From Voineasa, we headed to Poenari Castle, pretty much at the start of the Transfăgărășan. We wanted to see this castle because if there is such a thing, then this is the ‘real’ Dracula castle as mentioned in Bram Stocker’s novel. Vlad Tepes had made this fortress his base and also he liked to impale Turks here. It’s a ruin now.
You have to climb over 1400 steps to get to the top, we were ready to do that but we weren’t allowed to. The castle had been closed for a while and will be for some time, due to roaming bears. Apparently there are four females in the area with cubs so access is strictly prohibited. Shame, but in fairness there wasn’t much to see really. The views from below were sufficient, and it was a nice place to camp out overnight.
In the morning, we drove on the magnificent Transfăgărășan, northwards.
This road didn’t exist until Nicolae Ceauşescu ordered it built in 1970 as a strategic military route, in case of a Soviet invasion. Amazingly it was completed in just 4½ years.
It’s an engineering marvel but the financial and human costs to build it were great. However, it’s part of Romania’s heritage now and as such should be cherished.
Top Gear have called this the best road to drive on, and perhaps it is if you have a supercar—actually we only saw one. In our humble van, it was still a wonderful experience. We started at around 680m, going around a vast lake and through forests, until we got to around 1400m and then suddenly the trees were gone and the vistas just kept getting better and better. All the way to the top at Bâlea Lake, it’s 2040m. From the south you drive through a long, dark and wet tunnel, until all of a sudden, it’s a tourist hotspot, vendors selling anything and everything. We were also greeted by low cloud or foggy conditions, it was blue skies on the other side!
We had planned on staying a second night on the road but the clouds really came in and the views disappeared. As it was early afternoon and we had plenty of time, we drove on towards Brașov and camped overnight near Râșnov which ended up being three nights—at a wonderful open grassland spot. The views of the surrounding mountains were wonderful in this peaceful place, a few sheep about in the day, some mushroom pickers parking up and going into the woods, or some locals parking up for a couple of hours and having a bbq.
In fact one of the locals told us that this very spot was used as a set for a film with Nicole Kidman, although he couldn’t remember, a quick google search told us it was Cold Mountain.
From here, we traveled the short journey to Bran, the ‘official’ Dracula castle. There is a very strong possibility that Vlad Tepes never actually stayed here, nor that Bram Stoker knew anything about the castle when he wrote his book, yet here we are, over a 100 years after it’s publication, in the most touristy of tourist places in Romania, all because of gothic horror, still you have to come don’t you.
Creepy, dark, mysterious are not words you can use to describe the castle. In fact it’s charming and rather homely after being revamped (ha!) by Queen Marie in the 1920s.
Aside from the castle, there really isn’t much else here, save a myriad of souvenir shops, and a small village museum. We wandered around the town a little then slowly made our way back to the camping spot.
After relaxing at our camping spot for a day, the day after we drove the short distance into Brașov. The timing of our visit was no coincidence, it was World Cup final day. As France were in the final, I was very keen to watch the game and I knew that our best bet would be to go to a town with sports bars, so we booked a cheap room in the city to spend the night. We wondered around the old part, which was really delightful, probably the prettiest city we’d seen so far in Romania, and like a lot of the old Transylvanian cities, very germanic looking. In the evening, we headed to the aptly named British Pub, it was packed and we didn’t really know who the locals were cheering for or if at all. France scored first and there wasn’t much noise, Croatia equalised and the place erupted, now we knew…
As you probably well know, France won, so I was a happy chappy and we had a couple of extra drinks to celebrate.
Bușteni is a very popular holiday resort area for Romanians.
We’d read about a good but busy camping ground there called Valea Cerbului, so we made our way there, about an hour south from Brașov. Yep, there was literally 100s of people here but It’s a very large area so there was plenty of room.
Another reason for coming here is that there is very good chance of seeing a bear. Apparently, they come to get whatever they find interesting from the bins dotted around.
Sure enough, we saw one. Around 6.30pm, a few hours before dark, there was a loud bang which really startled us.
Moaning about crazy people shooting things, or either letting off rockets, I looked outside to see what the bloody hell was going on! ah, the penny dropped. Barely 30m from the van was a bear!
After a little panic thinking he was going to jump in the van, we relaxed. He didn’t care about us at all, he calmly walked around the van and headed to the bin. We had had a fantastic view of this wonderful animal, he looked healthy too, so the bins must be a supplement to his normal diet.
After dark, we saw another one although only just with the aid of torches, we thought it was the same bear but this was a very much bigger beast, this time we kept the doors firmly shut!
We really came here to walk in the Bucegi Mountains.
Unlike our previous walks in the carpathians that involved trekking up through woods, this time we drove up above the tree line as far as we could, some 1900m high. Even so, we still managed to ascend and descend nearly 600m during our roughly circular clockwise walk.
It was a popular place, and many were enjoying the sights up here (it’s also possible to take a cable car up from down in Bușteni) such as the sphinx rock formation (yep it does have some resemblance) and the Heroes' Cross (a WWI memorial). It was an excellent walk but perhaps the best part was down the narrow and precipitous but spectacular Brana Mare path.
Good things come in threes so it’s said, on Sunday France won the World Cup, then on Monday we saw a bear and then on Tuesday, after searching all day during the walk (and many times in the past at high altitudes) we finally saw the quite scarce but iconic alpine flower, edelweiss! Cue the sound of music.
We camped by a lake that night, and in the morning we had some time to kill so we stopped at Peleș castle—a summer retreat palace built by the first king of Romania, Carol I, in the late 1880s—and walked around the grounds for a little while before making our way to the capital, Bucharest.
Poenari Castle
Transfăgărășan
Bran Castle
Wild Camping Near Râșnov
Brașov
Valea Cerbului
Bucegi Mountains
Bolboci Lake
Peleș Castle
You have to climb over 1400 steps to get to the top, we were ready to do that but we weren’t allowed to. The castle had been closed for a while and will be for some time, due to roaming bears. Apparently there are four females in the area with cubs so access is strictly prohibited. Shame, but in fairness there wasn’t much to see really. The views from below were sufficient, and it was a nice place to camp out overnight.
In the morning, we drove on the magnificent Transfăgărășan, northwards.
This road didn’t exist until Nicolae Ceauşescu ordered it built in 1970 as a strategic military route, in case of a Soviet invasion. Amazingly it was completed in just 4½ years.
It’s an engineering marvel but the financial and human costs to build it were great. However, it’s part of Romania’s heritage now and as such should be cherished.
Top Gear have called this the best road to drive on, and perhaps it is if you have a supercar—actually we only saw one. In our humble van, it was still a wonderful experience. We started at around 680m, going around a vast lake and through forests, until we got to around 1400m and then suddenly the trees were gone and the vistas just kept getting better and better. All the way to the top at Bâlea Lake, it’s 2040m. From the south you drive through a long, dark and wet tunnel, until all of a sudden, it’s a tourist hotspot, vendors selling anything and everything. We were also greeted by low cloud or foggy conditions, it was blue skies on the other side!
We had planned on staying a second night on the road but the clouds really came in and the views disappeared. As it was early afternoon and we had plenty of time, we drove on towards Brașov and camped overnight near Râșnov which ended up being three nights—at a wonderful open grassland spot. The views of the surrounding mountains were wonderful in this peaceful place, a few sheep about in the day, some mushroom pickers parking up and going into the woods, or some locals parking up for a couple of hours and having a bbq.
In fact one of the locals told us that this very spot was used as a set for a film with Nicole Kidman, although he couldn’t remember, a quick google search told us it was Cold Mountain.
From here, we traveled the short journey to Bran, the ‘official’ Dracula castle. There is a very strong possibility that Vlad Tepes never actually stayed here, nor that Bram Stoker knew anything about the castle when he wrote his book, yet here we are, over a 100 years after it’s publication, in the most touristy of tourist places in Romania, all because of gothic horror, still you have to come don’t you.
Creepy, dark, mysterious are not words you can use to describe the castle. In fact it’s charming and rather homely after being revamped (ha!) by Queen Marie in the 1920s.
Aside from the castle, there really isn’t much else here, save a myriad of souvenir shops, and a small village museum. We wandered around the town a little then slowly made our way back to the camping spot.
After relaxing at our camping spot for a day, the day after we drove the short distance into Brașov. The timing of our visit was no coincidence, it was World Cup final day. As France were in the final, I was very keen to watch the game and I knew that our best bet would be to go to a town with sports bars, so we booked a cheap room in the city to spend the night. We wondered around the old part, which was really delightful, probably the prettiest city we’d seen so far in Romania, and like a lot of the old Transylvanian cities, very germanic looking. In the evening, we headed to the aptly named British Pub, it was packed and we didn’t really know who the locals were cheering for or if at all. France scored first and there wasn’t much noise, Croatia equalised and the place erupted, now we knew…
As you probably well know, France won, so I was a happy chappy and we had a couple of extra drinks to celebrate.
Bușteni is a very popular holiday resort area for Romanians.
We’d read about a good but busy camping ground there called Valea Cerbului, so we made our way there, about an hour south from Brașov. Yep, there was literally 100s of people here but It’s a very large area so there was plenty of room.
Another reason for coming here is that there is very good chance of seeing a bear. Apparently, they come to get whatever they find interesting from the bins dotted around.
Sure enough, we saw one. Around 6.30pm, a few hours before dark, there was a loud bang which really startled us.
Moaning about crazy people shooting things, or either letting off rockets, I looked outside to see what the bloody hell was going on! ah, the penny dropped. Barely 30m from the van was a bear!
After a little panic thinking he was going to jump in the van, we relaxed. He didn’t care about us at all, he calmly walked around the van and headed to the bin. We had had a fantastic view of this wonderful animal, he looked healthy too, so the bins must be a supplement to his normal diet.
After dark, we saw another one although only just with the aid of torches, we thought it was the same bear but this was a very much bigger beast, this time we kept the doors firmly shut!
We really came here to walk in the Bucegi Mountains.
Unlike our previous walks in the carpathians that involved trekking up through woods, this time we drove up above the tree line as far as we could, some 1900m high. Even so, we still managed to ascend and descend nearly 600m during our roughly circular clockwise walk.
It was a popular place, and many were enjoying the sights up here (it’s also possible to take a cable car up from down in Bușteni) such as the sphinx rock formation (yep it does have some resemblance) and the Heroes' Cross (a WWI memorial). It was an excellent walk but perhaps the best part was down the narrow and precipitous but spectacular Brana Mare path.
Good things come in threes so it’s said, on Sunday France won the World Cup, then on Monday we saw a bear and then on Tuesday, after searching all day during the walk (and many times in the past at high altitudes) we finally saw the quite scarce but iconic alpine flower, edelweiss! Cue the sound of music.
We camped by a lake that night, and in the morning we had some time to kill so we stopped at Peleș castle—a summer retreat palace built by the first king of Romania, Carol I, in the late 1880s—and walked around the grounds for a little while before making our way to the capital, Bucharest.
Poenari Castle
Transfăgărășan
 |
| Prometheus holding Electricity |
 |
| Not a bad road to drive up! |
 |
| At the top... |
 |
| Back down we go then |
Bran Castle
 |
| About the only creepy bit left in the castle, a secret passage. |
 |
| You don't scare me Vlad! |
Wild Camping Near Râșnov
Brașov
 |
| Champions du Monde! |
Valea Cerbului
 |
| So we're going all the way up there, if you have keen eyes, you may see a cross. |
Bucegi Mountains
 |
| The Sphynx. |
 |
| We've had worse views for lunch... |
 |
| Edelweiss!! |
 |
| So to the left of the town is the very long camping ground which we were at. |
 |
| Brana Mare path |
Bolboci Lake
Peleș Castle
 |
| Not content with one castle, they built Pelișor castle as well! |
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