Sinaia, Romania - Day 9 - Sunday, July 12

Sunday morning we woke to a torrential rain storm. It would have been the perfect day to stay snuggled in bed but we had a breakfast date with Radu scheduled for 8:30am. Sluggishly we began our morning rituals and packed for our trip back to Tutova since we would not return to the Vila Bran after our side trip to Sinaia. Being the gentleman he is, Radu carried our bags to the car in the pouring rain then we made our way down the hill for our last meal at the Vila Bran Restaurant.

We ate a breakfast of omelets inside this nice "bat cave".

Reindeer are apparently a common animal to see here in the mountains. I jokingly claimed that this was a reindeer who didn't make the cut for Santa's team.

I honestly am not sure why I took this picture LOL.. maybe to show the horrible rain.. or maybe to show that we were crossing over another mountain to into the town of Sinaia... Sinaia is a huge tourist town mainly visited by Romanian tourists ( as opposed to foreign tourists). The Peles Castle(once used as a summer home for various kings) is located there so perhaps that is why Romanians tend to vacation there.


Due to the terrific rain, I didn't take many pictures on our way UP the hill to Peles. This is a shot of the castle when we were about half way up the cobblestone hill.

Photo of the interior courtyard -- where we purchased tickets

A close up of the painting on the wall above (inside the courtyard)

Before the tour began we had to dig through 2 huge chests and find slippers that fit over our shoes. It is a wonderful idea that helps protect the carpets and floors --- especially wonderful on a day as rainy as this one!

To take photos inside the castle you must pay 30 lei (about $10 US). We decided I would use my camera since flash was not allowed and just share the pictures... I took over 175 photos inside -- and I didn't bore you with all of them! :-) I just picked out a few of the most interest to me. There is a website for the castle (www.peles.ro) that has a photo gallery.

This is a picture of the front doors and entrance hall taken from the first floor. The columns are constructed of a beautiful gray marble.

The ceiling in the first room at the top of the stairs is made entirely of glass.

Inside this first room near the ceiling there are 2 statues on opposite sides of the room facing each other.. the one above represents war and the one below represents peace.

Inside the weapons room the king's motto written in Latin was painted on the ceiling -- "Without God There is Nothing".

This knife located above the fireplace (which by the way was just for show... the house was heated by a central system) was used to behead noble men and bears an inscription which says sometihng along the lines of "With this sword I will send you to Heaven to spend eternity with your maker". LOL

Armor for man and horse

King Carol the First's coat of arms bearing his motto (once again in Latin)

The desk where the King signed important documents

The center shelf in this picture is a secret doorway.. notice how the bookshelves on the left and the right have only 3 shelves... the one in the middle has 4 shelves and fake book covers.

The Turkish room... one of my favorite rooms that we saw.. looks like a wonderful place to relax

This mirror (see us in the mirror) is (or maybe was) one of the largest mirrors in Romania. It was imported from somewhere and shipped via the Black Sea then carried by cart and horse to the castle. (Sorry to be lacking in the history lesson on this one Rena -- my memory isn't what it used to be LOL)

The castle had its own theater which they turned into a cinema. Stage above, seats below

Ornate carving on the handrail for the stairs.. in person you can actually see the chains on the slaves

As we were exiting the castle Leigh noticed this "man" spitting out light! I want one of these in my house!!

Statue in the entrance hall.. I was actually trying to show the window as well though... look at the picture below at the detail in the window... another want to add to my wishlist for my dream home someday!

When our tour was over it had stopped raining outside YIPEE!! We took advantage of the pretty weather to take some pictures in the gardens.

In the center of the garden there is a statue of King Carol I...

See me.. on the steps near the bottom of the picture.. this shows you how HUGE the castle truly was!

Me at the bottom of the gardens... looking at those mountains makes me a little homesick!

Becky and Leigh with the castle

Me again.. trying to do a good job for Mom! LOL Already lots more pictures than last trip!

The cobblestone pathway we walked up in the pouring rain.. with me in flip flops (what was I thinking)

Castle once again... on the way DOWN the hill

Walking the path to and from the castle felt like walking a trail in the Smokies... isn't this stream fabulous?!

A gentleman playing his flute as we walked down.. there were also all kinds of small shops set up selling tourist items :-)

Okay, this is kind of off topic BUT... my favorite fairy tale is Snow White and apparently it is the favorite tale in Romania as well. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen Snow White while here (in December she and the 7 dwarfs circled the Christmas Tree in front of City Hall in Barlad). I asked Radu if Snow White is a Romanian tale and he said no, just a nice story that everyone here likes.

Just a nice house in Sinaia

When we arrived at the bottom of the hill we walked over to the Sinaia Monastery. The monastery itself is beautiful and not unlike the insides of the monasteries I saw on my previous tour of the Painted Monasteries. We also walked around back to the smaller, older monastery though and that is where most of the pictures were taken. (Side note: the Sinaia Monastery is a working monastery with several monks living there.)

Sinaia Monastery

Painting on the outside of the smaller, older monastery

Moses

Aaron, Moses's brother

Paintings on the outside of the newer monastery (below):





After a yummy lunch in town (I had sausages and cabbage but sampled Leigh's Dracula Schnitzel and Becky's wild boar) we headed back to Tutova. It rained once again.

In one of the villages there were these huge nests on electric poles every now and then.. turns out they are stork nests!

Closer to Tutova the sun finally came out... look at this ENORMOUS field of sunflowers...

One of our last stops was at a road side stand... we bought a watermelon because Romanian watermelons are supposed to be especially tasty!

We arrived back in Tutova around 7:30 pm... I moved into my new room upstairs... Love the balcony!