Gordon: It turns out that we and the housekeeper were not the only residents of the Swiss style chalet a couple of nights ago. We were once again sharing our bed with a few bedbugs. It takes a day or two for the bites to swell and become itchy, so...
Gordon: Today we had a ride through the Hobbit Shire that was probably the best outing of our journey (so far). We started the day at our pension at the 1000 metre level in the foothills of the Carpathians. Other than the caretaker and her husband,...
Ruth: For a moment I was dazzled by all those glowing faces carrying flowers to their teachers on the first day of school, after all, who doesn't like flowers? Well many in Romania apparently. As our Romanian guide in Brasov explained, the practice is very...
Ruth: It's the first day back to school in Brasov and this Romanian city marks the day with certain traditions. Imagine a time back in the forties or fifties when school children donned their uniforms and went to purchase flowers to take to their teachers. Yes,...
After seeing virtually no tourists since Budapest things have changed dramatically in the last three days in Transylvania. We are relieved that it is September and the bus tour groups have diminished somewhat, because the triangle between Sibiu, Sighisoara and...
Gordon: Stray dogs are one of the dangers and annoyances described by the Lonely Planet guide for Romania. As recently as 2011, there were allegedly 100,000 stray dogs in the capital alone. More than 16,000 people reported a dog bite in Bucharest in...
Ruth: Our days of cycling in Romania have been full of contrasts. Perhaps the most striking is the gulf between urban and rural areas. Yesterday and today Gord and I abandoned the big highways and their semi-trailer traffic for the hilly backroads. Here the...
Gordon: If we do not have a specific attraction or city as our day's destination, we often select one based on its distance and the availability of accommodation. Today those criteria led us to a guesthouse in the village of Sâncraiu. While our...
Gordon: For most of our trip across Europe we have had the benefit of relatively flat cycling. That changed today as we entered the first hills of the Carpathians. Ruth says that I get a special sparkle in my eyes when I am in the mountains, and I...
Ruth: Our first two days in Romania have been an amazing surprise. The city of Oradea is home to a collection of Art Nouveau buildings that are being lovingly restored after a century of neglect. It is a city I would love to return to in a decade or two to see even...
Ruth: The Hungarian plains are the land of the bicycle. Not only is the area flat and well suited to riding, but everybody rides one. The more I looked around the small town we have been passing through the more I realized that the majority of homes do not have cars...
Gordon: One of the delights of slow, self-propelled travel is the unexpected sights between the known ones. Today we had such an experience. We were poking along on a small road in the middle of nowhere when we spied an airplane in a field....