Romania

Cable way and black church After a slow morning we crossed the square and walked up to the cable way. A quick two minute ride took us to the top where the Brasov sign sits. Brasov sign We could see our apartment Big dog at the top We visited the black church. Then had late lunch in a pretty restaurant We were parked in.... Ours is the little red car right at the back! We sat watching anxiously as the cars left one by one. Finally at about 9 in the evening we were free and Dave quickly moved the car to a bay where we could get out in the morning. I made pasta for dinner and we chilled at home.

Brasov It was stormy outside. We left Monika's place about 11:30 and drive past Bran castle to the bat cave that she recommended. To get there we drove up to a village on a hill where fences were being knocked by the strong wind and it felt like we would blow off the edge of the hill. Was quite exciting. We had to walk the last part, a steep, muddy road down to the cave. First we had to find a safe place to park the car - metal we found a metal fence that shouldn't fall over and hoped flying debris wouldn't hit the car! We could have touched the bats as the caves was low where they were sleeping - but they didn't seem disturbed by our presence. View at the cave Driving back we passed Bran castle again. The drive to Brasov was under an hour and Brasov is very pretty. We had coffee and ice cream before checking in to our apartment which is right in the square.  Our spacious apartment I went for a wander around town, looki...

Stramba Valley, on the way over to Fagaras Mountains, Natura 2000 Site Dan collected us at 9:30 today (Dave's request :) ) and we had a 40km drive to where we were walking. Soon after seeing off we saw the loveliest fox!! Rosehip plant. If a wasp stings the flower it reacts like this ... From the communist days, the forests have been protected in Romania. There is a government body in charge, and even if it's a person's private land, you cannot just cut down your trees. A census is done, and only the trees in a forest can be removed, so the younger ones remain and natural regrowth happens. We found a herd of sheep walking towards us and had to wait for the shepherd in case the dogs got aggressive. I loved them of course!  Isn't she just gorgeous!! And some goats (love them too!) Badger prints We stopped here for lunch and easy quietly hoping for bears and wolves to appear.  The ravens started making a loud...

The national park is beautiful We saw quite a few of these guys This photo was on a board was taken. Dan explained the rangers saw some shepherds carrying a car is. They told them to return it to where they found it, which we where we parked. Shortly after the lynx returned for it's kill and they took this photo. Squirrel Lynx It was so slippery at sections I was spending a lot of time on all fours!! Bear damage to the tree, from harvesting the sap Bear hair again Wild boar Martins It turned cold again Bear prints We slipped and slid our way back to the car and had two hours to relax before Dan fetched us again. We were lucky the road the bear hide is possible to drive now. The hide was smaller than I expected. After sitting about 10 minutes, the bench suddenly gave! I got such a fright, unsure if it was the bench or the whole structure collapsing!! The rangers put a little food out ...