2023 Buda to Bucha Day 13

By travelerdon on November 27, 2023

Tour and return to Bucharesti, Oct 16

Today we get an extra half hour to sleep in as Maurius will pick us up at 9 AM. We don’t really sleep in but we have breakfast and visit with our hosts and discuss things like the situation in Israel. It is a fun chat and they seem of like minds to us. But the time flies and it is time to zip up our suitcases and head out.

Maurius is waiting for us in a different car today. No more spacious van, but a more comfortable car. A car built in Romania, a Dacia (pronounced Dachia). He loads our luggage after carrying it downstairs for us and we are on our way.

Our first stop is the “White Tower”, overlooking Brasov where we have been staying. The views are spectacular. Everything is wet this morning because it rained overnight. The sky lends it’s art to our photographs with patches of blue, white and grey! There is a group of Kindergarten children here on a field trip and I have to wonder if they are getting a history lesson.

We drive on and it is a pleasant drive. Our next stop is the Fortress of Rasnov overlooking the valley below. Again the views are spectacular and the sky lends it’s art again! There is a Funicular to take you up but this time of year there aren’t enough tourists to warrant it being open. So, instead, we are taken up by large tractors towing trolley cars.

We pass by a monument to WWI soldiers on our next drive. Maurius is taking us to places while working our way back towards Bucharest. We pass through small picturesque communities and stop for lunch at Gulyas House where we have Goulash Soup and Maurius joins us and we treat him to lunch!

Our next stop is at the Monastery of Snagov on an island in the middle of Snagov Lake. This Monastery was built in the 14th Century and I am allowed to take photos inside, a privilege not allowed to many. I don’t know what the conversation was between Maurius and the docent, but my camera is allowed inside! Simply beautiful decorations, some damaged by an earthquake in 1802. All in all, a fun stop!

After we leave the Monastery, it is about an hour drive to Bucharest where Maurius carries our luggage into the AirBnB we have rented. The online descriptions sound much nicer than the construction debris strewn in the courtyard we encounter. The online description calls it a “Courtyard Garden”, we call it a mess! The apartment is nice inside but I quiver in fear at the realization that I will have to carry our luggage down and out at 4 AM in two days when we leave for the airport.

We take a nap for an hour and then look up restaurants near us. We settle on a restaurant a couple blocks away called, “Noa”, a Romanian Steakhouse. As we walk in there is a glass refrigerator in the window filled with Dry Aging Beef, from Tomahawk Steaks to Ribs to what looks like could be carved into some fantastic steaks! Wish I had known, I would have come hungrier!

We take a few night photos on the 2 block walk back to the apartment and it is time to enjoy the rest of the bottle of Red Romanian Wine that I got at the restaurant, there it was wine with dinner. Now it is sipping wine for the evening!

See you all tomorrow!