Thought I might have used up my “wow” moments for this trip but then I cycled past the Eastern end of The Carpathian Mountains and the views were just stunning.
After a late breakfast – very very delicious late breakfast – we were all heading south to Bucharest – Emma, Matt and Ben by bus – me back on Bertie bike again.
Very steep road out of the old town of Brasov and onto some back roads before joining the main road south – bit busier than I would have liked but worth it for the views.
Now knowing that the rangers put some food out to try and keep the bears in the woods rather than the bears wandering into town to scavenge for something more interesting I thought it was unlikely that I’d get to see any more bears but keeping an eye out all the same but no luck.
As I got to the edge of a town called Busteni I saw posters advertising the castle where “Wednesday” was filmed – combination of the pictures on the posters and somewhere in the depth of my memory I knew there was a connection to “The Adam’s Family”, something I’ve only watched odd bits of but never got into – I decided to make a wee detour to see Cantacuzino Castle. I paid to go into the grounds only – to go into the castle was guided tour only and in Romanian and as I’d only mastered about 4 words (including prostitute) I decided not to go in. It was still worthwhile going into the grounds as there was some interesting sculptures and more fab views of the mountains.
Not much further away – with a very short but very steep section of pushing Bertie up the last stretch (minus the panniers which I went back for) to Hay Huy Campsite – I’d followed the walking and cycling route – not the car route – when it said cycling it meant for a mountain bike with no additional weight. Campsite was very small but very friendly and more good views of the mountains. This was the first campsite I’d stayed at that had an electric fence to keep the bears out and a shed to keep our food in overnight. Next morning I took the “car” route to rejoin the main road – this was longer and less steep but still would have been hard work if I’d gone up this way yesterday.
Next day I was heading for Ploiesti where I had a room for the night booked. First a wee detour and final real uphill in Romania, to visit Peles Castle, near the town of Sinaia. The castle was built for King Carol I of Romania “because he fell in love with the mountain scenery ” – still in The Carpathian Mountains it wasn’t difficult to see why he liked it. I was only able to visit the 1st floor – it is closed altogether on Monday’s, 1st floor is open on Tuesday’s and then it is fully open the rest of the week – I went on a Tuesday. Looking at some of the pictures of the upper floors there are some brighter rooms but oh my word downstairs was dark and not very welcoming but at the same time stunning. The castle is famous for, amongst other things, its oak carving – and without a doubt they are stunning but very dark – even the library was dark, which didn’t seem to make it very conducive to reading, but again it was still beautiful.
The weapons collection was beautiful – not normally 2 words you put together but the detail and carvings and jewels on some of the weapons was stunning.
The “”Florentine” room was still dark but was fairly brightened up by the 2 Murano Glass chandeliers – not sure that the wood and chandeliers complimented each other but that’s just my opinion.
Next it was off to find my bed for the night. From Brasov to Bucharest I’d asked for advice on which route to take (which included Peles Castle) as I knew it was going to get busier the closer I got to Bucharest – however they all said there wasn’t much option but to stick to the DN1 road – however managed to link up quite a few villages and missed most of the busy roads until quite close to Ploiesti. Got a fabby wee single room with its own shower – it was cheap and in the right area but no reviews which made me wonder if I’d made the right choice but it was perfect and in a nice quiet area – transpired though that they weren’t actually ready for business – booking.com was not meant to have put it on their website for another few days and you could see that they were still in the process of decorating the other rooms – luckily my one was ready and they now have one review.
Leave a Reply