11 June 2018 - Week 62

This post begins on June 4 and covers the week following which was so fun for us.  Our son and his wife came to visit us from Texas.  We are so happy to have them come!!!

On Monday, the 4th, we took our first trip to the Hungary Romanian border.  We had been told that we did not have the right paperwork.  We were missing an original document that shows ownership of the car.  Our car is actually rented from the church through the mission office, so we had a photocopy of the original.  Nervously, we decided to make the short trip to the border just to see if we could get through.  Better to find out today rather than on Wednesday when we were supposed to pick our kids up in Budapest.  

The first stop in the city of Arad, where we live was the branch building.  The sisters were there sending email to their families.  It was nice to have Captain America here. We took them to our apartment and got their suitcases into their bedroom.

We took a drive through the center of Arad to show them a the town. The train station then a walk through the park toward the ginormous Orthodox church topped off with gelato in the park. 

We visited the umbrella street before going back to the apartment for a good nights rest before we head out for our castle adventure.

Our next two days were spent driving and sightseeing.  Our first stop was the Corvin Castle in Hundedoara, Romania.  Brent and I have been there a few times, but we think it is probably the best castle in the country.  It has limited restoration so you get a real castle feel when you visit there. 

Next stop . . . a shiny church in Fagaras.  We thought it was an Orthodox church, but it turned out to be Catholic. 

It is getting well into the afternoon as we continue our drive to Brasov.  We will be staying at the Drachenhaus Hotel. This turned out to be the perfect place to stay because we could walk just a block to the Brasov Centru.  We had a very good supper there.  

This is a photo of the place where we ate.  We all enjoyed the live singer who was serenading us.  I wish I had a better photo of our plates.  Jessica and I received a grilled pepper with our meals.  At first we thought it looked like liver or something slimey, but brave Jessica took a bite and raved about how good it was, so I ate mine too.  It was very good. 

Marshall posed for a photo with the bathroom bidet at our hotel. 

This photo shows the courtyard inside the hotel.

Following a good nights rest and the complimentary breakfast at the Drachenhaus, we were ready to head to Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's castle.  That is quite a story.  We will tell you some time. Here is a photo of the breakfast venue. They served a pretty normal Romanian breakfast, ie. tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese sausage, eggs. . . 

Bran castle is only 20 miles from Brasov, but I took us an hour to get there due to road construction. When we arrived in the town, we expected to see the castle and signs, but there was little direction we could see. So we just parked where we could see the busses.  Busses and people have to mean the castle is nearby.  Sure enough, although, all the people made it hard to get through the castle.

We stopped by the gift shops to find some souvenirs and walked to the car for our trip to Sighisoara.  We have been told the museum and fortified city there are things we should see while we are in the area.  It is a two-hour drive from Bran so we decide to eat lunch when we arrive there.  Sighisoara is the birth place of Vlad the impaler. 

We found a restaurant recommended on google, but they were closed for a wedding.  They suggested we go down the street to a pizza place.  It looked nice, so we ate there while the rain poured down.  Fun fact.  Romanians love to eat outside in the summer.  The restaurant had open sides, so it was just like eating outside.

Now our tummies are full we head up the hill to the fortress city and clock tower.  It was a good uphill trek all the way over the cobblestone road and ended in an open area surrounded by buildings, one of which was a famous clock tower. 

We walk down the hill toward our car and see a gelato shop.  We stopped for a cool refreshment before heading toward Arad.

We woke up on Saturday morning, our last day to sightsee, and drove to Lipova to see the Soimos castle.  I have blogged about it before so I will put only a few photos in this post.  

We went to the open market for some last minute souvenir shopping and then drove to our favorite place for groceries so we would be ready for Sunday.

Sunday we went to church and had the Sisters over for dinner.  After dinner, we drove to Lipova again to see the Monastery.  We remembered that there was a monastery in Arad too, it is all Nuns, so we went there too.