Rally Elan

Perhaps the title is a misnomer as we toured Romania and Bulgaria – but the Carpathian mountain range doesn’t get to Bulgaria. Anyway 9 cars took part, seven being classics plus two rentals. We all took advantage of transport so the cars were collected from our homes (or garages) and we met them again in Bucharest. The rental cars started from Sofia and took just five hours to drive the 250 miles which in a roundabout way took us two weeks! For this rally we took the Porsche – so no Lotus photos!
Our first stop was Doftana Prison, home to Ceausescu in the 1930’s and now derelict, inhabited only by cattle – and probably some smaller animals

Then to lunch with warnings from the RO that there were bears on the woods – doing what bears do in woods….
Then to the fairy tale 150 year old Peles Castle We had timed entry tickets but would have done better to wait 15 minutes before starting to avoid the crowds though we did manage to find some empty areas. and on to Brasov to a small hotel in the town centre where our travelling kettle blew the room’s fuses. But we did find a rather unusual pub nestling against the old City Walls .

Day 2 and our first stop was a bear sanctuary – they also do dogs but we didn’t see or hear them. They have 130 bears in well fenced compounds

Our route bypassed Bram Castle (Dracula) and after finding a friendly local in Fagaras we arrived at the village of Viscri, famous for its fortified Church and King Charles House – with a giftshop stacked full of royal memorabilia . Then on to Sighisoara where I was sent to find some Dracula themed gifts having failed to get to Bram Castle
Next day was uneventful, a picnic stop and a short scramble amongst limestone crags before arriving at Campulung Moldovenesc which did have an interesting museum of rural life.
.
Day 4 and rain. Our first visit was better than expected – a studio of painted eggs. Inside there were cabinets of painted eggs in colour themes but each egg, and there must have been thousands, was slightly different – amazing! And on to the equally amazing Moldovita Monastery (1532) with its painted walls