Day 15: rain, rain, go away!

June 30, 2018

Sighisoara and Brasov, Romania
(the middle s in each is pronounced /zh/)

Today we checked out and it was cloudy, but not raining.  As we drove to Sighisoara, it rained off and on.  We were moved from the 4-lane freeway onto a smaller 2-lane road again.  The interesting thing about the smaller road is that it goes through all the tiny villages.  We saw some examples of traditional Romania--women in bright skirts and scarves on their heads (old women in black), men in hats, men using scythes to cut the grass and horse-led carts.  These sights were side by side with modern Romania.  It was cool seeing the two existing together.

We stopped in Sighisoara because it is a traditional hill town (like many of the ones we visited in Italy).  The town began at the top of the hill with a town wall and moved down the hill into the valley.  Now, you must park below and walk up.  We found a space on the main street and walked to the steps.  Yes, steps again, my favorite part of travel!  We climbed up into a little square.  We went to a history museum in the clock tower.  It has a glockenspiel, but we didn't get to see it move.  This part of Romania is very German (they call it Saxon).  The Saxons of Transylvania are a distinct ethnic group.

one of the glockenspiels

The clock mechanics

The other glockenspiel

This describes (in English) what each character of the glockenspiel means.

View from the clock tower

View of the city from the clock tower

View of the old town from the clock tower

View of the old town from the clock tower

In the observation area, they have placards for all over the world!

a nearby church

Children's dolls or marionettes?

Another tower

Model of the town

We walked around the old part of the town, at the top of the hill.  It's not just a cute tourist place (although there were souvenir shops and carts galore), real people live up here.  There are a few roads that are wide enough for cars to drive around (though not many).   We stopped at a cafe for lunch; we all had chicken and dumplings.  My lemonade was good, though very sugary.  There was a layer of sugar on the bottom after I finished.  Several years ago we began playing 20 questions with the children when we went out to eat (most often on vacation) to help them wait for the food.  We still play, taking turns with the "subject", even though Joshua is not so little anymore!

The Shoemaker's Tower

Town Gates

complete with portcullis!

A drivable street

A church

Town walls

town walls

cemetary

cemetary

Map of the cemetary

The Furrier's Tower?

The Scholar's Stair from 1642 (yes, even more stairs)

The old town square

A church in the town

Street in the old town

Clock tower

pretty bikes near where we ate

clock tower

I think all the rain is pushing all of the snails and slugs out of
the ground, this one is hungry!

town wall

Glockenspiel

Main street of the "new town"

It started off sunny during our time in Sighisoara and was incredibly humid!!   Then the wind picked up (which felt great with the high humidity), and it rained and thundered for the rest of our time.  It stopped by the time we got to the car.  Then it began again and rained all of the way to Brasov.  In fact, we saw a river that people were taking picures of because it was crazy high, ready to flood the bridge!  Then one part of the road was under water--a car had gone off the road and was covered in mud as the tow truck pulled them out.  We drove through, but hit a few slippery spots the rest of the way and tried to stay away from the deepest water on the edges of the road.  Their roads don't seem to shed water very quickly.

The water ended as we approached Brasov.  It is very clean and quiet.  We are staying in an area that has two of the roads that go through "portas"--or arches from the old walls.  In fact, our street is Porta Schei (probably someone's name).  Our host was there to greet us.  He actually kissed my hand!  Twice!  Once when we met and again when he left.  Very courtly, but unexpected!

Porta Schei

Our apartment is in a nice building.  We have a living room with a Murphy bed for Joshua, couch and chair, and a bedroom for us (with a sauna in it!).   There are many cute knick-knacks--especially in our room--very nice, but a bit cutesy for my taste!  We also have a light thing under our bed.  You can choose the color or have it change colors.  It has it's own remote.  Joshua was very excited about it, playing with it while we were giving our information to our host!

Then we went out to the central square to find a place for dinner.  It was sprinkling so we ate inside.  Just as we were ordering, it began POURING buckets!!  You could hear it inside!  All the people outside came running in, so the inside was full!  Good lemonade--this time it was very sour and they gave us packets of honey to sweeten it to our taste.  Honey gave it a slightly different taste than white sugar, but it is much better for you.

The only synagogue I've seen in Romania

Oh my.

Yes, they put their name up on the mountainside (like Hollywood)--it even lights up.

Central Square before it started raining

The kids were having so much fun with the pigeons!

The pouring rain had slackened to raining when we finished eating, so we walked to the grocery store we had noticed earlier.   By the time we were walking back to our apartment it was only sprinkling.