Getting about Bucharest by the City Tour

Problem
How do you get around Bucharest?

Answer
Easy. Find a bus stop for the City Bus tour. There's one on the main circle with the huge Coca Cola sign. (P i a t a Romana.)

The circle is so large that you come along to it on foot and can't see the stop. The bus stop is outside the college of economics and tourism. We thought we needed a ticket office. The ticket offices were for other operations. Ironically, the graduating students did not know that the bus tour stop was outside their door. After asking numerous passers-by eventually we spotted it.

You pay for your ticket on the bus. We went upstairs, like most people, for a better view. The bus has a gate as barrier at the top of the stairs.

Monuments
The bus stops at the main sites. We decided to do the complete circuit in the morning, then stop for lunch and visit a couple of museums in the afternoon. The map shows you the points and the commentary is very useful.

Piata Arcul de Triumf
The commentary points out the triumphal arch based on the French Arc de Triomphe, very visible in the centre of the dual carriageway. The statue of Charles de Gaulle below you. (P i a t a Charles de Gaulle.)

The other major distinctive monument honours the aviators. We had passed all three already on our drive from the airport to our hotel near the old city.

The drive into the city is lovely. A grand avenue of massive trees and massive buildings, some of which are embassies, other museums. Most have name plaques which you can read if your driver is slow and your passenger is quick.

The park is grand and neatly symmetrical with a statue or monument at the entrance to many of the paths which are wide with cycling paths marked at the sides or centre.

We decided to get off at the point where you are dropped near the lake and Hard Rock café. We sat eating our picnic watching the tourist boat coming an and leaving with passengers. I read a noticeboard describing birds.

Hard Rock Cafe. Romanian waiter. Numerous guitars and costumes, souvenirs of Elvis and others. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Then we went into Hard Rock cafe for coffee and a very good apple tart. The shop sells t-shirts. The toilet entrance door handles are shaped like half guitars.

You get ten percent discount using the ad on the bus tour map.We didn't notice until it was too late.

TripAdvisor told us that the favourite attraction is

The Palace and Parliament building. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The Palace
The huge palace is now a museums and second biggest government building after the Pentagon. The name in Romanian is Palatal Parliamentului. Romanian words are easy to recognize. P a l a t u l sounds and looks like Palatial.

The commentary told us how many homes were destroyed, cleared away to make room for it, and people committed suicide. Compulsory clearance is nothing new, not unique to a particular dictator or government. It has been done in England, and China. All major developments, such as airports and railways cause distress.

What I do hope is that many of Bucharest's wonderful art deco buildings and other old style buildings can be restored.

My other favourites are:

The Art Museums
You have to pay for these. The admission ticket is for two adjacent museums, one on European art, the other on Romanian art.

The European art section has sculptures such as Rodin's The Kiss and a large number of religious paintings. A reminder that Romania is a Christian country, Eastern Orthodox.

The Romanian section has striking vivid pink walls which contrast wonderfully with the gold on the picture frames and paintings. Romania is so colourful! You will also descent an impressive grand spiral staircase.

The grand staircase in the art gallery. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Fairytale churches
A striking feature of the country is the way that churches have colourful paintings on the outside walls, often with golden or gilded halos and embellishments. The style is gorgeous, fairy tale, with numbers turrets in elongated onion shapes or like tall gables or witches hats, topped by elaborate crosses with two bars. You don't need to go to see the elaborate painted monasteries. (You probably do.) What I mean is, without seeing the no doubt even more delightful painted monasteries, you can enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the superb painted churches.

The price of the tour is 25 lei for adults.
http://bucharestcitytour.ratb.ro
info line 021 9391
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Angela Lansbury travel writer. Please share links to my posts. ( I'll add more photos to my posts on Romania within the week. I took 300 photos a day!)