Transylvania and Bulgaria

Hello everyone

Well the Transfăgărăşan Pass was high and twisty and the road condition was thankfully fair – except where the road had crumbled at the edges with little warning!

 

 
 From there we headed to Bran to visit the castle – a small but pretty castle made infamous with its associations to Dracula (incredibly tenuous, but it attracts the tourists). We stayed on the town’s only campsite – Vampire Camping! Neighbouring Peles Castle was a much more palatial affair, set in lush greenery high up on a hill.

 

We’d discussed whether to visit Bucharest as the only place we wanted to see was the immense Palace of Parliament. In the end, we camped at the city camp 12km out of town and drove into the centre and past the Palace. Bucharest is charmless and decrepit, whereas the Palace is an immense building of apparent excess with 15 floors (5 underground) covering an area of 82 acres with approx. 10% still unfinished.

 

Our route out of Romania continued on the odd theme – we entered what looked like a lorry park, paid 3€ to cross the River Danube via a somewhat rickety-looking bridge and entered Bulgaria, where again our passports were heavily scrutinized. We bought our road tax vignette and drove on.

 

Bulgaria felt more familiar. We drove south-east through miles of agricultural land (mainly corn and sunflowers) and visited the Stone Forest just outside Varna. This forest is thought to have been formed by chalky deposits and consists of tree stump-like stone structures – it also has its own mini-Stonehenge-type ‘Circle of Wishes’.

 

We’ve been wild-camping on the beach just outside Sozopol on the Black Sea coast for 3 days, and have enjoyed some beach R&R. We’ll head off tomorrow towards Turkey and Istanbul.

 

 

 

Will post again next week - love to all

Eastern Hungary and Romania

Hello everyone

From Budapest, we actually travelled east to Eger – an area renowned for its wine. We stayed on a small campsite with its own wine cellar, and sampled the fare – the sweet red was delicious. On the short walk into town, we passed approx. 30 wine cellars carved out of the hillside. Eger itself was a pleasant town with a church and castle – there was a fun weekend going on with characters in national dress.

 

 

Nearby is the Bükk National Park – it is a forest of beech trees and a 40minute walk took us to the Fátyol waterfall - apparently one of Hungary’s most attractive.

 

From here, we headed south-east and crossed the border into Romania at Oradea. We’ve now been in Romania for 4 days and it’s been quite an experience – like we’ve arrived in a foreign land, which we’ve not felt before. We had our passports scrutinized at the border, bought 2 weeks’ worth of road tax and immediately encountered the chaos of Romanian drivers coupled with poor roads – an unsettling experience. We’d only travelled 30miles before we saw the first horse drawn cart on the main road – they are quite a common sight and the horses seem unfazed by the juggernauts thundering close past them.

We visited Sighişoara – famous as the birthplace of Vlad Tepes who was the inspiration for Dracula. It’s quite a touristy spot, but the views from our campsite high on the hill were amazing. The hills and countryside of Transylvania are beautiful – Peter has to take my word for it, as he can’t take his eyes off the road for long!

 

Tomorrow, we will drive Romania’s highest road - the Transfăgărăşan Pass between Transylvania and neighbouring region of Wallachia.

Will post again next week - love to all

The High Tatras and Budapest

Hello everyone

 
The High Tatras are impressive rising from the foothills with the highest peak in northern and eastern central Europe. We stayed just outside the ski town of Strbske Pleso, and headed out from here on our mountain walk. It was a hot and partly cloudy day (thankfully – we have 36°C, so cloud is great!) and the views were amazing.

From here we headed east to Spišský Castle – a huge ruin fortress dating from the 12^th century. It sits high above the surrounding flatter countryside with great views.

We then drove south west through the old mining town of Banská Štiavnica towards Hungary. Throughout Slovakia, the scenery has been spectacular. However, on the outskirts of many towns, there are numerous ramshackled sheds and tumble-down buildings which look like shanty towns. Young children line the road selling berries and mushrooms from buckets – quite a shock really.

 

 

 

Budapest is a fantastic and vibrant place. Buda on the west bank is hilly with the Royal Palace and Matthias Church, whereas Pest on the east has the St Stephen’s Basilica (with his mummified right hand on display!) and the huge Parliament building (the largest building in Hungary). The famous Chain Bridge connects the two, and is particularly beautiful lit up at night. We’ve seen the sights, done a walking tour and enjoyed people watching. We also took an evening river cruise on Peter’s birthday which was excellent.

 

 

 

 

 

We are on the city camp half an hours’ walk from the centre. Its been very hot and sunny, and the camp-site is over-full, but our small spot is thankfully under a tree for shade. The Hungarian Forint currency exchanges at approx. 390 to the pound, so we’ve got thousands and thousands in our pockets, and the beer and wine are cheap too!!

Our route is south, whilst we make decisions about where to head next.

Will post again next week - love to all

 

Vienna and Bratislava

Hello everyone

Well….we made it to Vienna, but not before spending time at Hainburg. This small town sits very near the border between Austria and Slovakia, and had a great free parking spot overlooking the Danube. It was a great base for cycling upstream along the river, and walking downstream, as well as good train and bus links. So, we left the van and headed for the cities.

Vienna is such a beautiful place with grand ornate buildings packed in to the centre of the city. Highlights of the trip are the huge St Stephen’s cathedral, the house where Mozart gave his first performance (aged 6 years), the Town Hall (where the 2014 film festival was in full swing) and the mighty Hofburg complex. This was the former Emperor’s residence and the array of buildings is set within parkland. We visited the Treasury and the Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Hainburg, we also skipped across the border into Slovakia to visit Bratislava by bus. This took 20 minutes and cost 6 Euros return for us both! Bratislava is dominated by the huge castle high on a hill overlooking the Danube. A stronghold has been present on this site for centuries, but the current castle was reconstructed in the 1950s. It offers views of the old town, and also the tower block sprawl where most of Bratislava’s residents live. Highlights here were the crypt inside St Martin’s cathedral, the Museum of Clocks and the Blue Church, which looked like it was covered in fondant icing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our plan now is to continue northwards through Slovakia towards the Tatra Mountains.

Will post again next week - love to all

 

Hallstatt and the Danube

 

Hello everyone

Our guide books said Hallstatt was a stunning place and they were right. We approached this tiny village from across the lake, parked up and walked the last couple of kilometres. The main road passes behind the village at roof-top level before disappearing through a tunnel, but the footpath takes you via the lakeside to the centre. The houses all seem to cling to the hillside overlooking the lake connected by steep steps to the different levels. We spent a couple of days here soaking up the sunshine and the atmosphere.

 

 

From here we headed back towards the Danube staying on a site at Schönbühel overlooking the river and castle (sadly not open to the public). The weather has been very sunny and blisteringly hot followed by mugginess and thunderstorms, so we didn’t venture far.

 

 

We did visit Melk and its abbey 5km away. This huge 18^th century Benedictine monastery and abbey church sits high above Melk overlooking the Danube. Our tour took us through the Marble Hall, Library (with approx. 10,000 leather bound books) and into the church with it’s beautifully painted ceilings.

Our journey along the Danube has taken us through the vineyards growing on the hillside which is reminiscent of our trips along the Mosel in Germany.  We’ve feasted on the renowned apricots which grow in clusters amongst the vines around Weissenkirchen and Krems, but have yet to try the wine!

 

 

We’re wending our way to Vienna in a leisurely fashion – perhaps we’ll have visited before we post the blog again next week………

Love to all