2010 Trip: Sinaia And To Brasov
15th May 2010
Today I set out to explore a little of Romania’s countryside, especially an area in the Carpathians in the centre of Transylvania. I caught the 8:30 train from Bucharest north to Sinaia. This town, once called the “summer capital” of Romania, is now a ski town in winter and far less populated for the rest of the year. Ironic.
It was named after a wealthy fellow travelled to Mount Sinai and was impressed enough to name his retreat in the area after it. Various wealthy and ruling European families have discovered the place and a couple of castles remain. Most of the more modern buildings are reminiscent of Swiss chalets; the place must look very picturesque in winter. It is in a narrow wooded valley with conifers and deciduous European varietals.
The chair lifts are all shut at this time of year and one can see the bare rock of the ski fields high above, bathed in clouds. Occasionally, you will see things like bobsleds in people’s gardens. Very random. Apart from the pretty and picturesque scenery, I was here to see a couple of rather nice locales.
Firstly, I stopped at the Sinaia Monastery, all very quaint. Whitewashed walls, crosses against the sky, and colonades surrounding a small Orthodox church. Apparently, the monastery is free on Saturdays. After this, it was onto the primary tourist mecca of this town, Peles castle, past stalls selling snacks and souvenirs. One of the former I will actually talk about tomorrow, for it is most tasty and unusual.
The castle, built in the mid-19th century is a very pretty example of neo-gothic German architecture. The outside is postcard material, with fine towers, carved wooden beams, frescoes in the inner courtyard, and stone angels adorning the formal garden. Inside continues to impress with probably the greatest display of opulence I have seen on this trip so far - we are talking beautiful spiral staircases, a library with a secret staircase, a music room adorned with beautiful contemporary artwork, a 16th century harpsichord, a harp and a Bechstein grand. Rooms decorated in Ottoman, Eastern and various European styles, a 6 meter tall mirror from Vienna, transported from the Danube by hay cart, and the list goes on… Of special mention is an armoury is several thousand well maintained pieces, including the only remaining full set of Hapsburg horse armour.
This is a no expense spared building, one room was decorated in fine wood panels and carving with at least 14 different species of wood incorporated into the design. I was suitably impressed. The (current) logistics of the place are interesting, there are three different levels of tours, you can also choose to make an additional payment to be allowed to take photos (and this is enforced). A real money spinner. In addition, you must enter on one of the tours that run every 15 minutes, but they will not run for less that 15 people. Not that this seemed to be likely of occuring. Though, they are doing their best to preserve the site, over slippers must be warn by all visitors.
Following this, I was going to visit the next door castle, Pelisor, unfortunately this was closed, presumably for repairs. So I meandered slowly down the hill. Went and looked at a quaint model railway while I waited for my train (I like model railways) and headed north again, to Brasov. It was late, but we eventually arrived in Brasov.
The trains here are pretty modern and efficient - Romania has just over 10,000km of train lines (interestingly it once had 5512km of forest railways (for logging) as well, but only 67km of these remain).
In Brasov, I caught a bus to the old part of town and looked around for a hostel. I couldn’t find any that were open (even from my list and equipped with a map), even hotels were hard to come, eventually I found a large cheap hotel, probably from the 1930s, its basic but it will do. I wandered around the town and eventually found some dinner and that was most of my evening gone!