Saturday, October 5, Bran

Day started bitterly cold but sunny.  None of the earlier snow had melted. We headed for Brasov about  an hour and a half away on the same ripped up road.  The scenery is unbelievable, the pines laden with heavy snow, the mountains rising so steeply, the sky so blue.  Of course one can't take pictures with the van shaking like an unbalanced washing machine on spin cycle and no shoulder to pull off on for a photo op.  By the time we got through the road mess we were on the plain, where the snow had melted, and the grandeur had faded.

The view from our room (the snow had fallen before our arrival)

Down the street from Vladia Inn

Brasov is the nicest town we've seen in Romania - at least the old town is.  There's a mix of architecture from over the centuries, plenty of open public space, it's clean, without grafitti, and much better maintained than any of the other places we've been. We had time to wander and first thing that caught our eye was the synagogue, just a couple blocks from where we parked. (Somehow this trip has evolved into a Jewish Heritage tour without our intending it to be.). Anyway, we told our new BFFs we were going there and they all asked to come along. (None of them are Jewish.). So we became the tour guides.  The congregation has 200 members (don't know the city population), and the woman there said there is a reform congregation in town too.  I'm always surprised that so many came back.

The (almost) whole crew. (One back at the hotel with tourista.)

The synagogue built in 1901; the building on the left is the JCC with a restaurant

Interior of synagogue; services were over and Torah study was in the other building

Then we wandered the town. Herbalife was having a rally on the town square, complete with group fitness aerobics.  But more interesting was the open market where Charlie found a wooden toy for his woodworkers group to replicate. 

Gate in the old city wall 

All are old Brasov

Brasov; don't know if you can make it out at the top of the mountain, but I think they borrowed the sign from Hollywood

We had splintered after the synagogue and met up at the Black Church, so named because it was charred black when it burned in 1689 (about 300 years after it was begun and 200 years after it was completed). It was built as a Catholic Church, but during the Reformation it became Lutheran and the services are still in German for a congregation of 2000 people.  It is decorated with fabulous Persian and Turkish rugs hanging on the walls and from the balcony railings.  Since Brasov was on the trade route between the Ottoman Empire and the west, congregants would purchase them from merchants passing through or make their own buying sprees, and hang them in the church as a kind of conspicuous consumption one-upmanship. It is the largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul and is the largest church in Romania.  It has a 4000 pipe organ.

The Black Church; unfortunately buildings surround it so closely you can't get back far enough to get a good shot

Then back to Bran to visit Bran Castle, originally built as a fortress and centuries later converted into a Royal Palace, but mostly (and falsely) known as Dracula's castle.  If you believe the fictitious character was based on Vlad Tepes, then this isn't Vlad's either.  But much like "Washington slept here" it is possible he passed through while keeping the Ottomans out of Transylvania in the 15th century.  It was built by the Saxons a century before that.  It became a royal residence in 1920. It commands an impressive position above the pass between the mountains and looks like a movie setting.

Bran Castle.  Not only did we walk up the hill to the castle, but we went up all the steps inside to the top; notice how little snow is left, but that walk was sure slick.

A view from the top

Lots of photos today because it was such a lovely day, back in the walking mode.

Had dinner at the hotel again but placed our orders when we came back and went to the table a hour later. Service was still slow but tolerable.  Saturday night bonus was a live band and singers playing (loudly) American golden oldies.  You ain't heard nothin' til you've heard "Rollin on the Ree-verr"

11,120 steps (4.7 miles)