Saturday 7 November 2015

Saturday visit to the famous Bran Castle


Better known as Dracula's castle, we embarked on an excursion to the beautiful mountain region about 3 hours outside of Bucharest. 



The castle was very busy as it's the most visited attraction in Romania. There were many stalls selling traditional Romanian  goods. An opportunity for some great photos! 







The castle was built in 1377 and was given as a gift to Queen Mary of Romania and then passed on to her daughter in 1932. Following the rise of communism in Romania the royal family was exiled and the castle became government property. After the fall of communism, the castle was returned to the children of the princess Helena the daughter of queen Mary in 2009.


Certainly it can be said that a "once in a lifetime" visit or a check for the "bucket list" of places to see in the world has to be this legendary Castle inspired by Brahm Stoker's Dracula. 

The castle is located in the mountains of Transylvania between the Valakya region and Moldova.

Strategically located on the hilltop you can imagine how Brahm Stoker got his inspiration! 
Interesting read about the Teutonic Knights and their crusade. Above you can see one of the Knight's robes.

The doors to the rooms were beautifully hand painted. 

After a delicious lunch st a local resort we travelled back to Bucharest to get ready for Sunday departures. 



We made a short stop I a lovely city called Brasov which has a beautiful old town and main square. 




The weather since Wednesday had been outstanding with sunshine everyday though temperatures dropped to -2 at night and in the mountains it was very cold. 
Bucharest truly exceeded my expectations and the group of Erasmus partners are fantastic. We worked hard and enjoyed our time together! We look forward to meeting our larger group of 50+ people when we all visit Cyprus in two weeks time! Thanks for following!


No comments:

Post a Comment