Romania

After a fretful, sleepless night on KLM, I finally arrived in Bucharest on thursday morning. The weather has been so hot the previous days that everyone wanted to escape the city and head straight to the mountains when I landed. I did not get to see much of the city other than the van ride to the production office and then out of town. The city has not shaken off it's communist past yet. Soot stained buildings from 50 years of social planning and mismanagement seemed to be the norm. But there are signs of renovation and some of the big state buildings are quite handsome.
After a quick lunch, we loaded up the van and headed towards the Carpathian mountains. Made famous by Bram Stoker in the 19th century.
The ride to Sinaia took about 2 hours. Winding along the mountain pass, it reminded me of heading up into the catskill mountains. Except of course there are no horse drawn carts in New York State.
We arrived and had a quick dinner. Ellen and Mark were to be disappointed in the tripe soup but Pam and I enjoyed our schnitzel stuffed with ham and cheese. Quite the Homer Simpson meal. Fried pork stuffed with other kinds of pork and cheese.
The next morning we headed up to the Castle. King Carol l started to build Peles Castle in 1879 and it was still being added to when he died in 1914.
The estate has many other buildings and palaces which housed knights and staff and other princes. The King designated the castle as a museum in his will so another smaller palace was built for the crown prince. But since King Carol l also denoted that there be only one "palace" on the property, the prince's palace is more of a chateau.
Fresh raspberries are in season now and are sold in little baskets.
The dogs are very mellow and laid back around the castle. Most love to be lounging and petted.
Midway down the access road, there are many vendors selling everything from crap souvenirs to lace table linens and woodcrafts and the favorite snack, corn on the cob.