Day 1 - Thursday 15 August 2013
Thursday was Saint Mary’s Day andrather surprisingly to me, the Romanian Government declared it a National Holiday. We’ve had a heat-wave for the last 10 or so weeks with temperatures upto 38 and 40 degrees C and we though it a good idea to get out of the City and to change our routine of going to the house up-country every weekend. So, a colleague friend of mine Florin and his wife Adina & 2 kids Alexandra & Andrei (in a Skoda Octavia) and me with my wife Aura & 1 kid Ana (in the mighty 80) decided to take Friday as leave and make a long weekend of it.Florin wanted to go to the Retizat Mountains and I wanted to drive the length of the Transalpina. Strange thing, I don’t remember either of us asking our wives where they wanted to go, so we did both. Before we left, my wife Aura did, in passing, say that if we were going in that direction, she would like to see the Monastery “Manastirea Prislop” not too farfrom Hateg. She's quite religious and takes any opportunity to visit places of importance to the Romanian Orthodox religion.
This was no epic trip by any means, but we enjoyed the break. Apologies in advance for some of the photos, I stuck with my iPhone and iPad but Florin had his DSLR, see if you can spot the differences! We set off from Bucharest at 08:00 on Thursday morning and we were soon out onto the A1 Motorway and passing Pitesti, on to the DN7 (E81) and on our way to Ramnica Valcea. Then we headed North to a village called Brezoi, where we turned left onto the DN7a. What a great road this was, twisting and winding with hairpin turns, steep climbs and all of it through mountain forests.
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We passed streams and lakes (Lacul Malaia) and we had a couple of stops on the way.
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Eventually wearrived at Lacul Vidra and had an opportunity to stretch our legs. Joy of joys, it was raining! How fantastic after the drought and temperatures that we’ve had! The smell of fresh wet grass and pine trees was almost overwhelming. Like most lakes in the area, its a Hydro-Electric man-made reservoir.
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We then pressed on and over the County Border into Hunedoara and onwards to the town of Petrosani. Here we turned left onto the DN66 (E79) and soon, left again, onto the DN66a, passing through the mining towns of Aninoasa, Vulcan, Lupeni and Uricani. How depressing these places are.The fall of communism 24 years ago, now showing the decline that sets in when the free market economy is left in free-fall. Empty blocks, worst still half-empty blocks where the empty apartments had been robbed of fixtures to keep the remaining inhabited apartments running, as there’s no money for maintenance. The mines are all but shut down now and the depressing sight of dereliction, abandoned buildings, rusted mineshaft winding houses and poverty, was everywhere. After passing Uricani, we were back into nature and within a few kilometres we passed Valea de Pesti (reservoir) and Campul lui Neag (a man-made almost circular lake) and on to avery "missable" right turn onto a stone track, which after a few kilometres took us to our destination “Complex Turistic Cabana Cheile Butii”.
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Some bikers had arrived at about the same time as us... brave guys, it's a long ride from the Czec Republic. Took some pics of their bikes.
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We’d covered about 400 kilometers and we were a little weary, but we were on holiday and the bar was open! A few beers later, it had gone dark and we were all sleeping!
Day 2 - Friday 16 August 2013
We were up for breakfast bright and early, studying the maps. Florin had a "good" idea. “Let’s go to Lacul Bucura, it’s a glacial lake at 2,000m and not far from here”.“Mmmm” we thought, “not far, how far is not far?” As the crow flies, it was about 40 km. That’s not bad. Trouble was there were no roads. Not even 4 x 4 roads/tracks, nothing. To get even close to Lacul Bucura, it was a 114km drive in almost a full circle and the road ends about 2 hours walk/hike/climb from the lake. We decided that after driving 114km, the last thing we needed was a 2 hour walk/hike/climb, especially with an 8, a 5 and a 3 year old, gaggle of kids to carry and bully for 2 hours there and 2 hours back, then the 114km drive back “home”.
We didn’t go to Lacul Bucura.
Instead we took a gentle drive and a relaxing walk along the banks of the “Valea de Pesti” reservoir and along the ridge of the dam, which was holding back some 4.3 million cubic metres of fresh mountain water.
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We then ventured back to the mining town of Lupeni and found a road which took us up to Straja, a (very small) ski resort where we had fun driving up the ski slopes. Florin stuck to the black stuff and I played in the dirt, great fun!
We got to the top and inevitably came back down, stopping on the way at a cute wooden church high on the hill. It was surrounded by a fence and we noticed a surface “tunnel” leading to it, quite obviously the only way into the church grounds. The tunnel doesn't look much (on the left from the roadside)...
...but when we entered we had quite a surprise.
Each of the panels represented a month of the year and the paintings were of all the Saints who aquired their Sainthood in that particular month...
The church dates back about 500 years and is all timber, no metal screws, nails or brackets, all joints and wooden dowels holding it together.
Typically, the belfry was a separate structure
Everything wooden, loads of fantastic carving...
Then we took the DN66 towards Hateg. At a place called Banita, we got stuck for 15 minutes at some road-works and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this horse and cart. Its owner was in the bar and the horse was so bored standing by the side of the road!
We visited “Manastirea Prislop” so my wife was happy!
Then we popped by Hunedoara Castle, which is very photogenic.
Other "castles" on the way... I think this one's for sale if anyone's interested!
More to come, I've got to get some sleep now!
...
Thursday was Saint Mary’s Day andrather surprisingly to me, the Romanian Government declared it a National Holiday. We’ve had a heat-wave for the last 10 or so weeks with temperatures upto 38 and 40 degrees C and we though it a good idea to get out of the City and to change our routine of going to the house up-country every weekend. So, a colleague friend of mine Florin and his wife Adina & 2 kids Alexandra & Andrei (in a Skoda Octavia) and me with my wife Aura & 1 kid Ana (in the mighty 80) decided to take Friday as leave and make a long weekend of it.Florin wanted to go to the Retizat Mountains and I wanted to drive the length of the Transalpina. Strange thing, I don’t remember either of us asking our wives where they wanted to go, so we did both. Before we left, my wife Aura did, in passing, say that if we were going in that direction, she would like to see the Monastery “Manastirea Prislop” not too farfrom Hateg. She's quite religious and takes any opportunity to visit places of importance to the Romanian Orthodox religion.
This was no epic trip by any means, but we enjoyed the break. Apologies in advance for some of the photos, I stuck with my iPhone and iPad but Florin had his DSLR, see if you can spot the differences! We set off from Bucharest at 08:00 on Thursday morning and we were soon out onto the A1 Motorway and passing Pitesti, on to the DN7 (E81) and on our way to Ramnica Valcea. Then we headed North to a village called Brezoi, where we turned left onto the DN7a. What a great road this was, twisting and winding with hairpin turns, steep climbs and all of it through mountain forests.
<Pic>
<Pic>
<Pic>
We passed streams and lakes (Lacul Malaia) and we had a couple of stops on the way.
<Pic>
<Pic>
<Pic>
Eventually wearrived at Lacul Vidra and had an opportunity to stretch our legs. Joy of joys, it was raining! How fantastic after the drought and temperatures that we’ve had! The smell of fresh wet grass and pine trees was almost overwhelming. Like most lakes in the area, its a Hydro-Electric man-made reservoir.
<Pic>
<Pic>
<Pic>
<Pic>
<Pic>
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We then pressed on and over the County Border into Hunedoara and onwards to the town of Petrosani. Here we turned left onto the DN66 (E79) and soon, left again, onto the DN66a, passing through the mining towns of Aninoasa, Vulcan, Lupeni and Uricani. How depressing these places are.The fall of communism 24 years ago, now showing the decline that sets in when the free market economy is left in free-fall. Empty blocks, worst still half-empty blocks where the empty apartments had been robbed of fixtures to keep the remaining inhabited apartments running, as there’s no money for maintenance. The mines are all but shut down now and the depressing sight of dereliction, abandoned buildings, rusted mineshaft winding houses and poverty, was everywhere. After passing Uricani, we were back into nature and within a few kilometres we passed Valea de Pesti (reservoir) and Campul lui Neag (a man-made almost circular lake) and on to avery "missable" right turn onto a stone track, which after a few kilometres took us to our destination “Complex Turistic Cabana Cheile Butii”.
<Pic>
Some bikers had arrived at about the same time as us... brave guys, it's a long ride from the Czec Republic. Took some pics of their bikes.
<Pic>
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<Pic>
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We’d covered about 400 kilometers and we were a little weary, but we were on holiday and the bar was open! A few beers later, it had gone dark and we were all sleeping!
Day 2 - Friday 16 August 2013
We were up for breakfast bright and early, studying the maps. Florin had a "good" idea. “Let’s go to Lacul Bucura, it’s a glacial lake at 2,000m and not far from here”.“Mmmm” we thought, “not far, how far is not far?” As the crow flies, it was about 40 km. That’s not bad. Trouble was there were no roads. Not even 4 x 4 roads/tracks, nothing. To get even close to Lacul Bucura, it was a 114km drive in almost a full circle and the road ends about 2 hours walk/hike/climb from the lake. We decided that after driving 114km, the last thing we needed was a 2 hour walk/hike/climb, especially with an 8, a 5 and a 3 year old, gaggle of kids to carry and bully for 2 hours there and 2 hours back, then the 114km drive back “home”.
We didn’t go to Lacul Bucura.
Instead we took a gentle drive and a relaxing walk along the banks of the “Valea de Pesti” reservoir and along the ridge of the dam, which was holding back some 4.3 million cubic metres of fresh mountain water.
<Pic>
<Pic>
<Pic>
We then ventured back to the mining town of Lupeni and found a road which took us up to Straja, a (very small) ski resort where we had fun driving up the ski slopes. Florin stuck to the black stuff and I played in the dirt, great fun!
We got to the top and inevitably came back down, stopping on the way at a cute wooden church high on the hill. It was surrounded by a fence and we noticed a surface “tunnel” leading to it, quite obviously the only way into the church grounds. The tunnel doesn't look much (on the left from the roadside)...
...but when we entered we had quite a surprise.
Each of the panels represented a month of the year and the paintings were of all the Saints who aquired their Sainthood in that particular month...
The church dates back about 500 years and is all timber, no metal screws, nails or brackets, all joints and wooden dowels holding it together.
Typically, the belfry was a separate structure
Everything wooden, loads of fantastic carving...
Then we took the DN66 towards Hateg. At a place called Banita, we got stuck for 15 minutes at some road-works and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this horse and cart. Its owner was in the bar and the horse was so bored standing by the side of the road!
We visited “Manastirea Prislop” so my wife was happy!
Then we popped by Hunedoara Castle, which is very photogenic.
Other "castles" on the way... I think this one's for sale if anyone's interested!
More to come, I've got to get some sleep now!
...
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, then I'll be back in business!
