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
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