Sinaia

We left Bucharest this morning to start our 9 day tour of Romania. Our guide Gabriel picked us up at 9am and we headed north, first stop, the town of Snagov.

Snagov Monastery is built on an island in Snagov Lake and is the alleged final resting place of Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Vlad Dracul) - his head was sent to Constantinople to prove his death to the Ottoman Rulers, but the destination of his body is in dispute... but more about him in a couple of days...

We continued north via Ploiesti, site of the world's first large oil refinery (1856), to Sinaia, visiting the monastery, notable for the interior painting style, including one of the first king of Romania, Carol I shown dressed as an officer, with his right hand upon a rock pillar with a missing piece symbolising the missing Romanian territories at that time.

We had lunch at a local eatery, with soup and bread for main, then for dessert a Romanian specialty, papanași (pronounced papanash), a donut made with soft cheese and egg, topped with blueberry jam and sour cream.

After lunch we walked to Peles Castle, the former summer palace of Carol I. It was built between 1883 and 1914 and has 170 rooms decorated in many different styles, elaborate wood carvings throughout, 2000 artworks, a collection of 4000 pieces of arms and armor, and an electric powered retractable stained glass roof in the entrance hall. It was impossible to take in the detail in each room in the time we had.

We drove to our accommodation in the upper reaches of Sinaia (it's a ski resort town in winter), then walked 1.5km down to town to grab a few caches and have some tea. We caught a taxi back up to the hotel - best A$2.60 spent!Read more