Road Trip (Transfagarasan Road and Targovista ~ Romania)

October 2019

From Sibiu we headed towards the Transfagarasan Road - Romania highest asphalted road. The road is a series of sharp switchbacks that take you to the Balea Lake at the summit. Stunning views and was voted by Top Gear as the world's best road.

On the way up you pass various stalls selling mainly locally made cheese and dried meats. The Venison Pastrami (top left) made for a nice snack later on in the day.

Around the Lake at the summit/pass there is snow pretty much year round as the hillside faces north and gets little sun.

Heading down the other side was equally windy, the plan was to stop at a small village in the valley at the bottom and walk up to the ruins of Poienari Citadel. This is one of the few castles that really has a connection to Vlad Tepes aka (Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula) who Bram Stoker's Dracula was based on. Small problem in that the track was closed due to wandering bears!

Our accommodation for that night was the aptly named Dracula Pensuin. Not the greatest of places but did have a spa pool and a very traditional breakfast.

Breakfast - salted anchovies with onion, hunters sausage,  smoked sausage, thick cut bacon, thin cut cured pork, fried egg, aubergine paste, cheese and zarcursa (tomato mixture).

From here we headed fir Targovista and en-route passed over the Vidrare hydroelectric power dam and high above the dam is a statue of Prometheus holding a bolt of lightening. I think at one stage the statue was actually a power pylon.

Now driving through Romania we have seen quite a few horse and carts with the carts carrying harvested crops, rubble, a bullock but our favourite was this one carrying the remains of a car.

In my late teens I must admit I can wasn't overly aware of world events but the Ceausescu name is one that does stick. In Targovista is Military Base 01417 where on Christmas Day 1989 Nicholas and Elena Ceausescu were held, tried (the trial lasted an hour and twenty minutes) and then executed by firing squad.

Military Base 01417

The medical examination room

The roo m where they were tried. 

And lastly the wall they were stood against and shot - and yes you still can see the bullet holes in the wall. 

Targovistas other main attraction is the ruins of the Princely Court which was the formal residence of various princes including Vlad Tepes.

Our next stop and car drop off location was Brasov. Seeing as we were dropping the car off on a Saturday afternoon we assumed the traffic wouldn't be that bad, and it probably wouldn't have been but for the fact that there was a Car Rally on. This meant traffic was manic and multiple roads were closed. A diversion as a result of the road closure took us into a section of steep narrow cobblestone windy roads that took us an hour to get out off as there was nowhere to pass, cars parked on both sides and cars coming from both directions. I ended hopping out of the car and directing traffic (i.e. yelling and waving arms) in order to break up the grid lock every time it happened. The picture below was the start of the area and doesn't look bad until you imagine three cars heading up the road and several heading down and all not wanting to give an inch.

Apart from that sodding nightmare Brasov is a nice little city.