Romania trip report index

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five

Part Three

We took a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental. The trip to the airport was much faster than when we arrived. Maybe because it was Saturday. We set off north on the E60, the main route north which goes straight to our destination, Sighişoara.

My thoughts of the trip. The road went through many small towns. They were essentially laid out along the main highway. No side streets. Almost every house was selling something. They changed wares as we went along. At first it was produce and flowers. Braided chains of purple eggplant, tomatoes, etc. Then it was all potatoes for a few kilometers. Huge bags of potatoes. One house sold brooms. Hundreds of brooms adorned the fences and yard. I can only assume they produced them themselves. One person had baskets and the large demi-john bottles wrapped in wicker. Farther along the road we came to a number of honey stands. The produce had stopped, the honey began. Along this very busy highway we encountered many horse drawn carts! I was surprised because we were not really out in the country there.

First the landscape was very flat. Then we headed up into foot hills. Now we were seeing people selling something like large piles of orange and green things. Finally I realized it was lentils! The red ones and the green ones. Each stand had a pile. I may buy some on the way back.

Sadly, we passed another example of the thoughtlessness of humans in some countries regarding their animals. When I see these things it makes me cry for hours. This poor dog was walking along the very busy highway. It’s left front leg was severely twisted, so severely that it looked like a bent up paper clip. It must have been broken in several places once. The dog was surprisingly able to walk on it so I assume it was an old injury, probably hit by a car, that had never been treated or set. I cannot help but think of the suffering this poor dog must have endured. He was skeletal and filthy and moving along with his head down. Just too sad to bear. I wished I could have taken him up and hugged him, fed him, cleaned him and made him happy. I even prayed in the Black Church (upcoming) that we visited that God, if there is one, would take care of his poor creature and either help him or put him out of his misery. It haunts me and will for a long time.

We went through craggy peaks that were around 3,000 meters high. There were a lot of resort towns through the pass and along the river. We had decided to stop in Brașov to break up the drive, see the sights and have lunch. They had a nice market going there with lots of unusual wares. We visited the Black Church, so called because it had been blackened by fire. It had a pipe organ with 3,200 pipes! We had an nonnotable lunch. The weather was very hot!
Market day with really unusual wares.

This was the black church. So named because a fire blackened it’s interior. It also has Europe’s largest pipe organ with 3,200 pipes.

We  decided, because we were close, to visit Bran, home of  Dracula’s castle. It was a complete zoo but we managed to follow the crowd into the castle for a look see. It had been inhabited most of its existence so was in good shape.

Now we needed to make tracks to Sighişoara because we were still 2 hours away. The drive from Brașov there was very beautiful. It went through a park and some very bucolic countryside. We encountered many more horse drawn carts hauling, logs, people, hay. They pile their hay into haystacks which are supported by a central pole. This is done manually. We also passed numerous flocks of sheep, goats and cattle each accompanied by a shepherd, goatherd or cowherd. I read the flocks are owned jointly by the villages. I assume the shepherds come from the village but the book said they are a dieing profession. I have to wonder how the flocks will be attended without a shepherd. I saw not one fence anywhere. I also had to wonder how all the land, houses, livestock was divided up after the fall of Ceausescu in 1989. Boggles the mind.

We arrived in Sighişoara and found our hotel, Casa Georgius Klauss. Nice place with a restaurant and bar inside the walls of the city. We decided it was time for a beer so we relaxed a bit in the bar then went to clean up for dinner. We ate at the hotel. The food was OK. Not great. We split an order of calamari with tzaziki sauce. Then I had the filet steak on spinach and luther had the Transylvanian speciality chicken. The chicken was very good.

Off to our rather difficult room. It is a big room, for sure. There is a big bed on one side and across from it a bath with toilet and sinks. The oddity is a big soaking tub right in the room with the bed. Also no dresser. There is a three step up closet affair with a wardrobe crammed in. You have to duck to get in, the door being only about four feet tall. Then there are very few hangers and you have to put your clothes on the floor. I like the hotel but it would be an easy fix to add a small chest of drawers in the wardrobe.

So all good things must come to an end. And on our trip between Budapest and Bratislava they did. It was just a short trip. Just over two hours. We left Budapest and we took route 10 headed for the Slovakian border. We planned to see if the other side of the Danube was prettier than the Hungarian side. When – BAM – our right front wheel hit a large pothole. Immediately the car began to shimmy badly. So we pulled over.

First thing I thought of was the Porsche emergency roadside assistance. We pulled out the card and Luther dialed the number which was in Italy. It didn’t help that we were in Hungary. The operator took our information and said someone would call us. We got a call from the local Porsche people who sent a tow truck. It didn’t help that it was a Sunday. After about an hour and a half of sitting on the roadside in a little bitty Hungarian village the truck arrived. A nice young man felt the wheel and thought we could drive ourselves back to Budapest to the Porsche dealer. We really wanted to press on to Bratislava but he discouraged us.

While driving along we discussed what we should do. We decided we would have time to take the train to Bratislava and keep our two night stay there, leaving the Porsche.

When we got to the dealer, and since it was Sunday there was just a guard there who opened the gates. Luther was able to kind of communicate with him in German. It was all very confusing for a while. The tow truck driver would have taken us to a hotel but we sent him on his way with our thanks. The guard wanted a card that we think Porsche should have sent to us. We told him we didn’t have any card. He said without it the car would sit for “eternity”. Oh great! Well there was nothing else to do on Sunday so we took the piece of paper that was our receipt and took a taxi to the train station.

We arrived in Bratislava around 6 and got to the hotel around 6:15 or so. We were very tired. We showered and ate in the hotel restaurant which was a nice place. Our hotel was called Marrol’s Hotel. It was rated 5 stars and was nice but maybe not 5 stars nice.

Monday morning I was insistent that we speak with someone about the car. It didn’t help that Budapest has two dealerships and we weren’t sure which one had our car! We did have a phone number the guard had given us. Many calls later to both the Italian assistance number and both Porsche dealers we were still no closer to talking to someone about our car. Finally at a number we had called repeatedly the woman said that they had our car. Finally we knew which one had it! At least it was a step forward. They still would not let us talk to a service rep. And they would not tell me when a rep would call us. So we decided to go out and see Bratislava.

It is a charming town. I liked it much better than Budapest. Smaller with lots of pretty streets lined with cafes and trees. We strolled taking in the limited sights. The old town was beside the Danube.
Here are some of the sights. Pedestrian zone.

Cool sculpture.

Pretty church

Beer from a brew pub.

Pedestrian zone again. So pretty.

The Opera house.

This is a bridge. They call this viewing platform the UFO. Fitting.

We stopped in a pretty little courtyard which had a sign out that said “Local wine tastings”. Well who could pass that up? We knew nothing about Slovakian wines. We tasted five, 2 whites, 2 reds, and a black current after dinner wine. They were quite pleasant. Just after that we got a phone call from an Italian number. Turns out it was our salesman from the Perugia Porsche. He told Luther that our car was ready!!!! [or at least that’s what Luther thought he said] We felt relieved anyway.

It was about time for lunch so we walked along the cafes and chose a Brazilian one. I had a quesadilla. It was OK. Luther had the goulash soup. They seemed to be famous for their steak served on a sizzling stone. Here’s a picture I zoomed in on of a couple of guys eating some.

After lunch we walked over past our hotel to a new shopping mall on the river. It was also lined with lots of pretty cafes. We were on the lookout for a dinner destination. We went into the mall and bought a couple of things we needed. Suddenly we spied an Apple reseller shop. I decided to see if they had European plugs for our chargers and sure enough, they did! I bought three. It is so much better than the clunky plug adapters we’ve been using up until now.
After getting cleaned up for dinner we strolled back into the cafe area. Even if the food wasn’t all that great there was such nice ambiance. We went to Zylinder. I had pork tenderloin with a potato cake. Luther had goulash with sauerkraut and spatzel. With a nice wine it was fine.

SO — Today is Tuesday. I am on the train back to Budapest now. We should arrive at 10:30AM and will take the taxi back to the dealer. We can only guess what we will find…