Sibiu,Transylvania, June 3rd

It was Sunday when we arrived in Bucharest. We avoided the taxi touts and found our driver who gave us a bit of a scenic tour on the way to the hotel. We ventured out from the hotel and found a bar. The beer is good and cheap and the cafe food is also cheap and good. I didn't realise polenta would be so popular.

Monday and George picked us up and showed us Revolutionary Square and the balcony from where  Nicolae Ceauescu?, tried to make his final speech.

Our next stop was the Palace of Parliament. It is hard to comprehend the sheer enormity of the building. As the ceilings are 12 to 19m high, it is a long climb to the third floor via a grand marble staircase. At least Ceauescu was a patriot and it is all built of Romanian materials. I was worried about the wear on the huge carpets (all specially woven to fit the huge halls. It takes twenty men to unroll some of them)  from the tourists tramping over them..

Our next stop was the village open air museum with examples of the architecture from around the country. June 1st was Orthodox Pentecost and also Children's Day so the site was buzzing.

We visited the apartment of a famous author still looking as it did in 1931 and then in the evening had a Folklore dinner and show in a cellar restaurant

 The Palace of Parliament. It is impossible to give an idea of the size (around 20,000 sq m).

One of the cottages in the Village museum. It is beautifully laid out with well cared for gardens.

 Interior of the cottage

 

 Romanian patchwork

It was Orthodox Pentecost and Children's day so there were children everywhere.

 

 Interior of an Upper Middle Class apartment unchanged since 1931

Cellar restaurant in Bucharest.

 

 Entertainment in the restaurant.

 

Brancovan architecture at Mogosoaia Palace.It is on a lake with beautiful gardens and is popular for weddings.

 

All waiting at the petrol station. Service stations have very clean toilets and a good range of snacks and light meals.

 

 Roadside barbeque - highly recommended.

 

 My old favourite St George at the 14thC Cozia Monastery

 

 The grand foyer of our hotel in Sibiu. The dining room was all gilt chandeliers and mirrors.

 

 Sibiu is a Saxon town founded by Germans in the 12thC. The sleepy eye dormer windows are a feature of the buildings around the square.

The organ in the Lutheran church in Sibiu

 

 One of the ostentatious houses of the gypsy barons in Hunedoara

 

Local beauties

The brass band was playing in the square in Sibiu.