We left Bucharest and passed through Alpine like villages all very neat and tidy and beautiful mountains thick with vegetation and lovely streams and waterfalls. We left at 7pm but saw quite a lot of scenery as it didn’t get dark until about 9.30pm.
We didn’t make it to Count Dracula’s castle in Brasov which was a three hour train trip from Bucharest so that is on the agenda when we return. We would have been safe as we had eaten plenty of garlic in the last few days. Apparently there are many castles in that area of Transylvania.
Our compartment was 5star and only the two of us which was lovely. The toilet and shower compartment was excellent and we were given water, toothbrush etc and a voucher for a sandwich and coffee for breakfast in the nice restaurant car. The poor people in the next carriage were 6 to a compartment and I have memories (not that fond) of being with smelly socked people on various trains on Eurail journeys long ago. There were only three compartments taken in our new carriage so we felt very priviledged and very grateful for the luxury after the previous horrendous train trip.
We met a lovely German older man at breakfast and I practised my German as he spoke little English. He had been driving from Berlin to Greece for a holiday when his car broke down in Romania. He said it could not be repaired so sold it to a Romanian for a small amount of money and he was making his way back to Berlin on the train.
The scenery in the morning was of very lush wheat, corn and sunflower fields and neat little villages.
Maurice has calculated that we have done about 8,000kms on trains so far and apart from the last journey we have enjoyed the train travel very much. It is very relaxing and we have seen so much and met a lot of nice people along the way.