Sinaia. Secondary home of the short-lived dynasty of Romanian monarchs (they were technically German, although I think the same is true of the Windsors) and other noted Romanians, although this particular castle never had a vampire. Even if it was said that Queen Maria (incidently Queen Victoria's daughter) was a bit on the feisty side.The two castles, Peleș and Pelișor, are well worth a visit and quite refreshingly modern, especially compared to the stuffy old Stately Homes we have back in Blighty.
As the photos show the weather was bright and crisp. It hadn't snowed for several days so the grass was beginning to poke through, and even when we headed up the mountain to 1500m, there was still barely enough snow to ski. The mild daytime temperatures did have the unfortunate side effect of leaving ice patches on the ground formed from refrozen melted snow. Now, admittedly I am British and am probably guilty of being mollycoddled to such an extent that I think the Nanny State should provide under-pavement heating to prevent such dangerous occurunces. Coupled with this, I have just escaped after four years in France, where the government is assumed to be responsible for all possible woes that befall its people, natural or otherwise. (Case in point, the reason snow in Marseilles - for the first time in 22 years there were a few inches of snow on the French Riviera and the residents blamed the closure of schools and public transport on the government for not having snow-clearing equipment on standby. In Marseilles!) Yet even, after theis I still think something could have been done to prevent me, and many others, tottering around like Bambi. 
The low point, admittedly of our own making, was when we realised we had parked the car on top of what can only be described as a glacier. I could barely get down from the car and inched my way down the treacherous slope grabbing on to people's garden fences. As for moving said vehicle afterwards...sadly no video evidence of this event exists but we basically had to smash the ice behind the back tyres with a rock then reverse/slide the car off the slope. Inevitably the car did spin round like a top and crash into the fence a few times. Nobody was hurt in the process.
The low point, admittedly of our own making, was when we realised we had parked the car on top of what can only be described as a glacier. I could barely get down from the car and inched my way down the treacherous slope grabbing on to people's garden fences. As for moving said vehicle afterwards...sadly no video evidence of this event exists but we basically had to smash the ice behind the back tyres with a rock then reverse/slide the car off the slope. Inevitably the car did spin round like a top and crash into the fence a few times. Nobody was hurt in the process.So all's well that ends well. Looking forward to getting back up to the mountains again soon. It's beautiful!
2 comments:
Heya , Great blog. Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures. :-) Elly x
great pictures
regrads
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