The Ham Nomads

5 Jul 2015. <RO> Bran; Feldioara —

After yesterday's wet walk (or sodden stroll)
our shoes took pride of place atop the dashboard
in an effort to get them dried out!

Don't think we'll hold our breath waiting!

Typical little Romanian church — and haystacks

Even the bus shelters are so-o-o-o Romanian!

The Garmin warned us of a switchback drive ...

... but a photo only makes it look tame!

Today we left Bucharest and drove to Bran and Bran Castle, about 30km southwest of Braşov. Although marketed to tourists as the home of Count Dracula as envisaged by Bram Stoker, the Irish author who created the modern-day epitome of everything vampire, this is definitely not the case. There is a possibility that Vlad Drăculea (or Vladislaus Dracula) — his father styled himself as Vlad Dracul, and Draculea can be regarded as a diminutive of that form — later known as Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler) was imprisoned here towards the end of his life, but even this is highly suspect. Whatever the case, this place is a Mecca for tourists.

The recent history of this Transylvanian castle is possibly even more romantic. On December 1 (Great Union Day), 1920, the authorities of the town of Braşov donated the castle to the new sovereigns of Greater Romania. This followed the proclamation of the Romanian National assembly, held in Alba Iulia on December 1 1918, of "the unification of those Romanians and of all the territories inhabited by them with Romania", thus reunifying, amongst others, Transylvania with Romania. Queen Marie and King Ferdinand I regarded this as one of their two preferred dwellings, and when they were in residence with their children, Princesses Elena, Ileana and Irina and Prince Nicolae, they would dress in Romanian national costume. When Queen Marie died in 1938, she left the castle to her favourite daughter, Ileana. When King Mihai stepped down in 1947, Ileana had to flee the country, and the castle fell under the control of the new Communist government of Romania, who eventually turned it into a museum. But, following the fall of the communist regime, the Romanian government returned the castle and all its properties to the children of Princess Ileana, who now manage the property as a museum, reopening it in 2009, and have been doing considerable restoration work to keep the whole place alive.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering the castle, which is set up much as Queen Marie left it, as a 1920s-1930s home for her and her family.

The bedroom of Queen Marie of Romania

The inner courtyard was humming with tourists!

This secret stairway connecting the first and third floors
was only discovered during restoration work in the inter-war years

The wooden belvedere on top of the tower ...

... from which sentinels could watch the approaches to the castle
between the Bucegi and the Piatra Craiului Mountains

In the games room

This Victorian candlestick was used
in the 1992 movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula"

The bedroom of King Ferdinand I of Romania

Working with wood has reached a high art in Transylvania.
The roof beams on the castle get their own treatment!

The Transylvanian shield

We then went out and braved the tourist stalls outside — and there are a lot of them!

Then we set off towards the village of Viscri. This whole village is part of a Unesco World Cultural Heritage site, and contains an old Saxon "Deutsch-Weißkirch", a fortified church — but more of this tomorrow!

We had about 180 km to get there, so we decided to look for a free campsite on the way — and we found a beauty. It was back off the highway, beside a track used by horse-drawn carts as they made their way home, and by dog-walkers in the dusk and the early morning.

Distance driven — today, 134 miles ( 215 km ); to date, 23,407 miles ( 37,670 km )