July 1, 2018
Brasov, Romania
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| From Peles Castle |
Today it did not rain!!!!! We went to two castles but loved the sunshine and even the clouds because they did not have rain in them!
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| Dramatic clouds hiding the tops of the mountains |
First we headed an hour away to Peles Castle which is near the town of Sinaia, which is about 30 miles from Brasov in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains. Because of heavy traffic and road construction, it took us over an hour to get there. The castle was built for King Carol I, from Germany. He was brought in to appease the Saxons. It was begun in 1873 and was finished in 1914. He wanted it to be world class. So it had elements from all over the world. It also had electricity, an elevator, warm running water (which means indoor bathrooms), central heating, and secret passages to keep the royal family safe. They even built their own power plant for their electricity. King Carol married Elizabeth (also a German) and they had six children. The castle is beyond opulent! It was hard to take pictures of everything, but I tried my hardest (code for "I took too many pictures!"). I've added just some of them here.
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| Peles Castle |
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| The forecourt |
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| The tower |
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| The inner courtyard |
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| The inner courtyard |
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| The ceiling of the hallway leading to the entrance hall |
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| The ceiling of the entrance hall |
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| A spiral stair in the entrance hall |
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| Just the ceiling |
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| The entrance hall |
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| The entrance hall |
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Detail of the entrance hall |
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| Leaving the entrance hall |
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| The ceiling of the weapons room |
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| The weapons room |
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| The weapons room |
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| A fake fireplace which has vents for the central heat |
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This is a weapon used for beheading. If a noble's head was cut off
with this weapon, they knew that they would go to heaven. |
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| The weapons room |
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| From the 16th Century |
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| From the study |
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| The library |
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| Spiral staircase in the library leading to the second level! |
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| A secret door which ha a staircase that leads to the top floor. |
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| The music hall--see the harp on the left. |
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The painting are for the three seasons: spring, summer and fall.
No one likes winter. |
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| Windows in the music room. |
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| Chandeliers include Murano glass (remember when we were in Venice?) |
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| Chandeliers |
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| Mirror also has Murano Glass |
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| Dining Room seats 36 people |
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| To the right is the elevator for the servants since the kitchens are in the basement. |
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| Windows in the Turkish Room. Words are from the Quran. |
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| Ceiling of the Turkish Room |
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| The Turkish Room |
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| The Turkish Room |
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| A hallway |
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| The theater |
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| Detail in the theater |
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| Entrance Hall |
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| Outside gardens/terraces |
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| The alcoves behind each of the statue are mosaic |
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| Just an intriguing picture |
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| Elizabeth, married to Carol I |
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| A smaller version of our family at the castle |
If you are planning to visit Peles Castle, there are some things you need to know. First, they only take cash. There is an ATM machine on your way to the castle. If you do not have enough cash, stop and get some, that will save some backtracking (which we had to do!). The line for the tickets is long and VERY slow. Part of the problem is that there are three different tours that you have to choose from and you have to pay a Foto Tax--or an extra fee for every camera that you are going to use to take photos (if you don't they will stop you--I saw them do it). The photo fee is 35 Lei which is more than the 30 Lei adult admission. The "child" admission is only 7.50 ROM (Lei) which is what we paid for Joshua (15 years old is still considered a child, thank goodness!--but then, I already knew that!). Just to put it in perspective, though, a Lei is about 25¢ in American dollars. So 2 adults, one child, and two cameras came to 137.50 ROM, which is less than $35. Our fee paid for the shortest/least expensive tour because we still had Bran Castle to get to. The first option pays for the ground floor of Peles. The second pays for the ground floor and the first (upstairs) floor. The third is to go to Pelisor castle which is a small castle nearby that was evidently built in the Art Nouveau style. The name means Little Peles and it is where King Carol's father moved to. It is right next to Peles. The other thing to know is that you are going to be in a LARGE tour group which is frustrating in trying to see everything, hear the tour guide, and take pictures. You are also expected to put little plastic shoe covers over your shoes to protect their floors--they provide them and you return them as you leave. Our tour guide was kind of hard to understand and hard to listen to (her voice was a very high and whiny monotone). If I was to give advice, I would say plan a whole day and get the tickets for both Peles (both floors) and Pelisor, as well as pay for the photo fee.
Next up, Bran Castle, home of Dracula fame. Bran Castle is in the city of Bran which is near Brasov. There is no evidence that this castle is actually the castle in the novel by Bram Stoker. It was originally built in 1377. The character of Dracula was loosely based on the person Vlad the Impaler. Vlad's dad was Vlad the Dracul, which is "the Devil" and he was Vlad the Draculae which means "son of the devil". The first Vlad was in an order called the Order of the Dragon, which was a medieval knightly order to defend the cross and destroy it's enemies. The symbol of the order was a dragon strangled with it's own tail and the cross lying on its back (remember that from the church in Sibui?). By the 5th century, the dragon had gone from having beneficial meaning to become a symbol of the Devil. So when Vlad the elder had the symbol of his order on his flag, the people interpreted it as a sign that he was in league with the Devil; thus Vlad Dracul. But there is no known connection between Vlad the Impaler and Bran Castle. Vlad settled nearby, but not in Bran.
So after the history lesson, here's the castle! There is no parking area specifically for the castle. You can park on the street (like we did) for free if you can find a space, or you can pay to park in a lot. It was hard to find the entrance, we walked right by it the first time. Then it doesn't direct you where to go to get tickets, We saw a cluster of people near a building past the gift shop and sure enough, that was where the tickets were! No signs directing us there! Then you walk up to the castle and eventually you find the entrance. Once you are in the castle, there are arrows directing you up down and around and those are fairly clear and do a good job of helping you to see as much as possible of this castle. It is a rabbit warren of little rooms and loggias. I didn't like that the furniture didn't show what each room would have looked like. The furniture was old and from the family, but wasn't really set up to show how they lived in the house. But it was interesting.
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| Bran Castle |
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| The Queen's bedroom |
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| A sitting room |
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| One of the stairways |
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| The library |
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| The roof |
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| A heating stove |
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| One of the sets of sprial steps |
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| furniture from the 1700s |
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| A handpainted door |
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| Another handpainted door |
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| A heating stove with seating area |
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| A carved door |
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| A knight's clothing |
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| A lady's clothing |
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| Indoor sinks |
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| The courtyard |
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| The loggia above the courtyard |
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This was a National cat exhibition that the ticket person told us not to miss.
The cats were cute and many were earning ribbons. |
After this, we returned to Brasov and went to the square for dinner--we were starving (yep, more lemonade)! Then, we were going to walk around, but Randy and Joshua wanted to climb up the mountain to the Brasov sign that I posted a pic of yesterday. Randy had read about someone who did that. They thought of taking the cable car, but it had stopped running by then. I told them that they were welcome to go and that I'm usually game for pretty much anything, but that I was going to bow out of this! So they went and I went to get food for tomorrow's breakfast. I went back to our apartment and let them in when they returned, over two hours later in the dark. They said that the dark came just as they reached the bottom of the mountain.
We voted earlier on our options for tomorrow; option 1 was to wake up quite early and go to the Black Sea "on the way" to Bucharest tomorrow which would be a 7 hour trip. Option 2 was to sleep in and get to Bucharest earlier, return our rental car, and walk around, perhaps see the Romanian parliament building. We decided on Option 2. Looking forward to going home soon.
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