Another decent breakfast spread, then out to our first rainy day. Temperature was about 6C, so a miserable day but we never worry about the weather because there’s nothing we can do about it. We walked about 2 minutes to the Black Church but the guy said it didn’t open till 10 so wouldn’t let us in. It was 09:55. Didn’t want to wait in the rain so went round the corner and had a coffee. Walked down the main shopping street and took a cab to the bus station to go to Bran Castle. The bus had enough crucifixes and pictures of Jesus stuck on the windscreen for the driver to open his own church, and it was a wonder he could see out. The trip took about 40 minutes and when we got there it was even colder and still raining.
The castle wasn’t huge but sat upon some rock and looked imposing. Walked up the hill keeping ahead of a tour group and explored the castle. It was full of labyrinthine corridors and staircases, and pretty spartan inside. I don’t think it would have been particularly comfortable to live there. There were lots of items about Dracula, and I knew that the story was loosely based on Vlad the Impaler by Bram Stoker, but I didn’t know what link the castle has. As far as I could make out, Stoker made him come from Transylvania and this is a castle in Transylvania so that’s the link.
It was quite interesting, we spent about an hour inside then back down the hill to the bus back to Brasov.
Went into the Black Church and wasn’t impressed – not as impressive or interesting as others we’ve visited, and were only in there for about 5 minutes. Back out into the cold and looked for somewhere to eat. They still allow smoking inside restaurants in Romania, so we went into a couple and immediately walked out if it was too overpowering. Found an Irish pub that had a separate non smoking area which was bearable, but it had two important aspects – warmth and wifi. I ordered a burger, Song had sausages and mashed potatoes.
Took a cab to the train station only to find the train we intended to take was delayed so bought tickets for the next available which was an hour and twenty minutes away. Luckily there was a shopping mall over the road so we went there and had a coffee and used the wifi until time to get the train.
Back to the same hotel in Bucharest as before and sleep, up at 05:00 for the flight to Prague.
Walked 8.88 Km today.
