Sep 2 2025

Apparently he wasn’t even imprisoned here. 

Much of the interest in Bran Castle supposedly comes from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Putting aside the fiction of vampires, apparently Stoker never visited here, (neither did Vlad) and Stoker’s descriptions of the Count’s castle don’t even appear close to anything that could confuse it with Bran. 

Yet the town’s tourist industry appears unperturbed by these inconsistencies. 

Every “Dracula” trinket imaginable was available. Including the plastic teeth. 

The castle is an a lovely, and strategic, setting, overlooking the mountain road from the south. The fortifications here, built again by the invited Saxons, were important as defense against the Ottoman Empire. It now mainly houses a museum about the Romanian royal family, as it was used by them as a residence from 1920. 

The views of the exterior were probably far more interesting than than the interior. Thus after a somewhat disappointing visit to the previously espied gingerbread shop we walked on a little further to a field to look back and admire. 

It was here we stumbled across the Via Transylvanica, which stretches 1428 km across Romania. Every km is marked by a stone pillar and, as each one is individual, it is claimed this trail is also the world’s longest art gallery!

It was then on to Braşov, to another Casa Wagner in the main square. After lunch Mihail took us on a walking tour through the civic square, out through the city walls, up to the black tower, back down past Katharina gate, through Schei gate which used to be the main entry point into Brasov, through the narrowest street then back to the black church and the square. 

Lori did not seem to enthused when I suggest we complete the 158 steps up to the white tower. However we did. However it had just closed at 5.  

Hot and grimey we returned to the hotel. As lunch was large and late we didn’t need supper. However I did go out later in the cool of the evening to sit in the square and enjoy the experience. Not so much the disappointing ice cream which was no longer salted pistachio.