We continued our Romanian adventure with a trip to Transylvania. I’ll hand it to the Romanians- they are smart marketers. They’ve latched on to pieces of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and pieces of reality to build a healthy tourism industry.
We first visited Peles Castle. Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful castles in all of Europe, Peles and its 160 rooms are a masterpiece in architecture and are an opulent display of design, artifacts, glass, Cordoba leather (not rich Corinthian), and sculpture.
Bram Castle, a fortified medieval castle, often referred to as Dracula’s Castle, was built in 1377 to protect nearby Brasov from invaders. It sits atop a 200 foot rock overlooking the village and is full of passageways, courtyards and fireplaces. Not a vampire bat in sight but plenty of gypsies to sell us postcards and plastic teeth.
Actually, Count Dracula (the word Dracula means “son of the devil” in Romanian) was supposedly inspired by one of the best-known figures in Romanian history, Vlad Tepes- Vlad the Impaler. When Turkish invaders landed in Romania, they were greeted with a horrible stench. Supposedly, Vlad had had the heads of earlier Turkish invaders impaled on poles and placed in fields as psychological warfare. Apparently it worked well. Although he was greatly overwhelmed in numbers, he was victorious over the Turks.
Later that evening, we gathered with the group to get instructions on flying to our next leg- Amsterdam (these 3:30 wake-up calls are tough.)- neither of us have been outside the airport in Amsterdam.
We first visited Peles Castle. Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful castles in all of Europe, Peles and its 160 rooms are a masterpiece in architecture and are an opulent display of design, artifacts, glass, Cordoba leather (not rich Corinthian), and sculpture.
Bram Castle, a fortified medieval castle, often referred to as Dracula’s Castle, was built in 1377 to protect nearby Brasov from invaders. It sits atop a 200 foot rock overlooking the village and is full of passageways, courtyards and fireplaces. Not a vampire bat in sight but plenty of gypsies to sell us postcards and plastic teeth.
Actually, Count Dracula (the word Dracula means “son of the devil” in Romanian) was supposedly inspired by one of the best-known figures in Romanian history, Vlad Tepes- Vlad the Impaler. When Turkish invaders landed in Romania, they were greeted with a horrible stench. Supposedly, Vlad had had the heads of earlier Turkish invaders impaled on poles and placed in fields as psychological warfare. Apparently it worked well. Although he was greatly overwhelmed in numbers, he was victorious over the Turks.
Later that evening, we gathered with the group to get instructions on flying to our next leg- Amsterdam (these 3:30 wake-up calls are tough.)- neither of us have been outside the airport in Amsterdam.
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