Weather today – perfect! Sunny skies. 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16 C) at 8am – mid-to-upper 70s (23-26 C) later.

Apparently, no trip to Romania is complete without a visit to the region of Transylvania! We booked a private full-day tour from Bucharest through Tours By Locals with guide, Cristi. His tour, Day trip from Bucharest to Dracula’s Castle Tour, is described as follows:

This is a whole day tour in the Transylvania, where I also like to go in my free time, and I have lots of stories and legends to share with you.

The first stop will be in Sinaia, one of the most popular mountain resorts in Romania also called the Pearl of the Carpathians. Here we will visit Sinaia Orthodox Monastery, a great example of Romanian religious architecture, and also the Peles Castle, our famous Summer Royal Residence considered by many one of the most beautiful castles in Europe. We will also visit the Bran Castle, a 14th century medieval fortress better known as Dracula Castle probably Romania’s most famous landmark.

After a typical Romanian lunch we continue with a walking tour in the historical center of Brasov known as Kronstadt located in the heart of Transylvania founded by the Saxons some 800 years ago, the architecture is very different than Bucharest having more like a Central European look. I bet you would like to know why this city I called this way!

As today is a holiday (Monday after Easter Sunday), many stores and sights were closed, so we modified the tour to see as much as we could. The traffic was heavier than a normal Monday because of the holiday as locals from Bucharest headed to the mountains for the day. We also met a lot of traffic coming back into the city as we left.

Here are a few pictures I snapped from the car along the way to our first destination, Peles Castle.

The great majority of Romanians (80%+) worship in the Eastern/Greek Orthodox tradition and churches are everywhere.

Peles Castle

Unfortunately, Peles Castle is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays at this time of year, so we werel only be able to glimpse it from the outside. The castle was built in the mid-1870s as the summer residence for Carol I, the first king of Romania. So much of European royalty is intertwined in complicated relationships and Romania can be included in that. Carol, was born Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a principality of southeastern Germany. When Romania decided to form a kingdom, they had no “royal family”, so the offered the job to Karl who became Carol. Carol I spent several summers at the monastery before finally deciding to build this as his summer palace. Having no male heir when he died in 1914, his nephew Ferdinand succeeded him.

Fortunately, the coffee shop and restroom facilities were open, and we took advantage of both before Cristi walked us around to a good photo spot.

Sinaia Orthodox Monastery

Located in the Prahova Valley, we didn’t visit the monastery but drove by it. This monastery was founded in this remote mountain wilderness by Prince Mihail Cantacuzino in 1695 following his visit to Mount Sinai. In the Romanian language words with an “a” at the end typically mean “to come from” the root word – so Sinaia means “to come from Sinai”. The town of Sinaia grew up around the monastery.

On the way to Bran Castle, I snapped a few more pictures from the car window of interesting buildings in the small towns along the way.

Bran Castle

So, who was “Dracula”? Vlad III aka Vlad Țepeș aka Vlad Dracula. Vlad II, his father, was known as Vlad Dracul (Dracul meaning Dragon as Vlad II was a member of the Order of the Dragon), therefore Dracula in this context means “son of Dracul”. In those days (1400s) when the Ottoman Empire ruled the region, the sons of the Romanian rulers were sent (forcibly) to be educated (indoctrinated) by the Turks, then returned to the region to rule. However, Vlad III turned against the Turks during his reign and his favorite means of execution was to impale his enemies which led to his nickname Vlad the Impaler. Although he was cruel to his enemies, he was a hero to the Romanians for standing up to the Ottomans. Although he never lived in the castle, he was in the region and became tied to it in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.

Bran Castle and Queen Maria

I mentioned Ferdinand succeeding Carol I above. He was married to Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh, one of Queen Victoria’s many granddaughters (who married nobility all over Europe). As Queen Maria, she was beloved by the Romanian people for her service as a nurse during WWI and as their country’s representative at the Paris Peace Conference in 1918 where she advocated for Transylvania to be returned to the Romanian kingdom. In thanks, the Brasov city council deeded Bran Castle to Queen Maria and it became a favorite residence of hers.

Her daughter Ileana inherited the castle upon Maria’s death in 1938 and continued its care. In 1948, Princess Ileana, her husband Archduke Anton of Austria, and their six children were forced to leave the country by the communist regime. They ultimately ended up in the United States and became US citizens. In 2009 after a long legal battle, the property was restored with full rights to the 3 surviving children of Ileana and Anton, who continued its operation as a museum under private ownership.

L-R: Transylvania’s Coat of Arms, Interior Door, Queen Maria’s music room

L:R Medieval weaponry, Armor options, Princess Ileana’s favorite traditional dress

Bran Castle Exterior Pictures

Brasov

Following our tour of the castle (we didn’t find Dracula although they did have a display on Romanian mythological creatures), we continued to the town of Brasov for lunch in its historical center. Cristi took us to a local restaurant, Ceaun, on the square, where we had delicious traditional soups (bean for me and mushroom for Dave) and a traditional dessert called Papanași (a fried or boiled cheese dough topped with sour cream and jam). I also had blueberry lemonade while Dave tried the sea buckthorn lemonade. This is definitely when we enjoy having a local guide help us decide which traditional delicacies to try and which to stay away from!

Afterwards we walked around the square taking in the local market and Brasov’s “Hollywood” sign!

On the 3-hour drive back to Bucharest, we spotted many people still out enjoying the countryside with picnics alongside streams near the road. This included several groups of the Roma peoples with their wagons and horses.

Cristi delivered us safely back to our hotel shortly after 7pm, making for over an 11-hour day. However, every minute was totally worth it as Cristi helped us gain a better understanding of the Romanian history, geography, and culture. I can’t wait for our local Bucharest tour with him tomorrow!