Fortress Star (Alba Iulia ~ Romania)

October 2019

Alba Iulia is home a lovely star shaped citadel  (the largest in Romania) as can be seen from this nicked drone photo.

It has has been beautifully restored in the last decade or so in time for the bicentennial celebrations of Romanias independence and wandering through the heart of it or around the inner and outer walls there is a sense of peace and calm.

One of the highlights of a  visit to Alba Iulia is the change of the guards where ornately dressed guards ride through the citadel on horseback every day at midday. But only from May to September - bugger.

All of the manholes had a nice base relief of the fortress, which I must admit appealed to the engineer in me.

Within the citadel were multiple sculptures mainly of historic figures. This was one of the exceptions and shows three figures in front of a wheel crushing people.  Found it quite powerful and moving but still can't find any information on the Web as to what events it pertains to.

The west entrance to the citadel was very ornate and complete with a  nice drawbridge.

With the rising moon it made for a nice arty shot.

The surrounding township however is not so pretty as it mainly comprises of Soviet era communist apartment blocks. Quite drab and dreary from the outside. But it was within one of these apartments where we had the best stay of our trip so far. The apartment cost NZD 60 per night, fully furnished and included a massive breakfast. Really had the feel of home about it, this was accentuated by the fact that the owners had for sale some of their home made wine and Tuic (think plum based vodka) both of which we sampled (as it would have been churlish not to).

About 10km south of Abla is an area called Rapa Rose aka Red Ravine and based on what we could find would make for a good day walk.

Which it did with a couple of issues. One thing we have noticed is that there is a lot of motorway improvement work going on. What this meant was that there was multiple kilometres added to the length of the walk (plus necessitating the passing of scary farm dogs) and finding out (after waiting 2+ hours) that the bus back wasn't running as the roadworks bought traffic to a standstill. Luckily we found a taxi driver (#3) whom spoke enough English to suggest an alternative route back.

After a hard days walk we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at a moderately posh restaurant La Conac (bill was still less than 50 for two including alcohol). When travelling we find we tend to eat less and rarely have desert but the dish of pancakes stuffed with white cheese, smothered in a light egg custard and baked sounded to tempting - glad we only got one between us!

From here we head to Sibiu and another car hire.