Chisinau and Milestii Mici

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We got a little later start today. Breakfast is served in the restaurant next door to the City Park Hotel. I have to go over there for ice twice a day too. Breakfast is a combination of buffet and a limited cooked-to-order menu of eggs, omelets and porridges is available.

We began our tour today at 10 am. Our guide Anna came to the hotel lobby and did not know we'd booked a combo tour. She had to call the Hi Moldova office to confirm and coordinate with the driver for later. We set out walking to Cathedral Park and began with everything we'd self--toured yesterday afternoon. Eventually, she crossed the streets to get to Central Park and we walked about 1/2 of it with history and personalities discussed. At the far end of Central Park, we met our driver, Victor. He was across the street from a brand new I ♥ Chisinau sign. We wanted to take a photo over there. Anna suggested we go back on our. She and the driver pointed out souvenir and central markets on our panoramic drive and suggested we return on our own. Huh?

About noon, we just pulled over in traffic and Anna left us. Clay asked to sit up front and did so. We drove over a very rough road to exit Chisinau and visit a winery. Milestii Mici was noteworthy and a complete surprise. Except for vineyards, the whole operation is underground in 55 km of tunnels made by the Soviets mining limestone after WWII. We picked up a guide at the entrance and at 1 pm, a caravan of vehicles drove into the cellars! We'd drive some and get out, drive some more, walk around, drive some more. I was astounded. Then we had a 20-minute or so tasting from pitchers of wine with snacks. The snacks were good. Clay liked the wines and I didn't. I'm not much of a drinker anymore, but I was always picky about wine anyway. The 3 wines offered were in big glass pitchers. A white Sauvignon Blanc and 2 reds, one of the reds was some normal blend of grapes but the other was more like a brandy. It was definitely worth a visit.

We asked Victor to return us to the  I ♥ Chisinau sign instead of taking us to the hotel as he'd planned. He did offer to wait for us to take the photo and then take us to the hotel but I wanted to go 3 blocks the other way to the souvenir market to look for a Moldova flag patch so we said no and our goodbyes. Victor spoke English among other languages and was a big plus today. I can recommend him. On Stefan cel Mare Blvd. almost directly across the street from the McDonald's where we'd turned around and headed back to the hotel yesterday, was a Souvenir store next to a tourist info office. I don't know why we didn't notice them yesterday. Anyway, we went in and I found a patch and bought it so we saved ourselves about an extra block of walking to the outdoor sidewalk stalls that were the souvenir market.

We had asked Anna for restaurant recommendations and her first was La Placinte where we'd eaten the past 2 nights. We asked for other recommendations but she never got around to giving us a list and what we thought she'd suggested and pointed out from the car, we deemed too far or iffy. Back to Placinte for us. We ordered something different each time except for cherry placinte for dessert. It was a short walk, inexpensive and reliably good so no complaints.

Tomorrow we can try to sleep in as our airport transfer is at 11:45 am for a 2:20 pm flight back to Bucharest. A final night at Europa Royale. On Sunday we only have to transfer from Bucharest to Giurgiu to AmaCerto river boat. So, hopefully a couple of easy days ahead. Clay is looking forward to having meals on a boat and not having to walk so far.

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