Day 24 - Thursday 18th June

When I opened the curtains this morning, I was pleased to see it was a bright sunny day with clear blue skies. However when we went down to breakfast at 8am, it was still quite cool. Once again it was a limited choice for the buffet. The Australian couple we'd met last night came to breakfast too and we had another opportunity to find out more about their travels.

It was about 9:20am before we left the hotel on our journey south back into Transylvania.

Along the way, we saw more of the sights that are so fascinating in this area. Apart from the gentling rolling green countryside and quaint villages, there are the people we saw along the roads. Some were walking, some on bicycles and some on horses and carts. People often sit on chairs or benches outside their houses and watch the world go by.

For our morning break, we stopped at a roadside cafe, Hanul Ursilor, from which we had a view of a citadel. This structure is famous in Romania because it is where ten Romanian soldiers repelled the invading Ottoman army despite being massively outnumbered.

The first destination of the day was the Gradina Zoo in Dragos Voda near Neamt. Apart from brown bears, peacocks and deer, they have a small number of Zimbri which are almost extinct. This is one of only two locations that still have this animal and they have a breeding program to try to save the species.

A short distance away in Neamt, we stopped at a fortified monastery. One of the reasons Alex took us here was to show us a church where very little restoration has been undertaken of the internal frescoes. The walls are dark rather than being bright with colour and this makes the whole church feel dark.

The monastery has a museum with numerous artifacts including printing presses, weapons and a king's crown.

Next we took a detour near the town of Bicaz to visit a dam that was built by political prisoners in the communist era. It has great views of the valley below. The lake formed by the dam is used for pleasure craft.

Alex had forewarned us that we'd be seeing three monsters today but he wouldn't elaborate on what type of monsters they were. They turned out to be three large cement factories that were built in the valley we were passing through. I guess they were monsters - partly because they were so big and partly because they jarred with the beautiful surroundings.

The road through the Carpathians Mountains took us through a gorge, Bicaz Gorge, with tall cliffs on either side of the road. In some areas, the cliffs were hanging over the road. We stopped and took a walk along the road to admire the gorge and to take photos of the gorge and the stream.

There were numerous street stalls lining the road. Suzy took the opportunity to look for slippers for Alexis and Amelia. After visiting several stalls, she found some that seemed to be the right size.

After passing through the gorge, we stopped at an impressive hotel that  has an elegant restaurant with Hungarian influence. Alex and Suzy had goulash soup whereas I had goulash kettle (I think). Mine was like a soup but it had more meat and was more spicy.

The beer I had was another Romanian beer called Bergenbier. Although it was a good beer, I think I prefer Ciuc or Ursus.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to the Red Lake. There are various stories as to why it is known as the red lake. It was a pleasant spot that people use for boating. It was about 4pm by this time and we were running behind schedule.

Further on, we stopped at the top of the mountain range to admire the view and take photos of the valleys below. Up here the temperature was only 15C.

The last stop of the day was to visit a gypsy family. When we arrived at their house, there was a police car in the driveway. Now before you jump to conclusions, the police weren't there because the gypsies were in trouble. It turns out that the father of the house is the village policeman.

The house is occupied by four generations of this Transylvanian Gypsy family. We were introduced to some of them before one of them, Clara, sat down with us in their kitchen so we could ask her questions about the gypsy way of life.

Clara is probably about 23 years old and is considered to be well educated because she went to school, unlike most female gypsies, and reached year 8. She has two children - a boy aged 8 and a baby girl aged about one.

The word "marriage" seems to be used loosely in their world. She has had two husbands - only one of which was a formal husband as opposed to being a gypsy marriage. She had her first child at 15 and her cousin was only 13 when she had her first child.

Their family have lived in this village for several generations. The wife normally lives with the husband's family and Clara is back with her own family after the previous relationships broke up. She is planning to divorce her last husband.

She said there are castes in the gypsy system like there is in India where they originally came from. Her family is from the highest caste and they have lighter skin. The lower classes are poorer and have darker skins. Each caste has slightly different dress codes. They only communicate within their own caste or the next level.

By the time we reached the Hotel Fronius at Sighisoara, it was about 7:30pm. This was later than originally planned. The itinerary called for a guided tour of the old town but we agreed to postpone that until tomorrow morning because it had already been a long tiring day with a lot of driving and a lot of stops.

Our room was on the second floor and once again Alex carried our big bags up the stairs for us. This room has a view of the clock tower which is one of the highlights of the town.

It was a spacious room with a large ensuite bathroom. The shower is in the bath but there is no shower curtain. Although the lighting in the bathroom is better than we've had recently, the lighting in the bedroom could have been better - especially when the curtains are closed. There weren't many power points and so I had to unplug the kettle i  order to plug in my powerboard.

This hotel has fantastic old-style character. It is a centuries-old building that has to be maintained in its original structure and style. It has tiled floors, brick walls and timberwork. The furnishings are tasteful timber pieces.

The entrance to the hotel is through an original brickwork arched passageway that leads to the reception and breakfast area. You go into the outside courtyard and go up a series of timber staircases to get to our bedroom. In the corridor on the top level, there is a glass panel in the floor showing some of the original building structure.

Throughout the hotel, it is decorated with artifacts of the period when the town was built - such as pottery and timber articles. This place is very pleasantly presented and preserved. It has elegance, style and real class.

At first we thought there was no air conditioning until I noticed a small vent in the ceiling and some controls on the wall. The controls didn't seem to produce any results. We asked the staff and they said they'd turned off the master control in the building and would turn it back on for us.

The WiFi reception wasn't strong and the internet access was unreliable. I had better success using my mini WiFi.

We settled into our room and then ventured out to find somewhere for dinner. Alex had suggested two restaurants in the main plaza of the old town as the best option. The plaza is very close to our hotel. The first restaurant was an open-air cafe but all the tables were taken and so we went to the second option.

This restaurant is in the house where Dracula was born. We went upstairs and were shown to an open-air terrace at the rear. It was a very pleasant setting (except I probably should have brought my jumper with me). Throughout the building there are Dracula memorabilia.

I had a Zander (fish) dish and Suzy decided to go for cooked vegetables again followed by a donut-like dessert. We had a litre carafe of red wine which turned out to be better than the one we'd had a couple of nights ago.

It was getting dark by the time we left the restaurant.

As with most other hotels around Romania, the bed had single doonas and no top sheet.