gabrieltraian

For our holiday this summer, my wife and I chose to visit Romania and Germany. While in Romania, we also visited family and friends.

This is the trip report of the Romanian part of our vacation. I only included the relevant information here, pertaining to pure tourist interest.

In 2005 we visited Maramures, Bucharest, Danube Delta, Sighisoara, Sibiu and Brasov, and that trip report is here (From Hay Stacks to Water Lillies)

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34858589

This time we visited Bucharest and Sinaia.

Photos taken in Bucharest are here

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...1AaNGzly4ZsXug

Photos taken in Sinaia are here

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...1AaNGzly4ZsXzQ

Day 1

We landed in Bucharest on Wednesday 28th June at 8am, after a smooth and uneventful flight. We went through passport control, collected our luggage, went through customs, all in a breeze.

An hour after our landing, our taxi was cutting its way through the mad, heavy, colourful Bucharest traffic towards our accommodation.

Later that day we went out for an easy walk and checked out on the theatre shows in the city. We always like to go to a play while in Bucharest. We bought tickets for two shows, "Uncle Vanya" by Chekhov, and "Wally's Cafe" by Sam Bobrick and Ron Clark, that were to be played during the weekend.

The theatre plays are in Romanian, but for the foreigners visiting Bucharest, this option can successfully be replaced by a classical music concert at the Romanian Atheneum.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

Day 2

On Thursday 29th June we took a train in the morning and went to Sinaia, a beautiful resort situated in a breathtaking mountain scenery, less than two hours from Bucharest.

We had no problems in getting the train tickets right at the station, with very few people at the counters.
I bought some newspapers to keep ourselves busy on the train.

Just outside the station in Sinaia we had to climb some steep stairs on the side of a mountain. We were on our way to Peles (read Pelesh) Castle, Royal Residence of Romania's first king, Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

After walking on a climbing winding alley, we reached the castle. Built between 1873 – 1914, its architecture is German Neo-Rennaisance and is one of the best preserved royal castles in Europe.

Peles Castle was built in wood, stone, bricks and marble and comprises more than 160 rooms. We took pictures outside the castle, with its gardens, statues and the surrounding mountains and forest.

We visited the Hall of Honour, the most sumptuous room in the castle, then we passed through the Armoury Room, the Florentine Room, the Reception Room (where paintings and wooden sculptures depicting 16 castles of the Hohenzollerns are exhibited), then several rooms representing different styles (Moorish, French, Turkish), as well as the Imperial Suite.

We were amazed at the opulence of the decorations on the walls and ceilings, paintings, furniture, crystal chandeliers, ceramics, gold and silver plates, the Meissen and Sevres porcelain, other objects of art in the various rooms in the castle.

We had our mouths open with awe at the wonders displayed in front of our eyes.

A short walk on an alley from Peles Castle, is a smaller castle built during 1896-1914, with 70 rooms. This is Pelisor (read Pelishor) Castle and was inhabited by the princely couple, Ferdinand and Maria.

We visited this castle as well and we saw a different decorative style. Queen Maria of Edinburgh had a great influence in creating this, as besides Art-Nouveau elements there are influences of Byzantine and especially Celtic origin.

The valuable and unique Golden Bedroom, the Chapel and the Golden Room caught our eyes during our visit.

From the castle we went to visit the 300 years old Sinaia Monastery. This is a small complex consisting of the main abbey, the small abbey and a museum.

A heavy rain caught us just when we were ready to leave the monastery, so we took shelter for a few minutes under one of the eaves above an entrance.

When the rain calmed down we went to the station to see about a train to Busteni, another beautiful mountain resort not far from Sinaia. Since there was no train leaving soon, we took a taxi and in 10 minutes we were at our new destination.

We wanted to take a cable car up on the mountain, at over 2200 metres, to see two natural wonders there, The Old Ladies and The Sphinx.

Unfortunately we arrived too late in Busteni and the cable car had closed at 3pm. It was 3.10 pm and we were already thinking that we had to find another day to make this trip.

We looked up at the top of the mountains, where the cable cars were going out of our sight. Menacing black rain clouds were covering the mountain ridges, a strangely beautiful, awe-inspiring sight, though.

We walked through the town for a while, had something to eat and then went to the station to catch our train back to Bucharest.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

The visit that we made to Peles Castle was also connected to our trip to Germany after one week, where we were to visit two more castles belonging to the House of Hohenzollern.

As Peles Castle is a Hohenzollern residence, we wanted to see how it would compare to the Palace of Sigmaringen and Burg Hohenzollern in Hechingen.

Well, after visiting the two castles in Germany, I could say that Peles Castle is more beautiful, it has nicer and richer decorations, and it is also the newest of the three.

However, the Palace of Sigmaringen and Burg Hohenzollern are bigger, older and richer in history. The most dramatic setting of the three castles is Burg Hohenzollern's, at the top of a mountain, 855 metres high, with pointed towers that stick into the clouds.

But more about these, in my trip report for Germany, which will come soon, on another thread.

Day 3 – Friday, June 30

In the morning we took a subway to the city centre and got off at Unirii Square. It was a nice sunny day and in the distance, at the end of the Unirii Boulevard, we could see the huge building of the Palace of Parliament.

All along the boulevard, gardens and fountains delight the eye. We took a few pictures and kept walking towards the building.

The parliament building was designed to be the largest building in the world. It is now known as the Palace of Parliament, second in size to the Pentagon, and has become a tourist attraction.

Former dictator Ceausescu built this in his megalomania, he wanted everything to be the biggest, the largest, the greatest in the world.

Its construction entailed the demolition of a quarter of Bucharest’s historic centre, including 26 churches, and the relocation of 40,000 inhabitants from their 19th century homes to new developments on the outskirts.

He couldn't finalize it, as he was toppled by the Revolution, but at the beginning of the 1990s construction work was resumed and the building finished.

Now this is an immense structure, with 12 storeys, 1100 rooms, wall-to-wall-to-ceiling marble and gold and 3000 chandeliers.
This is where we were going.

We arrived at the big square in front of the building, a huge empty space used for parking, a very wide boulevard and a wide green area separated us from the palace.

We had to make a big round to the right in order to reach the entrance. We found it somewhere on the right side, bought the tickets for the visit and waited for a few minutes until a group was formed.

We were then taken on a tour of the most grandiose building in Bucharest, the colossal Palace of Parliament.

We were amazed at every step we made, seeing the extraordinary luxury everywhere inside.

We passed through a series of dazzling rooms, stepped on huge marble stairs, went through huge halls and galleries generously decorated with monumental sculptures, gilded plaster, laced ceilings, brocades and tapestries.

We admired a luxurious display of crystal chandeliers, colourful mosaics, oak panelling and marble, gold leaf and stained glass windows, floors covered with rich, thick, heavy carpets.

We saw some of the carpets rolled back to the wall and weighing a few tons.
The biggest hall is the "Union Hall" which has a huge sliding ceiling wide enough for a helicopter, with a 14 tons carpet that was woven using machines created specially for it.

Here we saw what they say is the biggest chandelier in the world, weighing 3 tons and lit by 7000 bulbs.

We also had the chance to go to the huge balcony facing the Constitution Square, from where we had magnificent views of the Unirii (Union) Boulevard all the way to Union Square.

This is the balcony from where Ceausescu was supposed to greet the crowds (brought there by force) and we tried to imagine how it would have been.

It was a bit difficult, as there was no one there to greet, nobody came in the big square to see us in the balcony.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

We finished our tour and went to Cismigiu Gardens, dating from 1860, in the very centre of Bucharest.

This is the oldest park in the capital, a great place to stroll and enjoy the peace sitting on a bench, or walking on winding paths among lawns and trees.

We passed by a lake where a few boats were gliding by, and stopped to look at the crowds in a chess area where old people play tournaments. We chose a bench under a big old tree, relaxed for a while and watched the people passing by.

We liked the floral arrangements and noticed many plates by some trees mentioning how old they were, or that they were rare species. It was full of people that day, young and old, either walking by or relaxing on benches, and together with the flowers and trees it was a colourful display of life.

In the evening we went to see the theatre play Uncle Vanya, by Chekhov. It was a sell-out, Romanians are avid theatre goers and the show was very good, with some famous Romanian actors.

We ended our evening at a street café, opposite the university and by the 100 years old St. Nicholas Church of the Students, a beautiful church built in Russian style, with onion domes.

We had a huge, nicely ornamented, delicious ice cream. At around 10.30 pm when we were ready to go home, there were still crowds of people at the cafes and restaurants in the city centre.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

Day 4

On Sunday 2nd July we had a booking to visit Cotroceni Palace. The museum palace can be visited only by appointment.

We took a tram for about half an hour ride, then walked for about 10 minutes around the white painted brick fence surrounding the palace grounds, till we found the gate.

The palace was built between 1893 – 1895 by a French architect, as a royal residence of the Crown Prince and Princess of the Kingdom of Romania, Ferdinand of Hohenzollern and Mary of Edinburgh.

In 1977 a new wing was added, the Romanian Presidency.

There were only a few people waiting for the tour to begin. One reason could be the lack of advertisement.

Except us, there were 3 or 4 other persons, two American ladies among them, with a private guide. When the security check was over, we were taken on an alley winding through a garden in the shade of big leafy trees.

Just as we entered, the palace revealed its sumptuousness. We were looking in awe at a grand, splendid staircase, surrounded by wide galleries, looking like the one at the Grand Opera in Paris.

Queen Mary had a great influence in decorating the palace. Each room was in a different style and we liked very much the Norwegian Hall, intriguingly different with its complete wood decorations.

OK, we had never seen a Norwegian Room before, but still... Then came the Queen's Chamber and the Oriental Room.

Each time when we thought that we saw the room that we liked best, there was another one coming. We were at a loss when asked by the guide which one did we like best.

There were many beautiful rooms, like the Hall of Honour, the Great Reception Salon, an apartment in a German Neo-Renaissance style, as well as the Henry II, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Rococo, Empire, Biedermeier and Art Nouveau apartments.

Which one did we like? Some were with plain decorations, but in the same time intriguingly different, special, like no other, while others were rich in superb decorations.

However, whichever room we liked best, they all had the original items belonging to the royal family, such as furniture, objects of art, paintings.

Just across the street from Cotroceni Palace is the Botanical Garden, dating from 1860, so we went for a walk in the big gardens.

It was quite nice on the alleys, as the big old trees provided a welcome shade in the hot sunny day.

We visited the Botanical Museum inside, with very interesting exhibits including plants of all sorts, samples kept in special jars, even some displays of various animals or birds.

We saw many painted sketches, fruits, seeds, pieces of dried plants or conserved plants. We visited the halls dedicated to the Danube Delta flora, plain, hill or mountain flora.

Then we entered the greenhouse and felt the humidity surrounding the tropical and other exotic plants.

In the evening we went to the theatre to see Wally's Café, by Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick. It was a very good show, again a sell-out, we had fun and enjoyed the play.

After that we stopped again at a nice café, in a corner of a street with beautiful 19th century architecture around.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

Day 5

On Monday 3rd July we went for a walk in the city (see photos in the link above, at the beginning of the report, or here)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...1AaNGzly4ZsXug

We took a subway and got off in the city centre, at the University. We came out of the subway station on the opposite side, for us to have a good angle for a few photos, as we liked the architecture of this building, dating from 1869.

In the distance, the magnificent architecture of the Romanian Commercial Bank drew our attention as well, and took a photo of it too.

We passed by Coltea Hospital, the oldest in Bucharest, built in 1704. The original building was destroyed by an earthquake in 1802, and in 1888 a new hospital was built in a neo-classical style.

We continued our walk down the boulevard and reached the 300 years old St. George Church, where we saw the tomb of its founder, Constantin Brancoveanu, ruler of Wallachia (southern part of Romania) between 1688-1714.

Inside the church, we were pleasantly surprised to see a box containing the right hand of Saint Nicholas.

From St. George Church we went on Calea Victoriei (Victory Way), one of Bucharest's most charming streets. It was built as a main road in 1692.

Much of Bucharest’s past can be seen along Victory Way and its side streets. Between the two world wars, this was a very fashionable thoroughfare. On our walk we found some of the most beautiful buildings in Bucharest.

We reached the huge building with Corinthian columns of the National History Museum, which we had visited in 2005.

On the other side of the street we saw the superb building of the Savings Bank, the only bank that was allowed to do business during communism.

A splendid façade with an enormous arch at the entrance, Corinthian columns and a charming French architecture from the end of the 19th century.

We kept admiring it and taking photos. Many photos. We were afraid that the security guards at the entrance might say something, but they didn’t mind us.

We turned on one side street and we were in front of the Beer Wagon restaurant, dating from the end of the 19th century.

A splendid building with statues and balconies with beautiful decorations.
The lamps in front of the restaurant are in beer barrel shapes.

A few metres farther is one of the oldest and most beautiful churches in Bucharest, the Stavropoleos Church. It was built in 1724 by a Greek monk, using a combination of Romanian and Byzantine architecture.

We rejoiced at the beauty of this church with a beautiful façade and delicately carved entrance with columns.

Behind it we found a peaceful garden, like an inner court, with nicely decorated arcades, a corridor behind them and hanging plants on the columns, such a unique sight.

Small as it is, the church is an architectural jewel, with beautiful frescoes and paintings, wood and stone carvings and religious icons.

On our way back we passed by the St. Nicolas Church of the Students, which we saw two evenings before from that café.

We were in a charming area of Bucharest, very close to the University Square, but also a few steps away from Lipscani street and the old town...

This is a Russian Orthodox church, built between 1905-09 with a 600,000 gold rouble donation from Tsar Alexander II.

Its full view is hindered somehow by the tall buildings surrounding it, but with an effort I could capture in a photo five of its seven typical onion domes with the orthodox cross at the top. A superb church!

To be continued...

SuzieC

A Fine report! I don't recall reading too many trip reports for Romania before.. or Hungary.
Thank you!

bill_boy

Thank you.
This is very refreshing and definitely has that true enlightenment and educational factor, at least for me.

This qualifies as one of the better posts for quite some time here.

gabrieltraian

SuzieC and bill_boy, thank you for your appreciation!

I'm glad you like my report.

gabrieltraian

Day 6

Bucharest was once considered the Little Paris for its long leafy avenues and grand buildings, together with its distinguished social scene enjoyed by the extravagant Romanian aristocracy.

Unfortunately, the city's elegance and beauty soon deteriorated under the harsh era of communism.

Today, Bucharest is a curious blend of the two complete opposite periods. The Little-Paris-era tree-lined boulevards, classical buildings and extravagant public structures lie in utter contrast with untidy, congested streets and unsightly Stalinist apartment blocks.

Not to mention the huge amount of culture and historic architecture that Ceausescu demolished to make room for his plans.

However, part of the Little Paris still exists, and we went out again to search for it, on our last day in Bucharest.

This time we took the subway to the Roman Square. There is a big roundabout here and one building that catches your eye with its beautiful architecture is the Academy of Economic Studies.

On another side of the square is a statue of the Roman wolf nurturing Romulus and Remus. This is a replica of a similar monument in Rome, and it was a presented to the city of Bucharest by the Italian state.

The statue signifies Romania's Latin origins. From the Roman Square we walked on one of the boulevards spreading out from the roundabout, to visit the Museum of Romanian Literature.

Unfortunately it was under an extended renovation and only a small part of it was open. We decided to try another walk in some areas that reminisce the Little Paris.

We went to Lipscani street, in the old town. We could still see a few interesting buildings, lots of small shops at the ground floor, crowds of people passing by, an old city charm could be felt in the air.

We entered a gallery, a kind of a corridor uniting two streets. There was no roof, but on either side were rows of windows and balconies at the first floor.

At the ground floor were many and various small shops and art galleries. This place was called the Inn with Lindens.

Probably the windows and the balconies at the first floor on both sides are or were part of the inn.

We continued up the street and reached another branch of the Romanian Commercial Bank, again with an outstanding architecture. Opposite was the National Bank of Romania.

We were in a beautiful area, with splendid historic buildings and we took a few photos. Down a side street we saw the Romanian National Library, another architectural work of art.

Taking another side street, we found ourselves in the Victory Way (Calea Victoriei), where we had been the day before.

It was too beautiful an area not to walk around, and again we took many photos with the Savings Bank building and “Beer Wagon” on the other side of the street.

From there we went towards the city centre and passed by Vilacrosse Gallery, a beautiful arched corridor with a golden matt glass roof and splendid architecture.

We entered the arch shaped passage, full of cafes and restaurants. At its farthermost point was a domed ceiling and the corridor made a left turn to the same street, but at about 20-30 metres from where we had entered.

From outside we couldn’t realize what was hidden inside. The entrance was just an arch in the wall of a big building, but once inside it was a different world.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

We continued our walk and reached an area where two old hotels were separated by a street. The hotels are Capitol and Capsa (read Kapsha).

Both of them have a splendid architecture and they have been famous since old times, the end of the 19th century.

The Romanian aristocracy used to frequent these places and the restaurants of the two hotels were famous at the time.

We kept on the same street, Victory Way, and we reached another famous hotel of the Little Paris era: Hotel Continental.

This is quite a beautiful building, all white and has superb decorations all over it. It was a posh hotel during those times, and it still is nowadays.

We came to the Revolution Square and there we saw the magnificent University Library and the National Art Museum, former Royal Palace.

Then we reached the Romanian Athenaeum. This was built in 1888 by a French architect, and is home to the Enescu Philarmony. George Enescu was the greatest Romanian composer of all times and his grave is in Pere Lachaise.

The Romanian Athenaeum is the best place in town for classical music concerts. Along the years, here came to perform famous conductors and soloists, such as Herbert von Karajan, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals and Yehudi Menuhin.

The Romanian Athenaeum is one of the finest buildings in Bucharest, with a sublime baroque dome. The entrance is through a beautiful garden with trees and floral arrangements.

It was around noon and we thought of going to a special place for lunch. We returned on Victory Way, passed the Capitol and Capsa Hotels, stopped for a picture in front of the beautiful building of the National Military Circle, and went on some inner streets, behind the big boulevards.

There we found Gorjeana House restaurant and entered to have our lunch. Inside we were greeted with the typical atmosphere of the Gorj region in Romania.

Nice place, we liked it. The food and the entertainment is from that part of Romania. We had a very good time there, very good food and smashing prices, in a traditional Romanian environment.

It cost us about 15 euros per person for a three course meal and beer.

From there we went to see Manuc’s Inn, dating from the end of the 19th century. This is a former inn, now a splendid restaurant.

It is a huge house with terraces and balconies in the inner court, nice woodwork, arcades, a beautiful place.

It retained the old times atmosphere, even though just outside is the modern world.

At about 4 o'clock we went to the Village Museum, situated within the immense Herastrau Park, alongside a lake. We were fascinated by this outdoor museum.

We saw a collection of more than 300 buildings representing the history and design of Romania's rural architecture. There were peasant homes and barns from all regions of Romania, wooden churches from Maramures, all set up like a village.

We walked around this village for a couple of hours, and we liked it so much.

Not far from there is the Triumph Arch, built in 1922 to commemorate Romania's Great War dead. It is 25 metres high, but there was no access to the top when we visited.

This Arc de Triomphe is a little smaller than the one in Paris, however it is located at the intersection of six boulevards.

This was our last day in Bucharest this year, and we are looking forward to go again next summer.

We still have to visit the Museum of the Romanian Peasant (we heard that it is fabulous), want to visit Cotroceni Palace again, because we liked it very much, walk again the streets of the old Little Paris to enjoy the atmosphere stop by a few street cafés, and of course, see one or two theatre plays.

Plus I saw that they are going to open a Hard Rock Café this year in the huge Herastrau Park.

To be continued...

gabrieltraian

My opinion about this visit to Bucharest

There are many cafes, restaurants and terraces that have been opened in the past few years, in quite beautiful locations, nice settings with attractive interior decorations.

Most of them try and quite succeed to recreate the nice "Little Paris" atmosphere of about a century ago.

We found quite a few such cafés and restaurants, hidden in galleries, or between turn-of-the-century French architecture buildings, or in nice street corners.

We stopped in several such places and the service was good, the food was great and the prices affordable.

Old places that had been closed out or left in disrepair, have now been revived or renovated and re-opened with great success.

We found them quite busy, and we realized that a lot of people are in search for a piece of the former "Little Paris". It is still there and it is so rewarding when you find it.

End of report.

caroline_edinburgh

Hi Gabriel. Sorry to have missed this before - I know it's very frustrating when you spend a lot of time on a report and then it sinks too quickly for many people to see it. I guess it is more likely to happen to those of us who are posting while our American friends are in bed.

So thank you very much for taking the trouble to write this & post your photos. A brilliant report, as always, and so interesting ! You have a great gift, in that you really see and appreciate everything, even in your native country.

This was a real eyeopener as I think the general belief here is that Bucharest is all very ugly and has no nice buildings left. Obviously wromg ! All the beautiful 19th century buildings make it look very like other beautiful European cities in France, Spain, Italy, etc - with a hint of Russia (the onion domes) too. And I think all cities nowadays have ugly modern housing on the outskirts. I'm guessing your trip to Edinburgh didn't take in areas like Sighthill, Wester Hailes, Craigmillar...

So Bucharest is now on my list of cities to visit - well, I think we have to visit somewhere with an establishment called 'The Beer Wagon' !!

Lovely to see pictures of yourself and your wife, too - you look like very nice, happy people.

gabrieltraian

Good to hear again from you, Caroline!

I'm so glad you enjoyed my report and photos!

You're so right about reports sinking too quickly before people interested in it might have a chance to see it. And frustrating as well, yes. But at least my wife supports me on this.

I tried to capture the past that still lives in Bucharest, the times when it truly was the Little Paris, before communists came to power. Now it started to come back to life.

I also wanted to show that Romania has its beautiful castles as well, just not so advertised like in Western Europe. And at least the one at Sinaia is truly a jewel, and it's German heritage.

Of course, every city has its ugly part behind the postcard look.
And no, you're right, I didn't even want to know about Edinburgh's, or any other city's for that matter, ugly parts. I think nobody does.

But I've just seen a thread opened a few hours ago about tours that would include the ugly parts of a city.

It started in a funny way. It's called Ugly Tours, or something like that.

Oh, I'm glad to hear that you're thinking of going to Bucharest!

Let's also see what noe847 has to say when she comes back. I think that she's there now.

"The Beer Wagon" in Romanian is "La Caru' cu Bere". Read it the same way it is written. Romanian is a phonetic language.

I left Romania more than 12 years ago and I go back every year or two years, during my annual leave.

Next year we want to go again, this time to visit, besides Bucharest with its theatres and museums, the Northern part of Moldavia - Moldova in Romanian (not Moldova the independent country, but the Romanian region).

In the north of Moldova are the famous painted churches dating from 1400's. Plus the inherent pure and un-modernized countryside with its people.

Yep... we are happy people, especially when on holiday. We are all smiles during those times. If "Tourist" was a profession, we would've applied for it and be one.

We like so much to travel, more so because we come from a relatively poor country, where the economic situation doesn't really allow for this chance.

So we travel with all our might, while we can.