occurrence in summer due to Sinaia, Bran and Busteni having pedestrian crossings rather than pedestrian over/underpasses on the highways through the towns, in Romania pedestrians don’t have to wait for lights to cross they just walk over the road and traffic has to stop and given the amount of tourists traffic has to stop every few cars causing a 10-15km tailback.

Saturday 21st August Sighisoara to Sinaia

The red squirrel

The town of Sinaia was full of people but we weren’t quite sure where everyone was going as the town was sparse and not very appealing although the surrounding mountains were picturesque. After exploring the town we sat in a nice park and watched the world go by. That night we free camped in a car park near Peles castle.

Friday 20th August Sighisoara

Today we explored Sighisoara which is the birthplace of Dracula , the citadel contains the majority of attractions and is perched on a hill surrounded by a 14th century wall and nine towers. We climbed the clock tower (which dates from 1280) which gave a great view of the surrounding villages, forests and hills. The clock tower also housed an interesting history museum although the surgeons’ amputation case from the 18th century that looked rather barbaric. The torture room museum was disappointing; we walked in and out in about 2 minutes.
Sighisoara had a very nice vibe our feet were hurting at the end of the day due to the poor quality cobbled streets and our poor choice of foot wear – thongs/flip flops.

Thursday 19th Cisnadoria to Sighisoara

We spent part of the day exploring Sibiu which was founded in the 12th century; in 2007 the EU designated it as ‘A Capital of Culture’.
The city is surrounded by old walls and various towers; we climbed to the top of one tower and had a great view over the city. Many of the buildings are coloured in various pastel colours including those on the large square which was very clean looking but had a slightly sterile feel to it.
We arrived at Sighisoara and laughed when we entered the campsite as our neighbours were the German couple with the bright orange ply wood caravan.

Wednesday 18th August Transfagarasan road to Sibiu (Cisnadoria)

After topping up the campers water we drove the last 9km of the Transfagarasan road up to the peak of the mountains and all the way down right into the heart of Transylvania lol We got to Sibiu to find our prospective campsite once again no longer existed, this time the map wasn’t at fault! We had made an online reservation about a week prior but the campsite had closed months ago and they hadn’t changed the online details. After following some camping signs we ended up in a campsite 10km from Sibiu in a place called Cisnadoria. The campsite was in a lovely location surrounded by countryside and old monasteries. We did some much needed washing, had a BBQ and once again made friends with the camps dogs. We were surprised to see an elderly German couple with a bright orange ply wood caravan which again looked like it was from the 1950’s, we gathered they hadn’t been on some of the roads which we had or else it would be in pieces.

Tuesday 17th August Bucharest to Transfagarasan Mountain

No wonder Tortoise had a heart attack!

Question: How do Romanians get a bulldozer off the back of a truck?

Answer:

Today we tackled the Transfagarasan road (featured on Top gear) this was built for military reasons as it has such sharp gradients and twists and turns. The road is meant to be one of the best roads in the world due to the spectacular scenery; it is surrounded by lakes and mountains including the highest peak in Romania. The road is only open from June-September due to heavy snow so we timed it right. We nearly made it to the top when Tortoise overheated, our fan hasn’t been coming on but we needed to get to Sibui to get fuses. We parked up for the night (as many others had done) in a very picturesque location surrounded by mountains, sweeping hills and a stream; we used the freezing cold stream water to keep our food cool overnight. As we sat admiring the scenery we commented how the sheep had very bad legs, some of the sheep’s legs were so bad they practically ate lying down. A while later the shepherd and his dogs herded the sheep and went past our camper they then scaled a huge mountain where they spend the night- this was the reason for the bad legs.