Painted Monastery and unsurfaced roads…..

Paloma, our motorhome has checked into a motel for the night. Well almost, the enterprising Romanians at Cristina motel (N46.937780 E 26.113560 ) in Bicaz allow motorhome to park in their grounds for the princely sun of 40 Ron.

Having finally given in, that our eBay “Europe on a shoestring” isn’t the bee all and end all of guide books, I downloaded the latest copy of the lonely plant guide to Romania, which has slightly more than just 3 things to see in this massive country.

We started our day out following the rest of the vampire valley out towards the painted monastery, passing many signs for the castle Dracula hotel, which was built sometime in the 1980s to cash in on the touirsts, a quick read of the Wikipedia on this place also sheds some light on the special room…… Sadly it was nowhere to be seen from the road side, but I guess the big lighting up cross must be somewhere close by…..

First stopping off point of the day is  Campulung Moldovenesc, the guide noted as worth visiting, and it was on our way ……

A fascinating little town, with a few attractions to look around. Also on it’s Main Street it had a Lidls. Michele was eager to pop in and see how the prices would compare, well I’m pleased to report that Romanian food is cheap and lager is even cheaper with a 2litre bottle of Lidls premium beer about 50p….

We have chosen the painted monastery in Voroneţ  for our visit, this UNESCO world heritage site is said to have been built  in just three months and three weeks by Ştefan cel Mare following the 1488 victory over the Turks.

Voroneţ Monastery is the only painted monastery that has had an internationally recognised colour associated with it. “Voroneţ Blue”.

The size, scope and detail of the Last Judgement fresco, which fills the entire exterior western wall, is a joy to behold and is held in great esteem world wide as One of the best examples of a  Bucovina fresco. 

It depicts humanity being brought to judgement.

 On the left, St Paul escorts the believers, while a seriously looking Moses takes the nonbelievers off to the right.

Sadly you will have to visit yourself, as there is a no photograph rule, which the stern looking nun wanted to enforce…….

 

 
We  had planned to stay near by, but the Wild camping location in our database, is no more, someone has caught onto the idea, and they are now charging 60 Ron, which is a lot for not more much more than a patch of waste land, so we pushed on towards tomorrow’s planed spot.

A few miles into this journey, our lovely sat nav told us to turn left. A quick check of the sign posts and yep Highway 177 was in the right direction, and yes it’s marked as a blue road on the map. In every other country we have visited so far the blue roads are akin to an ‘A’ road in the U.K., so it should be good for about 50 or 60 mph an hour……

Well, if it hadn’t been for the occasional signs and the large volume of traffic we would thought that we had left the road and were now on some disused 4×4 off road track, but as I am writing this you can guess that we all made the 42km of torture in one piece ( well almost I did lose a wheel trim).

I think at this point the temperatures of Palomas passengers started to rise, I suppose living in a  7meter long box  24 hours a day, 7 days a week it was going to happen, 

 Michele decided that she hated Romania, it was dirty, and horrible and I was the worst person ever as all the places I picked to see where too far apart, and there was no where to park a camper van…….

Snapping back,  well it’s not bloody France with an aire around each f…Ing corner, didn’t help either…… 

But a few moments later when the mountains opened out the views started to make up for it all,  so yes it’s going to be a difficult country, where driving a motorhome requires a little more planning, but the sheer straggering beauty will hopefully make up for it …….

Stopping at the motel, we found the restaurant open for business, so a two course meal, a bottle of wine and 3 large Beers, later the world was back to normal, apart from the fact Michele is even more dissipointed as she thought that Dracula was real ……..

Don’t ask me !

Paul.