Wednesday, 09 May

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="044d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <A HREF="id142.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tuesday, 08 May"><U><IMG SRC="0450b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="id144.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thursday, 10 May"><U><IMG SRC="0460b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="May"><U><IMG SRC="0480b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="1f8af830.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="131" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>"Count Dracula's Castle?"</I> at Bran, Romania</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Gastropod's Trail</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gastropods Trail"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Wednesday, 09 May</div> <div> Romania may have good food, kind people, good roads and great places to visit, but road signs to get you to them are just as bad as in Greece, Turkey or Bulgaria, if it was not for the fact that I too a couple of 'wrong' turns I would probably still be looking for Bran!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="20122e00.jpg" border=0 width="290" height="224" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="5" VSPACE="5">When we stopped to inquire about the visiting hours for the castle tomorrow, a woman, in her fifties, approached me and very obviously wanted to know if we would not be interested in staying at her home for the night. She seemed almost desperate, it was getting late and I was too tired to drive out of town again to look for a 'hideaway' that I agreed. She guided us along a bumpy side road to her house and Nicole got her wish to visit (and stay) in a 'real' Romanian house. The lady did her best to make us comfortable and even prepared us a meal of smoked and cooked pork, cheese, eggs and bread. We discovered only this morning that her husband had cut himself with an ax back in early April and still has a plaster-cast. The little extra income from hosting the odd tourist probably comes in very handy.</div> <bR> <div> Bran Castle was built in 1377, as a fortress to monitor the important commercial and military road running beneath it. The Castle was difficult to beleaguer because it was built on a very steep hill. <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Despite popular myth, the castle has no links with Vlad Tepes (or the fictitious Dracula, for that matter), and, with its fairy tale turrets and whitewashed walls, it's not exactly menacing. In 1848, when serfdom - and thus the Brand feudal estate - was abolished, the castle remained in the ownership of the town of Brasov which bestowed it in 1920 to the Romanian royal family which kept it as a summer residence until the abdication in 1947.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="202902d0.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="301" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="5" VSPACE="5">The castle was inhabited until 1950 and in 1956 it was converted to a museum of history and feudal art open to visitors. At the foot of the castle hill the Romanian Government has built a historic open air museum of houses, stables and artisan's shops similar to Ballenberg, in Switzerland or Le Village Acadien, in New Brunswick - all well documented (in English) and French in addition to Romanian, which made our visit all the more interesting. </div> <bR> <div> In spite of all the walking, climbing and visiting we managed to do a much needed laundry and enjoying the hospitality of our host.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> The 'real' rural Romania</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>