Balkans River Cruise 2026 - Part 2.

 In Bucharest, we were put up in a very nice hotel by Avalon for some touring, included with the river cruise.  We also returned to Bucharest after the optional land based tour into Transylvania, so will describe Bucharest later in this post.

Transylvania

The tour to Transylvania, a region of Romania, was personally, one of the main highlights of the entire Avalon tour and required more travel by bus for some hours into the Carpathian Mountains in central Romania.

The mountains, the forests and some the general architecture we passed in the bus were quite striking and impressive.

A local shop but note the roof style

Being in the mountains it was green

One of the homes we drove past on our way to Transylvania

The first place visited, was a real WOW location called Peles Castle, built by King Carol 1, using only his own money, as he was from the very wealthy House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen based in Prussia. The King commissioned the castle in 1873 and it was built in 3 stages, the last in 1940 and was last used in 1947.

Peles Castle certainly makes its presence felt

Small courtyard at the side
of the castle before entering

It is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful castles in Europe and is of neo-renaissance style.  Not really sure what all that means but it is certainly a wow, wow, wow building and the intricate detail in all the timber used in its construction and decoration is very detailed and simply superb.

Starting our journey through the castle

Look closely at all the detail in the timber work

The King introduced hydro electric power for lighting and operate the large and very ornate retractable central glass roof, plus the castle has 170 rooms and underfloor heating.  He was married to Queen Marie who was quite the person in her own right and will appear again later in Transylvania.

Will let the photos tell their own story!

One of the private rooms for the King & Queen

The opulence was just staggering and privately paid for

Quite a dining room

Very ornate mirror and electrical lighting

Being in Transylvania, naturally we had to have lunch in yet another castle, this one called Cantacuzino Castle, with the Carpathian Mountains making their presence felt as a backdrop.

The backdrop of the Carpathian Mountains

This castle also happens to be the filming location as the Nevermore Academy of the Wednesday series on Netflix and the day ended up in our accomodation in the nice town of Brasov.  

'Wednesday' is of Adams Family origins

Cantacuzino Castle used in the Wednesday series

The hotel was excellent and happened to have one of the largest beds we have ever slept in.

Very nice hotel and bed

Pejmer

From Brasov we drove a short distance to the Prejmer Fortified Church, yes, a fortress church with a very unique design.  It all started with the building of the church by Teutonic knights in 1218 and was finished later by monks.

Outside the fortified church of Prejmer

Inside the fortified church

Between the 13th to 16th centuries after repeated attacks, a fortified wall was built and enhanced around the church, with walls measuring up to 12 metres high and 3-5 metres thick.  Built into the defensive walls are 270 vaulted rooms capable of housing up to 1,600 villagers who were tasked to help defend it all.

The church located in the middle of the fort

Villager's homes built into the walls around the church

The church was subject to 50 sieges, but only captured once in 1611 and regarded as the largest fortified church in southeastern Europe.

Each home is built into the wall of the fort

Inside on of the small homes

Walking around on top of the defensive wall

Brasov Old Town

Couldn’t leave Brasov without visiting its old town, a very well preserved medieval Saxon settlement, with numerous vibrant cafes and restaurants, cobblestone roads and laneways.

Nice cafes and lovely buildings were numerous

Old Brasov was nice to stroll through

Central to it is a large sprawling square, where we all enjoyed wandering throughout whilst waiting for The Black Church to open, a large gothic church that earnt its name after a massive fire in the city in 1689.

It certainly was a large square

Very creative fountain in the square

The church was originally built between 1383 to 1477 and it is full of extremely old carpets, paintings on various timber structures and grave sites relocated from the floor and placed into walls.

The Black Church

Very old decorations inside the church...

...painted directly on timber seats and panels

These graves were removed from the floor
& inserted into the walls inside the church

We had a few hours of free time just ambling our way through the old town having lunch, and enjoying yet another very nice coffee, something at times hard to find, compared to Australia.

More cafes to enjoy

Inside a small Romanian
Orthodox church we found

Building on the University grounds

Bran Castle

Now for the ‘pièce de résistance’ of Transylvania and have disguised it via the heading, ‘Bran Castle’!

Another name for Bran Castle, albeit a fantasy historically and the primary reason we wanted to do this add on tour was to visit… Dracula’s Castle!

One of our first views of Bran Castle
otherwise called Dracula's Castle

The castle was built in 1377 to guard a key gorge through the Carpathian Mountains and has very tenuous links to Bram Stoker’s creation of the book and character, Dracula.

The castle became Queen Marie’s summer residence but it does resemble the description of the castle in Stoker’s book and a number of cultural and historical events in Transylvania.

For example, Vlad (Tepes) the Impaler who people link to Dracula, impaled people through their butts, keeping them alive until the spiked pole came out of their mouth… brutal.

Poster of Vlad the Impaler

Example impaling minus the body

In Romania, they had a custom of digging up the dead in their coffins after a few years to inspect the bodies.  If they had not fully decomposed, they would put a stake through them to help speed up the process.

The goal was to have clean white bones to be placed in white cloth, and re-buried in a much smaller coffins to save space in the cemeteries.

Traditional Romanian culture does feature undead bloodsucking spirits called strigoi, but the term vampire emerged from Balkan history and Stoker built this into his story of Dracula.

Somehow, Stoker used a lot of bits and pieces to create his book about Dracula, which has become a great marketing exercise for Transylvania, because literally millions of people now visit ‘Dracula’s Castle’.

The castle was given to Queen Marie to use as her summer palace.

As a group, we had a private tour after opening hours, exploring up and through what is really quite a compact castle.  It was fabulous, with narrow and enclosed stairs to climb, balconies to look into small courtyards or out to the surrounding countryside.

Looking back down into a courtyard

More views of the castle

One of the narrow stairs we had to use

View of countryside as the sun lowers in the sky

The various rooms within the castle displayed how the castle was lived in, plus a display of Vlad's habits were on show.  Vlad the Impaler actually never lived in the castle.

The rooms were quite small and practical

A dining and lounge style area

Bedroom and the trappings of royalty

The Vlad legend was ever present

With the tour over, we descended back down to have dinner in Queen Marie’s tea house below the castle as the sun set and the castle was lit up.

Queen Marie's tea room where we had dinner

Last view of 'Dracula's Castle' after the sun had set

A great experience overall!

Bucharest

So now back to Bucharest, with our combined and overall enjoyable experiences in the capital city of Romania for 2M people.

When we first arrived in Bucharest before Transylvania, and prior to checking into our hotel, all 100 of us were taken for lunch at a very old hotel called Hanu’ lui Manuc Inn, originally built in 1808.

The external entry into the Manu Inn belies what waited inside

One of the bars to get a drink from

It has a massive internal courtyard, was very popular and our 100 people only made a small dent on the available seating, whilst everyone there were also entertained by dancers wearing traditional clothing.

Small section of the internal courtyard

Traditionally dressed dancers

Bucharest is full of very old and elegant Buildings, some of which are in need of TLC, but still beautiful nonetheless.

The 1724 Stavropoleos Monastery at night

Coltea Hospital

The CEC Palace

The Macca-Villacrosse Passage in central Bucharest

Bucharest and Romania has had a recent and torturous history and the hands of a communist era dictator called Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena.  They spent huge amounts of the public’s money, ripping down people’s homes and building new apartments for their elite friends.

Huge amounts of money were also consumed to build the second largest building on the planet after the Pentagon, called the Palace of the Parliament.

First view of Palace of the Parliament from the bus

Bucharest's Arcul de Triumf commemorating
Romania's victory in WW1

He made his last speech on a balcony the 21st December, 1989 in Revolution Square when the crowd turned violent.  By now, he and his wife had been responsible for the massacre of thousands of Romanians trying to shore up their rule.

Our photo of where Nicolae made his last speech
at Revolution Square

Nicoleau giving his speech and Elena to his right

Nicolae and his wife were whisked away in a helicopter by the Army, who then hours later, tried them in a military court, and a few further hours later, executed them both by firing squad.

The moment of their end!

All very gruesome we know BUT, what has been left behind and in part due to them, is a combination of older historical and beautiful buildings, large avenues, fountains and a massive building which is very impressive indeed.

One of the fountain festooned avenues

Another ornate building in Bucharest

Apartment buildings communist style

Last view after sunset of the Palace of the Parliament

Bucharest is now a vibrant city with many fine restaurants and cafes, friendly people, very fancy cars which is a want for many of the men and a great atmosphere overall.

Colourful small laneway

Some Romanian humour

Restaurants and nightlife was lively

Cabbage rolls and ribs... yum!

So by now, our hybrid river cruise and land tour had well and truly reached its end and it was time to board yet another flight to start another tour.

CLICK HERE for more photos of Balkan River Cruise 2026 - Part 2.

What will follow in the next post is something very very different and a first for us, so until then, go well!