Day 5 Touring Romania

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Here is a description of today's program from the website, however we didn't do any of that so I've included day 6 some of which we did do. I'll try to sort it out. Day 5: Radauti - Piatra Neamt We have breakfast in the hotel, then we visit Humor Monastery, then Voronet Monastery (Voronet became famous among art lovers thanks to two features of its painting: blue, made with a formula still unknown, called "blue Voronet" and the magnificent scene depicting "The Last Judgement"). We continue our journey to Piatra Neamt with a visit to the Monastery Agapia. Overnight in a 4* hotel in Piatra Neamt. or Roman. Day 6: Piatra Neamt - Brasov We have breakfast and depart to Brasov on one of the most beautiful scenic roads of Romania, Bicaz Gorges. We continue our journey to the Red Lake and after a stop in Miercurea Ciuc we will arrive in the medieval town of Brasov. Visit the beautiful city of Brasov  with its Black Church and overnight in a 3* Hotel close to the old town.

We are actually at the only 3* star hotel on our program in Miercurea Ciuc, at the Hotel Fenyo. What a difference at star makes! There is no air conditioning! It must be another communist built project as it seems fairly dated and of the period. It is across the street from a park adjoining a pedestrian street/plaza so I suppose it is a good location. But, beyond being broiling hot inside, it is just pretty grim. We did get a pretty sunset view over the Carpathian Mountains in the distance this evening. I guess that doesn't happen every day (well unless you live here!) so there is that as a bonus.

So we woke up in Radauti and drove to Piatra Neamt where we saw the little of what remains of its old town center, a church and a clock tower. As we drove, in every little hamlet we drove through there were people dressed up on their way to church this Sunday morning. It turns out that Catholics and Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary on September 8th. That meant the church and square where the service was broadcast were full. We couldn't see inside, only out. We did go in the 1930's building nearby that housed a museum of ancient pottery. We paid 16 lei pp and our tickets say, Complexul Muzeal Judetean Neamt. I couldn't find anything in English. They claimed to have the world's oldest pottery, but Google says that honor goes to China. I found this about the place and pottery. Not a lot known about the Cucuteni who made the pots. 

We had the usual 2 gas station potty breaks today. I don't think I've mentioned it but for days we've driven through miles of corn fields. It is like Nebraska out here! We've driven mountain roads to rival switchback roads anywhere. Clay has let me sit in front for the last 2 days. I'm still taking extra meclizine. Romania is primarily involved in agriculture it seems. We've seen loads of horse carts this trip. Today we saw lots of fields of potatoes being manually harvested. We saw one yesterday.

Around noon, we took a left turn and the landscape changed dramatically. We entered the Bicaz Gorges. At the narrowest point, Vlad let us out of the car to join others walking on the edge of the road. He parked what he said was maybe a 1/2 mile ahead and waited for us. We must have been too slow or he couldn't find a place to park where he thought he could, so he walked back to meet us when it widened again. It was pretty spectacular and dangerously scary walking. We got to a State Fair parking situation at Red Lake (which did not appear at all red to me). This was our next stop and where Vlad had planned for lunch. It was around 2pm already. We did after a 2nd pass find a spot and walked down to the lake and found a seat for lunch at Mountain Steak. We paid 2 lei each for using the toilets. We bought 1 huge chimney cake for dessert in the car. We couldn't finish it! Just as well since we couldn't find any where we wanted to eat tonight and had it for dinner in our hot, West-facing hotel room. 

So, I am just guessing at this point but I expect the monasteries that have been skipped are just off the program for good and we won't see them tomorrow. The day after that we'll be back in Bucharest. We still have the Dracula-related castles to see. 

Looking at the tour itinerary above, you can see we did some things from 2 days and the Voronets Monastery was visited yesterday. I am sure there must be some logistical explanation for the changes. It doesn't matter that much to us as we had no plans for each day except to be guided about and that's happening. 

So, we found 2 Italian and 1 Mexican restaurants and a coffee shop open nearby. We went to the local Profi instead and bought a yogurt, ice cream, local cheese puffs, marshmallow cookies and water for a light evening snack tonight. We spent 7.75 lei or about $1.80!

Hotel breakfast buffet starts at 7 am tomorrow and we start driving again at 9 am.

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