Brasov, Film: Wrong Turn, & Peles Castle

Our last full day in Romania started with - Dracula's Castle! AKA Bran Castle, it actually has little to do with Vlad the Impaler at all.. he seems to have stayed here briefly, it was involved in some battles. However, it certainly looks the part - a fairytale castle, in the woods, in the mountains.. and it was lovely to get back into the heart of those mountains:

Now, our itinerary originally had us doing this the next day, but as our guide said, we were headed to Brasov, and this was on the way, so it made much more sense. We made it to the castle in due course.. a guided tour was organised for us, and we met the castle guide at the entrance. Which was a ways away from where we parked - they have a huge market at the castle entrance, all sorts of Dracula-related stuff..

Our castle guide warned us we'd have a lot of climbing to do, but promised he'd have lots of stops. I have to say, the worst part for me was the slope leading up to the castle itself - long, halfway steep.. as I remarked, I bet Vlad came up on horseback! I was glad of an opportunity for a rest as I took a photo:

Yes, it does have that spooky castle vibe already, doesn't it - apparently, Queen Marie of Romania (the British one) adored it, and remodelled and redecorated it extensively, spending a lot more time here than Vlad ever did..

True to the guide's word, when we got to the top of the slope, we had a good long stop.. one of the group needed the toilet anyway, and the rest of us needed to get our breath back for the long climb to the door:

My main worry, looking at that staircase, was the thought of coming back down it again! Never fear though, you come out a different way - I guess they wouldn't risk bringing people down so many steps, with such crowds headed in each direction.. and it was crowded, although not, it seems, as much as it had been earlier. Meantime, as we stood at the bottom, it wasn't entirely pleasant - we were constantly buffeted by strong winds, apparently in all directions! Our guide said this spot was known as the "mother-in-law's mouth" - why, he wouldn't speculate..

He did point out a fascinating defensive feature - apparently, a drawbridge was lowered to this large rock across from the castle - which meant the entrance in those days was much harder to breach!

At the top of the steps, when we managed them, was another stop - the room there shows the owners of the castle, starting with the Teutonic knights:

Right up to the present day, in fact - the castle finally passed to a brother and two sisters, children of the late Princess Ileana of Romania - now, only the brother survives, and actually tried to sell the place at one point..

In fact, as we moved through the castle, we were to see many historical displays - such as this one, on the changing borders:

We were also to see many reminders of Queen Marie:

Such as her bedroom - although her husband did come here, it seems mostly to have been her bolthole:

She was the one responsible for plastering the walls, apparently - they were rough stone before that. 

Now, after we'd done with that floor, we had to go via a secret passage (watch your head, we were told!) from the second floor to the fourth, before coming back to the third. As the guide said, that's how we count in Romania..

She also introduced the most lovely loggia, with views of the courtyard:

And we even made it onto the roof:

The final part of the tour pays homage to the castle's spooky - if spurious - association with Dracula, giving us, as well as a brief history of Vlad the Impaler, a whistle-stop tour through Romanian superstitions. Yummy.. 

Inside again, and our guide remarked that Dracula had been the most-read book after the Bible.. until Harry Potter.. Following this, we were immersed in Romanian mythology:

Information panels were accompanied by film clips and images.. such as this one, of one of the strigoi, a kind of vampire:

Not exactly bell, book, and candle, but close enough, perhaps..

And the vampires' natural enemy - the werewolf (this screen had a wolf animation walk across it, which is quite cool):

I was happy enough with this section, but passed on the chance to climb a steep, narrow staircase to see a presentation on the various film adaptations of Dracula - I probably know as much as I'd have learned there anyway! (and I'm bad on stairs, as I say).

Coming out of there, we had.. Ferdinand I, husband of Marie! I'm sure they don't mean to imply a connection..

And his apartments:

That large, ceramic installation in the corner..? A stove!

And we saw traditional costumes, as both Marie, and her daughter, Ileana, were wont to wear:

They even have film costumes on display - well, this is a great setting for films:

(Dracula's is, of course, the red one.)

Marie and Ileana were both very popular - as shown, Ileana worked as a nurse (also establishing hospitals), and finished as a nun:

Our guide left us at the well in the courtyard, from where we made our way to the exit:

Scariest part of the whole castle visit for me was making my way gingerly down that slope again.. at one point, a German-speaking geriatric actually helped me! (My steps phobia extends to slopes.) I did make it down, slowly but surely. Had a brief tour of the market, but as usual, didn't see anything to buy - I did come close with a kind of belted cape - I love capes - but she got me to try it on, and it didn't appeal. Boy, was it hard to make it out of there without buying anything else.. Nor was I tempted by the "alternative Dracula's castle", a haunted house-type show elsewhere in the market:

Upon finding the others at a cafe, I joined them for what turned out to be a rather watery slice of chocolate cake, before we hit the road for Brasov. Some people did buy souvenirs - principally, embroidered tops for their grandkids. And one young lady in the group splurged on a silver bracelet that she'd taken a shine to - as she said, if you love it, buy it! Very true..

In Brasov, we first popped up to the Hotel Kolping. I say "popped" - we had to navigate narrow streets, up a steep hill.. our poor driver had his work cut out, and finally gave up upon seeing the steep driveway he'd have to turn into, awkwardly! So we walked that bit. Reception turned out to be up more steps - from there, they had a lift. (We were later to discover that the lift does extend down to the car park - you have to go around the back. But you need a fob to access that door, so on first checking in, you do have to climb those stairs..)

A brief stop for refreshments, and we reconvened for our city tour. While we waited for everyone to appear, we noted that the restaurant had a lovely view over the town.. Oh, and the town has its own version of the Hollywood sign!

We were driven back to the main square, where we were to gather to pick up the minibus again. In the meantime, our guide took us on a city tour:

We passed through the Schei Gate:

The attractive Catherine's Gate:

An attractive-looking synagogue - unfortunately, this was as close as we could get, what with the current international tensions around Israel:

Rope Street, one of the narrowest streets in Europe..

And so to the Black Church, so named after it was blackened by a fire, and the soot was never cleaned off (or maybe it's due to more recent pollution):

The statue outside (visible in the photo if you peer), is of Johannes Honter, a Protestant reformer and theologian, who appears to be pointing across the square to a school named for him:

There's a library too, on another side of the square. Boy, he made a mark!

The interior of the church - with a spectacular, high, vaulted ceiling - as we were told, has lots more of those Turkish rugs than does the Sighisoara Monastery Church:

Something I saw here that I hadn't seen before - reversible seat backs, so the congregation can face in either direction! Great idea - developed so they could listen to the organ concerts, the organ being at the opposite end from the altar:

A fresco, in a side chapel, survived the aforementioned fire - but they say that the blue in it changed to black as a result: probably a chemical reaction:

Several pews include depictions of guilds:

As well as some beautifully depicted bible scenes:

Other panels depict the virtues:

And some statues at the back were brought in from outside:

There are some displaced headstones:

All in all, a huge amount to see..

After our tour, we had free time in the town, heading off from the main square:

We meandered off down the pedestrianised street first - saw a perplexing street performer, whose act a couple of us spent far too long trying to figure out! Following a roundabout route back to the square, we came across the Orthodox church whose dome we'd glimpsed (pictured above):

Heading over for a closer look, we discovered an alleyway.. which we followed to a courtyard, at the other side of which was the church proper:

Peeking in, we discovered a gorgeous interior - but a service was in progress, so we didn't stay. Still, quite a discovery..!

Returning to the square, still with time to kill, I was curious about the nearby Dracula Restaurant. So over we went to have a peek at the menu. Now, we'd already decided we'd prefer to eat at the hotel - but my companion suggested we have a dessert and a drink. And then we spied some others from the group, so joined them. And wow, was my chocolate cake to die for..!

And so, back to the hotel:

And that gorgeous view from the restaurant:

And dinner was very nice. And the minibar in my room was stocked! which came in handy when I discovered an English-language horror film on one of the TV channels. I'd never seen Wrong Turn: The Foundation - although I might have heard of it - and wasn't expecting much: but it turned out quite ok. It features a group of friends who go hiking in the Appalachians.. and run into an immense amount of trouble when they encounter a tribe known as The Foundation, who run their society on, well, prehistoric rules.. somewhat predictable, it nonetheless has some interesting twists and turns. And a satisfyingly downbeat ending, which I've always thought improves a horror film!

It was nice that the starts each day got later as we progressed through the holiday - our final day saw us leave Brasov for Sinaia, where we were headed for Peles Castle - the summer residence of the royal family. 

Ah, mountains, beautiful mountains.. Anyway, we pulled into an elaborate complex of buildings near the castle:

Would you believe that these were originally built as stables..?

Well, we had a while to contemplate them - some folks from the bus needed the toilet. There was only one. WTF? We were told this was the biggest tourist resort in the country, and in the only cafe, they have ONE toilet?! I dunno how long we waited there - felt like an hour or so before we were ready to leave. At least it was pretty:

When we got going, we ended up queueing in the courtyard.. and soon discovered that we'd just missed the English language tour, which we'd apparently been booked on - the next wasn't for nearly an hour. Uhh.. Well, there was a Romanian language one, but that wasn't going to be much good.. And here was where our guide really proved her worth (not that she hadn't before), not only blagging our way into the queue for people with individual tickets, but managing to squeeze us in near the top. Right in front of a group of Spaniards, as she pointed out - lovely people, very obliging. Anyway, straight away, we were getting the impression that this was something special:

Every surface decorated, every window with stained glass.. we were told that two of the family's castles in Germany had to be sold to pay for this, and I'm not surprised!

Someone spotted something that was probably used as a horse hitch:

Once inside, our guide acted as a guide to the castle - a very competent one! Kudos.. we hardly knew where to turn, for all the gorgeous artefacts:

Not even the ceilings escaped adornment:

and how's about this for a staircase..?

That box protruding from the wall..? That's a confessional for the king!

And here they are, the first monarchs of Romania - apparently, she was responsible for much of the interior design here (what an artistic bunch the queens of Romania were):

Quite the armoury, of course:

With so many Italian touches throughout, it's natural that they had pictures of Italy:

A touching portrait depicts the queen with her little daughter - who died around the time this was painted:

I seem to recall there was a secret passage here. Well, what would a castle be without one!

A little statue depicts the queen simultaneously embroidering and reading:

And lookee, here are the castles they had to sell to pay for all this opulence!

One room is dedicated to fairytales, which she loved:

And this depiction of the Lorelei was done by the queen herself:

The four seasons:

A depiction of the queen herself:

The chandeliers? Murano glass, of course!

As are the mirrors:

The fireplace? Italian marble:

A throne or two:

This is a door..!

We agreed that the Moroccan room looked comfy:

And yes, they had the country's first lift!

Outside at last, and it was raining - but not heavily enough to prevent us taking pictures! such as this one, a larger depiction of the queen:

And such a setting for a summer residence:

After all that, we were well ready for lunch - our bus took us into town, and our guide kind of led us to a nearby restaurant, which was fine by us - Bugeci:

We were seated at a few different tables. I have to say, service was pretty indifferent - and of anyone I asked, I seemed to be the only one who enjoyed my lunch! Mine, I have to say, was delicious - the chicken in cream and mushroom sauce. Delicious! when I finally got it..

And so it was farewell to Romania - nearly; we were taken to the airport hours before we needed to be there, and of course, on top of that, the flight was delayed. Security was a bit mad - we had to fetch our own trays, from a pile on the floor. And it took us a minute to figure out where to go after that - boards did tell us the gate number, but weren't highly visible. We fetched up near the gate, spending a couple of hours in the bar - which had the most expensive wine I've had in Romania: still under half what I'd typically pay in London! Also, I must say, a much more comfortable vibe than Stansted.

And so ended a fantastic holiday, with a great group of people, and a guide who went above and beyond for us. I'd love to go back some day, see some more of Transylvania.. 

But for now, I had another very moreish ham & cheese panini on the flight back..