From Budapest

After an uneventful day of travel (if you discount Dianne attempting to travel under a name that did not match her passport and almost being detained in Romania) we arrived in Budapest and settled in at our hotel. The Hotel Meridien is beautiful and very centrally located, close to the Danube in the Pest side of Budapest. The view from our window allows us to see a church, not sure which one or its denomination, and an absolute icon of American entrepreneurship, Starbucks where I treated Dianne to a very extravagant lunch that set me back 1,650 Forints. When we travel, cost is no obstacle for us and we believe in living the high life because,after all, you only live once and you may as well grab all the gusto you can. At our hotel last night, there was a buffet featuring traditional Hungarian dishes (probably with much less spiciness to accommodate the mostly American audience) and Hungarian and Gypsy music and dancing. The food was delicious, the music sublime (a four piece orchestra made up of one bass, one dulcimer, and two violins), and the dancing intricate and energetic. We went with the Leightons and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were quite pleased we did not need to trundle into a taxi to get there.
What we have seen of Budapest is beautiful and charming. We have not seen much yet, but we will see more this afternoon as we have a half day tour of Pest with the Leightons, the Bianchis, and the Frosts. I did a little exploring on my own with my camera earlier this morning before lots of people were up and about as I like to get scenic shots with as few people as possible in them. We have been told one activity we should do is an evening Danube sightseeing cruise so we can see Budapest lit up. As we near the end of our trip, we begin to long to be home; but please, Bay Area folks, turn off the hot weather before we return.

Back In Bucharest

The road trip is over. We got back to Bucharest around 4:30 and checked in to our hotel and got settled in. During the course of our excursion through Transylvania all eight of us agreed how fortunate we were to experience this trip. Truth be told, we were all a bit bummed when we learned our river cruise had been cancelled as we were all looking forward to settling in for a week on the Danube without having to shlep luggage around. One couple from Fremont, CA decided to accept Tauck' s refund and returned to California California two days after arriving. One of our group thought that the wife may have had Parkinson's and that travelling by bus, even with a minimum of luggage, would have been too taxing on her. Another couple from Orange County found out about the cancellation before departing for Bucharest, but were able to get themselves on a Black Sea cruise. One possible small tiny insignificant potential fly in their ointment was that their cruise departed from Istanbul, Turkey. I don't think that would be our first choice of places to go given how volatile things have been there of late. Our friends from Australia, the Leightons, and we put our heads together with the Tauck tour directors and, once we learned we could not get on another cruise, chose to see parts of Romania we would never have experienced. The Bianchis and the Frosts asked if they could join us, a proposal we readily accepted; and so we set off. All of us agreed that we had a marvelous trip, even if we had more than a fair amount of rain. Transylvania is north of Bucharest through the mountains. It is situated on a plateau and it provides some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable, lush green hills, rushing mountain rivers and streams, dense and verdant forests. It got the name Transylvania because it was the route the Romans took as their armies conquered more and more of Europe, across or through the forest. Today, on our drive back to Bucharest, we followed the river the Romans followed through the mountains and forest. We again encountered many RDWDW (Romanian Drivers With a Death Wish) who seem to make a sport of seeing how close they can come to having a head on as they pass slower moving traffic, blind curve, solid double line, or approaching big rig be damned. There are many towns and villages along the way and many Orthodox and other Christian churches are clearly visible and usually dominate the skyline. We loved the three cities in which we stayed, my favorite being Sighisoara, probably because the old walled city where our hotel was,  had the fewest cars and was very high on the quaint scale for me. If you ever come to Romania, I would recommend no more than 2 days in Bucharest followed by some real quality time in Transylvania. You won't be disappointed.
Tonight we had to say goodbye to our tour guide, Sorin, who was our constant companion since our arrival, and his wife, Florentina, who made all of our travel arrangements to Transylvania. Since today is our wedding anniversary, we invited them and the Leightons to be our guests at dinner. We had a delightful time and feel really blessed that we met Sorin and Florentina and now consider them friends. Sorin is very knowledgeable and likeable and has a wonderful sense of humor and was always mindful of what we wanted to do and see. If any of you ever come to Romania, we can get you in touch with him.
Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 10, go to the airport, and head to Budapest via Munich. If you are wondering why go through Munich, the answer is there are no non-stop flights on Saturday. We look forward to seeing Budapest and will reconnect with the Bianchis and Frosts while in Budapest. By the way, for all you tennis fans out there, Google Jack Frost Tennis to find out some interesting facts about our traveling companion. He competed at Wimbledon in the 50's, and is also a member of the Stanford University Sports Hall Of Fame.

P.S. Romanian men have not yet received the memo about deodorant

From Sighisoara With Love

First, I am so glad about the SCOTUS rulings on DOMA and Prop 8. The words that end our Pledge of Allegiance "with liberty and justice for all" are that much closer to becoming a reality.  Congratulations and blessings to all of our gay and lesbian friends.
Today, we traveled from Brasov to Sighisoara.  The cancellation of our cruise has yielded us treasures we never would have experienced had the Danube not flooded. We are seeing parts of the Romanian countryside we'd never have but for the intervention of Mother Nature. We are traveling in a very comfortable mini tour bus designed for 14. Since we are returning to Bucharest, we have not needed to carry all of our luggage with us, but are getting by with minimal clothing. The other two couples who are traveling with us and the Leightons have had to bring everything because they will be driven to some city whose name I don't recall and then will take a train to Budapest. We have been very fortunate in that the eight of us are extremely compatible and are all good travelers with no complainers in the lot. Dianne and I and the Leightons will return to Bucharest on the 28th and fly to Budapest on the 29th.
As I mentioned above, the cancellation of our cruise has turned out quite well for us. We were really enchanted by Brasov and wish we could have spent more time checking it out, but rain, thunder, and lightning changed our minds and our plans. Since we had no desire to be lightning rods, we came indoors and then did a little exploring after the rain passed and after we ate a very light supper. Since I prefer to take pictures of quaint places without people being in the picture, I got up a little past 6 this morning, packed up my camera, and set out to explore with my camera. WRONG. It was raining, so I did the next best thing, I got some coffee and caught up with Facebook and news. For most of our trip today, rain was our constant companion, but it did not dampen our spirits. We visited two Saxon churches that were worth seeing. This part of Transylvania was settled by Saxons who built churches surrounded by high walls where the population could take refuge if they were attacked. The families had dwellings in the walls and food needed for survival as well as a well, so they could stay there for a considerable amount of time. The interior of the churches was quite spartan and it would have been difficult to fall asleep during the sermon because the congregation sat on very narrow plank benches with no backs. The leading citizens had it somewhat better with their seats in the front. The second church we saw was in a little village called Viscri which was 8 km off the road via a narrow, bumpy road that went through a Gypsy village. The road was in real disrepair, but our driver was very skillful and navigated it in the best possible way given the condition of the road.
We arrived in Sighisoara and were immediately taken with the town. We are in the old medieval fortress section. Our hotel room is large by any standard and absolutely gargantuan by European standards. I don't know the age of this building, but I know it's counted in centuries. There is much charm here and after the rain stopped, we got a chance to roam the narrow cobblestoned streets. There is a church on the top of a hill that is accessible by 176 stairs. The climb is a challenge, but the views and photo ops up there were numerous and worth it. After the climb, I joined Dianne and the Leightons for some tea and conversation. We all agreed that the Danube's acting up had given us the opportunity to experience Romania, something that a visit to Bucharest alone could not provide. Tomorrow we are off to Sibiu for one more night, then back to Bucharest.

Still On The Grid In Brasov

We have arrived in Brasov in Transylvania. We are thankful that we are in the old part of Brasov because the new part did not appeal to us. It is modern and frankly, not very attractive. We much prefer the older and that is what we have found in a the old part of Brasov. The hotel at which we are staying is right on the town square and when we walk out the door it is almost as if we have walked back into the 15th century, that is until we walk a few yards, turn left and feast our eyes on the 21st century and the clothing stores, jewelry stores, sex shops, tattoo and piercing parlors that stretch for three blocks. If, on the other hand, you walk diagonally and to the right, you can't miss the Gothic Basilica known as the black church that dominates the view. One slightly offputting feature that is unfortunately right next to our hotel is KFC, a little taste of home (yippee skippy). Our exploration of Brasov was truncated by some fairly powerful Romanian thunder, lightning, and rain. The rest of group went to Bran to see the castle of Vlad the Impaler, so we were dropped off in Brasov since we went to Bran last Wednesday, a good thing too because it might be a bit dicey being on the road with RDWDW(Romanian Drivers With a Death Wish) during a summer storm. The roads here in Transylvania are not quite super highways. They are two lanes with the occasional short passing lanes and some, not all drivers, treat the roads like the Daytona 500. Fortunately, our minibus drivers are very good drivers and have not exhibited any signs of being RDWDW.
Tomorrow our group will explore Brasov with our guide and then it is on to Sighisoara for another one night stay

Farewell Bucharest

It has been a busy couple of days of travel on day trips using Bucharest as our base. On Sunday, we went with the Leightons to the Black Sea (the Leightons are the Australian couple, Garry and Joy, with whom we planned our itinerary). If you REALLY like looking at corn, wheat, and sunflowers growing (millions and millions of sunflowers), the drive from Bucharest to Constanta is right up your alley as that is practically all you see for the majority of the three hour ride. If, on the other hand, you think once you have seen one sunflower you have seen them all, you might find the ride a bit tedious. I leave it you to decide into which category I fall. The seashore is quite nice and there are many hotels that face right onto the beach. The weather was quite pleasant and there were many people enjoying the sun and the surf. It was a three day weekend in Romania so it may have been more crowded than normal. We saw a bit of the older part of Constanta but could not really walk around because there was a lot of construction and renovation taking place. When we returned to Bucharest, for some inexplicable reason, I was so tired that I beat the sun to bed and probably slept for about 10.5 hours.
Yesterday, eight of us stranded Tauck travellers went to Bulgaria and were charmed by the two cities we visited, Ruse and Veliko Turnovo, both of which have retained their old charm. We found the town square in Ruse and the narrow winding cobblestone streets of Veliko Turnovo much more appealing than what we have seen in Bucharest. Seeing these two cities finally crystallized for me what makes Bucharest less than charming to me. Much of old Bucharest was razed, some thanks to WWII, and lots courtesy of Couceascu who bulldozed blocks of the city for the construction of very large monuments to him and to Communism. The homes he destroyed were replaced by apartment buildings, very ugly apartment buildings that all look alike (for those of a certain age, "little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes little boxes little boxes all the same [except the boxes are big]"). We did enjoy our visit to the Village Museum which is an outdoor museum in a park and is filled with 150 houses from all over Romania and from different eras of Romanian history; but overall, Bucharest is not on our list of cities we must see again. It is more of a been there, done that place. We both prefer the older and quainter locales such as Ruse and Veliko Turnovo, so we look forward to seeing and staying in three medieval cities for the next three nights prior to returning to Bucharest and then moving on to Budapest.
This has nothing to do with any of the above, but I thought you'd like to know that Dianne and are in the unfamiliar position of being the kids on this trip so we are making every effort to show proper respect to our elders. By the way, of the eight of us who will be travelling together for the next three days, six of us are Californians, one couple comes from Menlo Park, the other from Palm Desert. I don't know how wireless will be in our next three stops, so we may be off the grid for a bit.

At The Grave Of Dracula

Today, ten of us who were supposed to be on the Danube cruise, went to Snagov Monastery. We had about a 45 minute bus ride in a very nice air conditioned mini tour bus. With the heat that has had Bucharest in its grip since we arrived, we were very thankful for the ac. The bus gave an outside air temperature of 43 C, which if accurate, translates to over 109 F. The TV indicates the high today was only(?) 35.5 C or 96°F. Whatever the true temperature was, it was hot. Snagov Monastery is located on a small island on a lake which is in the middle of what used to be a very dense forest. The monastery itself is gone, the only reminder of its presence being the stones in the ground that mark what was the foundation. There is a small Orthodox church on the island which is quite beautiful inside with its icons and paintings of religious scenes. Above the three doors that lead to the sanctuary area (I am not sure of the proper nomenclature) in the front of the church are paintings of the apostles, the prophets, and Jesus. The walls are covered with paintings religious in nature. The purpose of the paintings is the same as the purpose of stained glass windows in gothic European cathedrals, to teach the illiterate congregation about their faith. Also in the church is the grave of Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. He was called Dracula because he was the son Dracul, a Romanian noble. Vlad the Impaler is known as the Impaler because it is said that he executed 20,000 Turks and others (but mostly Turks) by impaling them. To Romanians he is a national hero because he so fiercely resisted the Turks. To Turks, he was a menace and their worst enemy. He was eventually killed by the Turks who removed his head and took it to Constantinople to prove that he was dead. His body was buried on the island. (P.S., he was not a vampire).
Some random observations about Bucharest and Romanians. Romanians seem to have a death wish when they drive. Perhaps they took lessons from NYC cab drivers and once they had mastered the driving decided to outdo their teachers. If you come to Romania and have a death wish, rent a car. The city of Bucharest is quite large and frankly lacks the charm of other European cities we have visited and loved, e.g., Prague, Paris, Florence, or Siena. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Romania has been open only since around 1990. Perhaps with the passing years it will become more of a location people would like to visit.
We ran into some embarrassing Americans today on our trip. They are some of the folks originally scheduled to be with us on the cruise. They were bickering about how much the the tour was to cost when it came time to pay. Dianne and I and our Australian friends had already converted the price from Euros to Lei and knew what the cost would be for us. Long story short, the most embarrassing American paid in American money and Dianne and I looked for a place we could bury our heads. The worst of the embarrassers will not be with us the rest of the way as he and his wife will cruise the Black Sea. We are thankful for small favors. The other two couples may join us for our excursion to the medieval cities. In spite of setbacks, we continue to plug away.

A Visit To Parliament

Just got back a short time ago from  tour of Parliament. Since this is the building where the Parliament meets, the security is very high. Everyone must bring photo ID, e.g., passport or license and surrender same to security upon entry. To say that this building is immense hardly does it justice. I do not recall all the stats about the number of rooms, but at the end our guide told us we had covered 2 km and gone up a few hundred steps and had seen only  2% of the building. It was commissioned by the Communist dictator Couceascu and was 85% complete when he was deposed in 1989. There was some thought to destroy it since it was a reminder of Communist times, but it was decided to keep it as a tribute to the 40,000 people who worked on it round the clock 7 days a week for years. It was completed and now houses the Parliament and hosts conferences. As I said, the building is enormous. As a way of comparing, if you have ever been to Versailles, you know that Versailles spralls and is known for its over the top grandeur. In comparison to the Romanian Parliament, Versailles looks like a summer cottage, albeit a very elaborate one. Couceascu was responsible for massive building projects which resulted in lots of employment, but also caused the destruction of many homes where the monuments to Couceascu were to go. All people who were removed were promised new housing which meant that they were moved in with total strangers. The Romanians recall the Couceascu years with nothing but contempt. He had a policy that was especially  loathsome to them. Since he did not want Romania to owe any money to other nations, Romania exported everything and imported nothing.  The exports were very profitable for Romania, but Romanians starved and suffered greatly in other ways due to his 100% export policy. I'm fairly certain black marketeers made a killing during his years in power.
Tomorrow we go to Snagov Monastery and Sunday we go to the Black Sea.  This afternoon we are just resting a bit because we have been on the go quite a bit since our arrival and we want to pace ourselves so we can conserve our strength. We know we have a long way to go still and there is no reason to try to cram too much into too little time. Until next post.

To Romania And Beyond

We had a busy day rearranging our lives for the next few days with very helpful Tauck representatives who have been most helpful to us. We will tour with a delightful couple from Australia named Joy and Garry and will see some of what we would have seen and have planned alternate destinations in Romania. We will go to Snagov Monastery, the burial place of Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula). Since this is where Dracula is buried, we obviously must go during the day since going at night could be a real pain in the neck. Just to be on the safe side we will go with garlic, holy water, crucifixes, and silver stakes. Romanians have had an interesting relationship  with Dracula. He was  real person but Romanians did not like Bram Stoker' s fictionalized account of him. However, since Bran Castle is such a tourist attraction, Romanians now embrace his characterization as a vampire and welcome tourists who will part with their money for a tour and any number of cheap souvenirs that play up his vampireness. We will also venture to Ruse in Bulgaria and a couple of other locations in Bulgaria as another day trip. We will also go to the Black Sea for another day trip. On the 25th, we four intrepid travellers will go to Brasov, a medieval city where we will spend the night. Joy and Garry will go to Bran where Dianne and I went yesterday while we explore Brasov. We then will go to two more medieval cities in Transylvania named Sighisoara and Sibiu where we will spend a night each. We return to Bucharest on the 28th and fly to Budapest on the 29th where we will spend 4 nights and see the sights prior to our return as scheduled on July 3rd. It's not what we had in mind, but we are pleased with how everything has worked out and can't say enough positive comments about our Tauck directors who have been with with us every step of the way and have been the definition of professional, courteous, and helpful. I don't know that we will have wireless issues in Transylvania, but if we do, there may some incommunicado days on the blog; but I will do my best to keep you in the loop.

From Daunube Days To Danube Daze

We arrived in Bucharest after a long day of travel from SFO to Frankfurt to Bucharest yesterday, were picked up at the airport and transferred to our hotel, arranged a tour for today today to Transylvania with the Tauck rep who picked us up, had a light dinner, went to bed around 9, and were awakened at 11 pm by a phone call from Tauck informing us our river cruise had been cancelled. Alas, we have been victimized by Mother Nature and the Danube. There were very heavy Spring rains that caused the worst flooding in over 500 years on rivers in Central Europe. The boat on which we were supposed to sail has been stuck in Austria due to a damaged lock which may be repaired and reopened on Friday. Even if the lock gets repaired and opened then, there is no way the boat could arrive in time for us to sail as scheduled. When we arrived back at the hotel from our tour, the tour directors were in the lobby meeting with other fellow travelers, some of whom only arrived today to explain our options which include a cruise on another Tauck river cruise, a land tour, or arranging a tour we can do on our own. Our preference is for another river cruise and we will know tomorrow when we meet with them at 10. They assured us there are options but they need to plan with Tauck Corporate in Connecticut, a process somewhat complicated by the 7 hour time difference. We have learned through years of travel that flexibility is a must and that there are certain situations over which we have no power at all. It seems life handed us lemons, so we will make lemonade. We are both well and in good spirits. By the way, forgot to mention that we get a full refund and that Tauck will cover any unanticipated costs. We feel confident that our lemonade will be delicious.

Two Days Til Liftoff

In two days we make our way to Bucharest. We leave on the 17th, arrive in Frankfurt on the 18th at 10:30 am and then, after a layover, fly to Bucharest where we are scheduled to land at 5:15 pm. It is marvelous that people can fly thousand of miles in hours. If we were making this trip one hundred years ago, we'd be talking about weeks to get from the west coast of the USA to Bucharest. Not so marvelous is the inevitable jet lag that we will experience as our bodies adjust to a 10 hour time difference between California and Romania. Since we know our bodies will be out of sync for awhile, we will take the 19th just to rest and get our bearings. We think we will venture to Bran on the 20th to see the castle of Vlad The Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula, and may do some of our own sightseeing on the 21st. On the evening of the 21st, we meet the rest of our fellow river cruisers at our hotel in Bucharest, have some organized tours on the 22nd and 23rd, and get onboard and set sail on the 23rd. We look forward to seeing and experiencing new parts of Europe and meeting fellow cruisers as well as locals at stops along the way. We are both almost completely packed, the batteries for the cameras have been charged, the bills have been paid, and before long it will be wheels up as we fly the friendly skies to Frankfurt. For now, this is it, probably until we get to Bucharest.

The Countdown

We set off in one week for Bucharest, Romania from where we will join a cruise for some leisurely travel along the Danube. Along the way we will see and experience Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary with our week on the Danube ending in Budapest. We are for the most part pretty prepared having retrieved our passports, picked up some starter Romanian currency, made sure we have the correct voltage converters, and packed (well, only one of us is packed; but I have my suitcase out and I have been planning my packing for days now). We tried European river cruising three years ago in France and really enjoyed the experience since the sailing is smooth, the food delicious, and there are not thousands of people on board like on an ocean cruise.  I hope that the wireless onboard is reliable so I can keep updating our travel blog and keep friends and family up to date about where we go and what we see.
Art