PS

Could not sign off without one last photo for your viewing pleasure. I affectionately refer to this as..."Looking Up"

Isn't this just a classic tourist photo!

Good bye for now, Catherine and Augusto

Moldavia Monasteries Tour

We are back in Bucharest and getting ready to head out yet again on another road trip. But first we wanted to share a few of our adventures with you from our five day Moldavia tour.

Crane sightings...apparently cranes travel from the Nile Delta to Romania every year in the spring to nest and lay their eggs. The nests are huge and usually built atop power poles. We could often see one parent crane in the nest while the other was out hunting for food.

Voronet Monastery is really a beautiful sight to visit. The dominant color in the fresco is called “Voronet Blue” and dates from the early 1500’s. This fresco shows “The Last Judgment” filling the entire west end wall.

One of the facinating things to see was the many artist's who came to visit and paint the monastery. This kind gentleman, Ihgor, allowed me to take his photo. He took off his cap and straightend his hair first. He was a delight.

And finally no visit can be complete without the obligatory group photo, taken by our guide.

During our road trip our guide asked if we would like to see the Ukraine Border and we, of course, said we would love to. As we approached the border we pulled off the side of the road to take some photos and before we finished snapping our first photos the border guards came charging over to check us out. We almost created an “international incident”…lol. Both the Romania and Ukraine guards came over demanding we turn over our cameras. But our driver guide diffused the situation and we were allowed to keep our cameras, photos, and not be sent to a “Gulag”…quite the adventure! Look carefully at the photo and you can see one of the guards walking towards us.

Tomorrow we are off to the heart of Transylvania...oh yeah, Dracula country. We will post upon our return.

Signing off for now...Catherine and Augusto

A little of this and a little of that...

While we were strolling through the National Village Museum, which is a collection of houses from all the different areas of Romania, we found this house which we all thought resembled where the Hobbits lived in "The Lord of the Rings" movie. What do you think?

Terry at the Bucharest Hard Rock Cafe...

Strolling through Herastrau Park we came upon some rather interesting head sculptures of the various individuals behind the founding of the European Union. You can see that Kay has his "ear".

A little bit of history - we walked by the famous balcony of what used to be Comunist Party Headquarters where Ceausescu made his last speech - see the You-Tube video. Romania suffered painfully during the 25 year reign of Ceausescu. And on December 21, 1989 he delivered his last speech. Of all the Soviet bloc countries, only Romania's government transfer ended with a dead leader.

A little schedule update for you all...on Wednesday April 22 we are heading out on a road trip to the Moldavia region to see "The Painted Monestaries". We will be gone until Sunday thus our posting may lapse for awhile. But we will resume upon our return to Bucharest.

La revedere, Kay and Augusto

This and that...

We all enjoyed celebrating Michael Junior's birthday, a nice treat for us. He is now twelve, just does not seem possible. My how the years have flown by...
On another note, Romania is still without an Ambassador since President Obama has yet to appoint. However, our ever resourceful Michael was able to get permission for us to walk the grounds of the Amabassador's vacant home. No pictures were allowed, except outside the gate... thus our photo opp was limited to standing by the seal.

Proud parent moment...lol

Today we have a special feature, "Notes from Augusto" for your reading pleasure.

Day 6 – April 18th:
Today was a day to rest up a bit. Kay and Vickie accompanied Michael and Marina to the local “Costco-type” store to stock up on supplies. We then accompanied the boys to their tennis lessons at the Romanian Sports Federation facilities. Interesting tidbit: their teacher is from the Swiss Embassy.

The four travelers enjoyed a leisurely luncheon in the gardens of a restored villa from the 1890’s – Restaurant Doina. This time we didn’t have to wander around in search of an eating establishment as we had passed the place in one of our many walks to the Metro.

And, have I mentioned that the weather has been fabulous? We have had sunny days so far with highs in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s.

Well that is it for today, Augusto and Catherine

Meanderings

Walking, walking and more walking....
We four have been out and about exploring Bucharest and seeing some of the sights.
This is Parliament House, which was built by Ceausescu (Romania’s 24 year despot dictator) at the top of “Arsenal Hill” and linked to a central plaza by a grand boulevard. The original intent was for this monstrosity to be his palace. He razed one fifth of the city for the palace and boulevard. It is the second largest office building by volume, after the Pentagon, in the world.

No we are not in Paris… but in the early 20th century Romania was considered the Paris of the east and this “Arch of Triumph” is a left over from grander times.

Last night Michael took us to a delightful Romanian restaurant, which looked like an old hunting lodge complete with "Gypsy" music. We ate traditional dishes of cabbage rolls, spicey meat rolls and a cold platter filled with duck, cheeses, mashed white beans...all was delish.

Bye for now, Augusto and Catherine

We have arrived

The "Three Amigos" Terry, Augusto and Vicki at the Frankfurt airport.

Nap time in Frankfurt...LOL

And finally we arrive at Michael and Marina's home and find these two sweet boys awaiting their Abuelito and Grandma. Doesn't get much better than this!!

Since Michael has to work and Michael Jr. is still in school, we four travelers are going to canvas the neighborhood and begin to get the lay of the land.

See you soon, Augusto and Catherine

So long, farewell, it's time to say adieu...

And we are off,
From Washington to Romania we go... ten hours from Sea-Tac to Frankfurt, four hour layover, then another two and a half hour flight to Bucharest, our final destination.
We are being joined by my bff, Vicki and Terry on this sojourn to visit Michael and his family. I think this has the making of a "good time" for all. It is rather like the quote from the old testament book of Ruth.."Wither thou goest we will go", it seems that Michael cannot shake the four of us, where ever he goes, we "four" follow. Be it Bolivia, Panama or now, Romania.


"The saying "Getting there is half the fun" became obsolete with the advent of commercial airlines."- Henry J. Tillman .


ROMANIA...

Some facts for your reading enjoyment -
Capital of Romania: Bucharest
Area of Romania: total: 237,500 sq km land: 230,340 sq km water: 7,160 sq km
Population of Romania: 22,329,977 (July 2005 est.)
Languages of Romania: Romanian (official), Hungarian, German

OK that's all folks, we hope to post regularly during our month long adventure. But since this is our first travel blog attempt we have no idea how successful we will be. We hope to find internet cafes while out on the road, but we'll see.

Posting from afar,

Augusto and Kay/Catherine
PS...we are still in a learning curve with blogging, so please scroll down to the bottom of the page to see comments. Sorry about that...LOL