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Our guide favored the attitude of the deposed last king of Romania toward the former Royal estates. Prince Michael who is 88 “would just like to live in the Pelisor Palace.” This is the smallest of the three Royal palaces in Sinaia. The big tourist showcase here is the sumptuous Peles Palace.
Later in the day on the door of the 17th Century St. Catherine Monastery in the town of Sinaia we read this Romanian inscription in Latin: “God Bless Our Entrances and Our Exits.”
This was not the way I found it now. Blocks of souvenir stands were all there to welcome the visitors. They sold vampire paraphernalia from stakes to “blood wine.” In the meantime, the castle has collected other fantastic claims to fame.
“A French tourist once told me this is better than Versailles,” our guide said. In our visit, we were asked to put on special shoe-covers to protect the floors and to strictly follow the guide. King Carol I who began the Palace’s construction apparently never wanted to finish it even after 160 rooms.
Vlad was the ruler of Wallachia for three interrupted periods. The only time he was in the “Dracula Castle” was when the Hungarian king imprisoned him there in 1462. This Bran Castle was built in 1377 in Transylvania as a tollbooth along the trade route from Wallachia, and “to defend against the Turks,” according to our guide.
The rugs felt heavier than kilims but thinner than carpets. They had geometric designs, not flowers, in frames. They were of two kinds: decorative and prayer rugs.
A professor of religion was awaiting us at the two-room First Romanian School Museum which had an impressive collection of 6000 old books, including schoolbooks from the 15th century. He had us sit in a classroom at 200 year old desks and, playfully with a disciplining wood switch in his hand, demonstrated the role that Wallachian Orthodox priests played in educating the locals. He showed us the printing press...
As I laid awake the huge sign “Brasov” on the east mountain shone brightly into my room. It was Brasov’s answer to the famous sign in Hollywood.
The Austrians were not that friendly when they invaded and burned this town in 1689. The smoke from that fire gave the only major building still standing its moniker, the Black Church.
... they installed in 1556 and displayed the first Romanian books in the Latin alphabet which were printed here.
It was also here that allegedly the last witch burning in Europe took place. At a stand in the square I was admiring the display of “figurative ceramics” by Nicolae Diacounu, a peasant artist living near Brasov who has won many awards for his folk art.
To German tourists it is the larger town square of Brasov (the Saxon colony of Kronstadt in medieval times) that “looks just like a German town,” my guidebook said.
Near the alter was a notice also from the past which was roughly translated for me as: “If you do not know Latin do not approach this pulpit or otherwise we will come and kill the fleas in your body with stick.” Outside the church a German couple was having their fortune read by a large Gypsy woman.
... and circled toward the Shoemakers’ Tower, two of the nine original towers of the fortification still remaining, all named after the guilds that were in charge of their upkeep.
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