Transylvania

We went on a bus tour to Bran Castle, the most popular tourist attraction in Romania.  When we got on the bus, Maggie said, "I'm the only one here who doesn't have grey hair". This was a really big tour bus, but our driver was a pro, navigating through narrow Romanian town streets and hairpin switchbacks with cool aplomb.

We went north for more than an hour to Sinaia, named after Mt Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments. A monastery there was in the midst of celebrating Good Friday, as the Greek Orthodox church uses the Julian Calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar that we use.  This year Easter happens to be exactly one week later.

We then drove up and through the Carpathian Mountains to the small town of Bran, home of the fabled "Dracula Castle". As this is the biggest tourist draw in Romania, they really cash in.  The tour guide said that twenty years ago these people were poor farmers, but now many are driving BMWs.

Bran Castle is part of the Queen Maria of Hungary legacy that led to the building of Maryhill Museum in Washington State overlooking the Columbia near Biggs, Oregon.


And today we didn't have any bad luck.