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,...
Back to School in Romania take two, and Into the Carpathians
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...
Back to School in Romania
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,...
Tourists in Transylvania
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...
The She-Beast who roared
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...
Cycling in Transylvania: A World of Contrasts
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...
What’s the attraction of Sâncraiu?
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...
Into the Carpathians
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...
Art Nouveau Oradea
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...
Bicycles belong in Hungary
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...
The biggest biplane
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....
Soviet Spa Experience
Ruth:No wonder the Ottomans were determined to possess this area, it's a geothermal gold mine. Every town we pass seems to have thermal pools. None of them anything like the ancient Ottoman one we visited in Budapest, but all promising a range of medical benefits from...