Last day of driving: back to Braşov

We had an amazing walk to find Stravagante Caffe, a coffee place near the river: Lower Town to Upper Town via old steps and through archways and over the Bridge of Lies, back down through Lower Town. Sygic got us lost in a schoolyard but the profesors and students were so helpful with directions from here and showed us a hitherto unseen exit (uscita); past a market and we arrived at this place hidden away in an obscure part of town.

The owner is a real coffee connoisseur and insisted we have this little dish of rose marmalade, followed by a shot of water BEFORE the coffee. We were under orders! With a bikky that came with it, this was enough for breakfast; and we bought a bag of Guatemalan coffee to take home.


It was a fast-paced 2.6 kms walk back to check-out; then we were on our way. It is reasonably warm at 16 deg C, although overcast.

Leaving Brasov, the dramatic snow-covered Carpathians run beside us; and we are back on the 130km/hr motorway for a short time. MF can’t believe it!

We turned off to take the Transfăgărășan Road - dubbed by Jeremy Clarkson as “the most dangerous road in the world”. POSTSCRIPT: Actually, when we returned home, I watched this episode of Top Gear on YouTube and in fact he describes the road as "the BEST road .." - typical Jeremy Clarkson, 'getting his rocks off'.

From Bâlea, we took the cabina up to Cascada Bâlea: 1234 to 2034 m. You can see that the road is well and truly closed by snow from this point; in fact, it doesn’t open until 1 July and then is closed again 1 September. The views were fantastic. You can see all the hairpin bends winding up the mountain. The temperature drops to 9 deg C.



We descend the way we came. It is all very rural: scythes and horse & cart, cattle in the middle of the road, dogs lying on the road ...

We climb, then over the mountain and descend again. We pass through Făgăraș with the over-the-top golden dome of the Orthodox Cathedral of St John the Baptist which you can see from miles away glinting in the sun.

Next, we turn off to Bran and Rasnov. We don’t spend much time at all in Bran: just a quick photo of Bran Castle (tick!), aka Dracula's Castle. MF and I agree we are not really fans of the Count.

We move on to the nearby Rasnov Fortress and enjoy the cable car up to the top for wonderful views over the countryside. The fortress dates back over 700 years and has a long history as a successful strategic defense point. Historical evidence shows the fortress only surrendered once because the invading army discovered its secret water supply for the people within the rock-solid walls. Not much time here as we have to move on and fill the tank with petrol and return the car.



And so our whirlwind tour of Romania comes to an end. We return the car to Sixt in Braşov with only a minute to spare before the 5 p.m. deadline and feel very relieved not to have had any accidents. In fact, despite the horror stories we’d been told, we did not experience any particular issues regarding driving in Romania, apart from the odd lunatic. In all we did 1092 kms in the four days and it was all terrific.

We celebrated that we had returned the car without any mishap (!) with a drink at a nearby cafe-bar (Cafe Central) and had a lovely chat with the owner about this and that, including Romanian politics.

We are staying right in the heart of the city, opposite the main square and enjoy a lovely meal at a restaurant recommended by the owner of the bar (Bistro de 'Arte).

Drum Bun! (‘Farewell!’ in Romanian) - although only as far as the car is concerned. Tomorrow we take the train to the capital, Bucharest and then travel to the Black Sea.