Before leaving London we wrote to three wineries on the route between Bucharest and Brasov. One winery wrote back inviting us to visit.
Bucharest Wine Bars and Restaurants
We flew into Romania's capital Bucharest, and hired a car from Thrifty (a branch of Hertz) at the airport. We stayed two nights in the capital in order to see bustling Bucharest with its pedestrianised old town, with street seating in front of bars and restaurants where we had our first taste of Romanian wine.
Seating outside the restaurant in Bucharest old town.
C r a m a means winery. Winery restaurant. Bucharest. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Bucharest's Grand Buildings
Bucharest's grand buildings, blocks of flats above shops and stores. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
But also where we in England might have rampant ivy, many Bucharest buildings have a jungle of phone lines, peeling plaster and graffiti.
Telephone wires in Bucharest. Mind you don't trip over the cobblestones. Near ground level there's graffiti. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
In addition to magnificent buildings and cobblestones they have trolley buses. What's the difference between trams and trolley buses? Trolley buses are like trolleys pushed by people. Overhead energy from an arm reaches down a propels them along. Disadvantage is that the trolley bus swings around a corner or doesn't drive straight and the link becomes detached. So later rails were added underneath to keep them on course and you got trams. Unlike a bus, a trolley bus can be longer and carry more people.
Story
I hate trams. They cannot deviate from the rails and I consider them dangerous. In New Zealand I was nearly run over by the scissor action of two trams going in different directions. I managed to jump out of the way. The following day I saw a nasty fatal accident where a car was hit by a tram killing the car's occupants. But let us turn our thoughts to holier subjects.
Beautiful building in the background, ruined by graffiti in the foreground. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
The city of Bucharest reminded me of somebody with missing teeth. Beautiful buildings would stand next to ruins, then another lovely building, then another ruin.
Sometimes the regeneration was horizontal, like sandwiches. A renovated set of shops was at ground level, plaster and pock marks on the next level, advertising and a new roof above.
After breakfast we drove off past Bucharest's grand buildings, along flat country roads, to see the winery in the foothills of the mountains, then diverted for lunch at a farm.
Finally we drove off to our destination, a week's hiking holiday in the forested Carpathian mountains. From flat fields to majestic mountains and green gorges, rain and waterfalls. (We were with about thirty ex-pats from Java Lava in Exile from Indonesia.)
We stayed in Brasov city which has a historic old town.
Vineyard Break
Our stop en route between Bucharest and Brasov was the wine region. Vines are different, hundreds of varieties, yet to the amateur's eye they look similar, recognisable, the world over. An English vineyard, a French vineyard, a Romanian vineyard - I can spot them.
But when you are driving each country's scenery is different. England has rustic thatch cottages, black and white mock Tudor Victorian detached houses and semi-detached houses. In Harrow we have occasionally green roofed white-walled detached and semi-detached thirties art deco houses. (See my previous posts on art deco.)
The more modest old terraced houses from the 1880s display decorative brickwork, bay windows, arched doorways with brick edging, oblong sash windows, grey roof tiles.
London also has great and small buildings. Even the more modest buildings have cute, local, or memorable features. Terraced housing with decorative brickwork, London red brick from clay soil, in Harrow, NW London. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
French Style
France has buildings with huge exterior wooden slatted shutters , sturdy defences with inward opening windows and outside shutters which bolt to let in air but keep out the heat, the flies, the robbers.
Church in Romania in the Carpathian region. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Romania is different again. Even the smallest village has a church with golden onion domes, huge thick tapering steeples like white witches' hats.
Colourful paintings in red and blue with gold haloes adorn the white outside walls.
Nearby cemeteries have white crosses with necklaces of colourful flowers and photos of the deceased. Here's one we passed on the way.
Churchyard in Romania.
Grave with flowers and photos in Romania.
Our Vineyard and Winery Tour
D e a l u (hill) M a r e (big) was our destination. As we drove into the area we started to see rows of vines. Also the road signs to various vineyards and the wine route.
Our destination was the vineyard of Aurelia Visinescu. (See later post.)
Telephone wires are across every picture. I could edit them out, but I'd rather show the places how they are.
The vineyard, with red flowers which are popular in summer in this region of Romania. An oasis of cleanliness, colour and calm.
Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Bottles and barrels are reassuringly familiar. They look the same the world over. But the aromas, tastes and labels change. Aurelia Visinescu wines at their winery shop. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Touring around the Romanian region we see horses and carts.
Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to my posts. Thank you.
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