Trekking Bucegi and Piatra Craiului with some sight seeing

KEY WORDS: Peles Castle, The Bucegi Plateau (Babele, The Sfinx, Caraiman's Cross, Omu Peak (2507m), Rasnov Fortress, Zarnesti Gorges, Piatra Craiului's Ridge Cerdacul Stanciului Cave.

Day 1: meeting point in Bucharest airport, we staid in a small hotel looking very red next to Carol park.

We went for nice diner in a restaurant next to the hotel. Red wine was too hot but good to seat after the flight and day of work, let us celebrate holidays!

Day 2: departure to Sinaia-The road was quite long 2 hours planned finished in to 4 hours-

Fianly we arrived to Sinai, and we visited the Peles Castle:By form and function, Peleş is a palace, but it is consistently called a castle. Its architectural style is a romantically inspired blend Neo-Renaissanceand Gothic Revival similar to Schloss Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. A Saxon influence can be observed in the interior courtyard facades, which have allegorical hand painted murals and ornate fachwerk similar to that seen in northern European alpine architecture. Interior decoration is mostly Baroque influenced, with heavy carved woods and exquisite fabrics.

King Carol I of Romania (1839–1914), under whose reign the country gained its independence, first visited the site of the future castle in 1866 and fell in love with the magnificent mountain scenery. In 1872 the Crown purchased 1,300 square kilometres (500 sq mi) of land near the Piatra Arsă River. The estate was named the Royal Estate of Sinaia. The monarchy commissioned the construction of a royal hunting preserve and summer retreat on the property, and the foundation was laid for Peleș Castle on 22 August 1873. Several auxiliary buildings were built simultaneously with the castle: the guards' chambers, the Economat Building, the Foişor hunting lodge, the royal stables, and a power plant. Peleș became the world's first castle fully powered by locally produced electricity.

The first three design plans submitted for Peleș were copies of other palaces in Western Europe, and King Carol I rejected them all as lacking originality and being too costly. German architect Johannes Schultz (1876–1883) won the project by presenting a more original plan, something that appealed to the King's taste: a grand palatial alpine villa combining different features of classic European styles, mostly following Italian elegance and German aesthetics along Renaissance lines. Later additions were made between 1893 and 1914 by the Czech architect Karel Liman, who designed the towers, including the main central tower, which is 66 metres (217 ft) in height. The Sipot Villa, which served as Liman's headquarters during the construction, was built later on. Liman would supervise the building of the nearby Pelişor Chateau (1889–1903, the future residence of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania), as well as of King Ferdinand's villa in the Royal Sheepfold Meadow.

Construction saw a slight slowdown during the Romanian War of Independence against the Ottoman Empirein 1877–78, but soon afterwards the plans grew in size and construction was quite rapid. Peleș Castle had its official Royal Ball of Inauguration on October 7, 1883. King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth lived in Foişor Villa during construction, as did King Ferdinand and Queen Mary during the construction of Pelişor Castle. King Carol II was born at the castle in 1893, giving meaning to the phrase "cradle of the dynasty, cradle of the nation" that Carol I bestowed upon Peleș Castle. Carol II lived in Foișor Villa for periods during his reign.

The cost of the work on the castle undertaken between 1875 and 1914 was estimated to be 16,000,000 Romanian lei in gold (approx. $US 120 million today). Between three and four hundred men worked on the construction.

After King Michael I's forced abdication in 1947, the Communist regime seized all royal property, including the Peleș Estate. The castle was opened as a tourist attraction for a short time. It also served as a recreation and resting place for Romanian cultural personalities. The castle was declared a museum in 1953.Nicolae Ceauşescu closed the entire estate between 1975–1990, during the last years of the Communist regime. The area was declared a "State Protocol Interest Area", and the only persons permitted on the property were maintenance and military personnel.

Ceauşescu did not like the castle very much and rarely visited. In 1980s some of the timber was infested with the Serpula lacrymans. After the December 1989 Revolution, Peleş and Pelişor Castle were re-established as heritage sites and opened to the public. Today, Foişor Castle serves as a presidential residence. The Economat Building and the Guard's Chambers Building are now hotels and restaurants. Some of the other buildings on the Peleş Estate were converted to tourist villas and some are now "state protocol buildings". In 2006, the Romanian Government announced the restitution of the castle to former monarch Michael I. Negotiations soon began between the former King and the Government of Romania, and have not concluded yet. The Castle is on lease from the Royal Family to the Romanian state. Peleş Castle receives between a quarter to almost half million visitors annually

After the visit, we went for a lunch next to the castle on the princip eat what you can, too much for us...

We went for a short treck next to the castle for approx 60 min. Nice to walk after so much food.

We went for short buying of food for the comming day and went to the accomodation Villa Ermitage: www.villaermitage.ro really nice next to the monastry at the feet of the mountains...good condition to have a good night sleep.

Day 3:Trek over the Bucegi mountains – accommodation at Omu Chalet.

We left early, and wanted to take the chairlift up to 2000m altitude but 3 hours waiting line so we took a car that took us to the plateau, from where a rather easy trek lead us past Piatra Arsa Resort, to the Babele Chalet, we visited the natural or almost natural monuments of The Sfinx and Babele, carrying on afterwards to the Caraiman's Cross.

From there, we continued to the Omu Peak, the tallest peak in Bucegi, with it's 2507m. On the way we stop for a nice picnic. We decided to continue and sleep in a chalet lower down at 1400 meter

Day4: We went down to the valley to get back to the car. We went to our accomodation, after a short shower we were ready to go for visit Bran Castle: Bran Castle (German: Törzburg; Hungarian: Törcsvár), situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73. Commonly known as "Dracula's Castle" (although it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend, including Poenari Castle andHunyad Castle), it is marketed as the home of the titular character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is, however, no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle, which has only tangential associations with Vlad III, voivode of Wallachia, the putative inspiration for Dracula.

The castle is now a museum open to tourists, displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie. Tourists can see the interior individually or by a guided tour. At the bottom of the hill is a small open air museum park exhibiting traditional Romanian peasant structures (cottages, barns, etc.) from across the country.

After we went to Rasnov forteress:

In Râşnov a citadel was built around the year 1215 by the Teutonic Knights and it was mentioned for the first time in 1331. The citadel was conquered only once in its history, around the year 1600 by Gabriel Báthory.

Day 5: Leaving early, we transfered to Zarnesti city, and started our trek through the spectacular Zarnesti Gorges, a place sought out by climbers, for its beautiful and difficult routs in the walls. The path took us through the forest and we arrived after 2 hours at the Curmatura Chalet, where Czech group was relaxing.

After arriving, we could relax for the rest of the day but we made a short trek to the Piatra Mica Peak, witch offers a panoramic view of both the ridge of Piatra Craiului, and the city of Zarnestsi. We spent the night in the Chalet Curmatura, the apple pie was a killer. We had a very nice room, the DELUXE for 2 persons only.

Day 6: Stormy so impossible to climb Piatra Craiului ridge, and walking the north part of it to the La Om Peak. So we decided to go for a treck to a village for soup after the rain was good to dry a bit....we went back to the chalet for an evening with pie and card play.....enjoy the relax, outside raining and wind started to blow strongly.

Day 7: Still raining and a lot of wind so we decided to go to Brasov. a very nice city with sight seeing like :

Biserica Neagră ("The Black Church"), a celebrated Gothic site - the building dates from 1477, when it replaced an older church (demolished around 1385). Its acquired the name after being blackened by smoke from the 1689 great fire.
Casa Sfatului ("The mayor's former office building"). The administration for Brașov was here for more than 500 years.
Biserica Sf. Nicolae (St. Nicholas Church), dating back to the 14th century.
The First Romanian School, a museum with the first Romanian printing press among many other firsts.
The Rope Street, the narrowest street in Romania.
Şchei, the historically Bulgarian but then Romanian neighborhood outside of the old walled city.
Catherine's Gate, the only original city gate to have survived from medieval times.
Şchei Gate, next to Catherine's Gate, built in 1827.
The Orthodox church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, built in 1896.
Muzeul Prima Carte Românească, a museum exhibiting the first book printed in the Romanian language.
Tâmpa, a small mountain in the middle of the city (900m above sea level), a sightseeing spot near the old city center

After a tour in the city, we went back to the chalet under the rain.....

Day 8: Back to Bucharest and visit of flats for our next future :-)

See you soon for more.......

Treck in Roumenia in August 2011

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