Exploring Romania: From May 24 through July 5, we visited the historic towns of Transylvania: Cluj-Napoca, Sighişoara, Sibiu, Brasov, and Sinaia. After a week in Bucharest, Romania’s capital city, we returned to Transylvania for a longer visit in Sibiu.
The weather forecast for our days in Sinaia was not encouraging. We were likely to have rain throughout our stay. We began to see rain, on and off, along the train ride from Brasov to Sinaia. When you spend a week or more in one place, you can assume that you’ll have a few nice days to experience what you want. But when it’s only a day or two, bad weather can truly ruin your trip. Oh, well, we’ll just hope for the best.
Late Monday afternoon, we arrived at our hotel, Complex La Tunuri – Vila Economat. The hotel of today was once the office of the Royal Guard, just a stone’s throw from the Peles Castle. From the lovely terrace behind the hotel, we can sip our coffee while admiring this gorgeous palace on the hillside in the forest.
The Fox visits the area of our hotel regularly, since the restaurant workers leave food for her.
Having arrived early enough, we walked over to Peles Castle for a visit. But we discovered that Peles is closed on Mondays, and that only the first floor is open on Tuesdays. We would have to visit on Wednesday to see it all. Pelisor Castle is also closed both Monday and Tuesday. Clearly, we should have checked those things before coming.
Without a doubt, Peles Castle is the most important and impressive tourist attraction in Sinaia. It’s a neo-Renaissance palace, built between 1873 and 1914 under King Carol I (Charles) of Romania.
- My pet peeve: Why call it a “castle” when it clearly it’s not? This is a palace, not a castle. A castle is a large, heavily fortified building, or building complex, usually built in medieval times, a fortress with thick, tall walls, designed to withstand attack and provide a safe refuge during a siege.
- Peles “Castle” is beautiful, but it’s a palace, not a castle. Indeed, few castles are as beautiful as this palace. It’s a very large building, a suitably ornate home for a grand ruler, but it has no walls for protection, and the weapons on display are decorative: they were used centuries ago, and would be useless in wartime today.
Pelisor “Castle”: A smaller pseudo-“castle,” an even shorter distance from our hotel, is the Pelisor “Castle,” built in 1899-1902 for Carol’s nephew, who was destined to be the future King Ferdinand. It too is in the neo-Renaissance style of Peles Castle.
On Tuesday: Another Gray Day with the threat of rain showers, and without the sun, so it’s not great for pictures. Our hopes would have to depend on Wednesday, when the forecast is for better weather, and both “castles” will be open. And we decided to wait on the gondola ride too, because there’s no point in taking the gondola if all we can see from the top will be clouds and gray.
But we walked: Tuesday was cloudy, but it didn’t rain much, and it was very light rain when it did. Our accommodation near Peles is a distance above the town of Sinaia. We really enjoyed the lovely walk down from our hotel over the cobblestone trail through the forest, down first to the Sinaia Monastery, and then down into the town of Sinaia.
The Monastery in Sinaia was founded in 1695 and named by a prince who was inspired to build it after visiting Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt. It has two lovely courtyards and each houses an Orthodox church. The Old Church was built in 1695, restored in 1795 and reopened as of 2016. The larger Great Church was built between 1842 and 1846. Both quite beautiful, each in its own way. And even today, a few monks and priests live here. This monastery is quite beautiful and open to the public.
Town of Sinaia: Walking further down as we headed into town, we found a lovely park, the Palace Hotel (also called the Hotel Palace), and a lovely main street where we walked and then stopped at a Turkish restaurant to enjoy coffee, tea, humus and garlic nan. The town of Sinaia is quite nice and interesting. So if you come to Sinaia, don’t just visit the castles and head out of town on a day trip. Give it at least a couple of days.
Wednesday: This would be our last chance, but the sun came out Wednesday morning, and we thoroughly enjoyed our last day in Sinaia. We saw:
Peles “Castle”: We were at the gates at the opening hour for the full tour. It was a bit crowded, but all were able to explore the many rooms on all three levels. It’s a stunningly beautiful palace decorated with lovely artwork: statues in stone and wood, and family portraits throughout.
Pelisor “Castle”: A smaller pseudo-“castle,” an even shorter distance from our hotel, is the Pelisor “Castle,” built in 1899-1902 for Carol’s nephew, who was destined to be the future King Ferdinand. It too is in the neo-Renaissance style of Peles Castle. Much of the beautiful Art Nouveau style and artwork in Pelisor is attributable to Queen Marie.
The main hall features an exhibit dedicated to the interesting life of King Michael I, crowned at age 5 in 1927, but rarely in power during the turbulent 20th century. It’s a fascinating portrait of how a man of honor strives to do his best in a world of Nazis and Communists.
A Gondola Ride takes you far up the mountain. In winter, this is a ski resort. Today, it’s a steep ride up a huge mountain. As we rode up, the clouds settled in, and we felt the temperature dropping at the higher elevation. At the top it was cold and very windy. There’s not much to explore, but the view of the Carpathian Mountains from the top of one of its highest peaks was spectacular. Add to that, the brisk air, the strong winds threatening to get stronger, and the darker clouds crossing the mountain peaks. It was a great ride up, but we were happy to descend.
Back in the lowlands, we returned to re-visit the lovely Sinaia Monastery to enjoy the music and chanting. Then it was back again to the hotel restaurant for dinner and our final night in Sinaia.
What a full last day for our visit to Sinaia. Tomorrow, we leave Transylvania on our way to the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
