Sunday 20th - Excursion to Brasov
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Sunday was our excursion day, which began with an early
morning (a scheduled 8:30 departure) coach trip in the
direction of the medieval town of Brasov in Transylvania,
roughly 150km North-West of Bucharest.
The early departure meant breakfast on the coach, and journey took about three and a half hours. Along the way, the rest stops were cunningly contrived to be either remote, hot, deserted roadside locations at which people were unlikely to want to wander too far from the bus, or enticing looking shops at which only the driver was allowed to get off. |
Bran Castle
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The first stop on our Itinery was the aclaimed Bran Castle,
although my guide book warns "you may be disappointed". Though known
as "Dracula's Castle", it apparently was not built by Vlad Tepech but
by the people of Brasov in 1382 to defend against the Turks, and was
most recently inhabited by Queen Marie from 1920 till the forced
abdication of King Michael in 1947.
It is certainly quite a pictureque castle, but I think the warning in my guide book alludes to the fact that it has become something of a commercially run tourist attraction. At 12:24 the castle came into view above the rooftops as our coach began the process of parking.. |
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| After a thrilling display of precision driving as the coaches were squeezed into a corner of the car park, at 12:38 we had finally disembarked and were led around in circles for a while by Jimmy, the guide for those on our coach. |
| I think there were some people that were starting the fear that the building in the background was Bran Castle.. |
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| But by 13:06 we were finally through the gate and heading up the road toward the castle entrance.. |
| With the castle looming above.. |
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The castle was packed (damned tourists..) so we joined the throng after
being instructed to go through independently and given a rendesvous point
at which to meet after emerging at the exit.
Unfortunately this was one of those attractions that required the purchase of a special ticket if you wanted to take pictures, so I had to steal this shot of the inner couryard from Jim. |
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Inside the castle entering what was identified as the Secret Stairs..
However I would have to say that it was the one of the worst examples of concealment that I have ever seen. I think the moral of the story is if you are going to build a secret staircase, don't use a dark wooden door in a white wall, don't build an ornate set of stairs leading up to the entrance, and don't put a sign saying secret stairs on the wall next to them (though admittedly the sign may have been a recent addition)...
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| Once inside, the stairs certainly looked the way a secret staircase should have looked, but appears to have been little more than a shortcut from the first to the third floor. |
| Near the exit from the Castle, Jimmy waits patiently for us to emerge |
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| At 13:54 as the last of our group emerged from the Castle, Jimmy, having rebuked the Italians for being late (something which became a fairly regular occurence in our group), led us back toward our bus.. |
Rasnov
| Our coach left us at the foot of a road which was evidently unsuitable for such large vehicles, which left us with a bit of a hike up the hot and dusty climb, dodging the cars and motorbikes making their way past in both directions. |
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At 14:59 (about an hour after leaving Bran) we had reached the base of
the ruins of 13th Century hilltop fortress of Rasnov, which
my guidebook promised would be more dramatic and less touristy than
Bran Castle.
The fortress was apparently built by the local population to protect against Tartar (and later Turkish) invasion, and remained functional until it was abandoned in 1850. |
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After a mildly frustrating wait outside the entrance while Jimmy
rounded up the stragglers, we were ushered through the narrow
entrance corridoor and past the ticket office into the main
courtyard.
I think that looks like Paul Monckton on the steps to the left, making a b-line for the beer garden near the centre left. |
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| Gjert took this picture in the beer garden a short time later, showing a contented looking Paul near the centre of the picture, and from his right, Angeliki, Asle, don't recall the next persons name, then Sam, Me, Amund and Stine. |
| Another beer garden picture, from a different angle (and a different camera). |
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| Gjert took this picture of Paul and Asle admiring the view from the highest point inside the fortress walls |
| Another one of Gjert's pictures, showing the view back towards the town. |
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| Angeliki in the grounds of the fortress at 15:40, not long before we were rounded up to move on to our next destination.. |
Dinner at Poiana Brasov
| The last stop on our excursion was dinner at Poinia Brasov, which my guide book says is one of Romania's premier ski resosorts. |
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After dinner we were given some free time to explore the location, but
the only attraction in Summer (according to my guidebook) is a cable car
ride.
However unfortunately it appeard that the cable car stopped running shortly before we arrived, and it was still rather hot, so we found a charming little cafe in which to shelter for a while.. |
| Asle took this picture of one of the coffee cups that were amusing us with their apparent anti-cappuchino message NO CAPPUCHINO. |
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| My guide book says that in Summer you should take the cable car to the top of mount Postavarul for a panoramic view of Brasov and the surrounding Carpathians, but as that did not seem to be an option at this time of day, the only other attraction seemed to be the charming local pottery... |
| This is one of Jim's pictures of why everyone seemed to be so ammused by the pottery... |
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Soon we were back on the coaches on our way back to the University, arriving just after midnight. Then it was time for the postponed farewell party (from which I havn't been able to find any pictures), and by about 4:00am it was time for those of us with early flights home in the morning to retire.
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