More horse carts. I cant get enough of these. So Cool!
Workers going to the fields . You do not see many tractors in Transylvania.
Sheep Herds
We have seen many solar farms on this trip.
These are a new addition with funding from the EU.
The boys were hauling water from the Hosman city well in the containers
The Hosman fortified church
Jim Peters climbing the stairs to the church
Old Saxon school just outside the church grounds. There is a large auditorium and theater stage inside. The Saxons had both music and theater groups in each village.
The Fagaras mountains
Unfortunate graffiti on the beautifully painted walls
Amazing construction of the fortified walls
The Saxon cemetery just outside the fortified wall of the church
Old Saxon house.
Roma (Gypsy) family walking down the outer streets of Hosman. The Roma tend to live on the outskirts of the villages. The Roma came here along with
Genghis Khan from present day India.
The GPS lost its charging capability just before Biertan and finally went out all together. Thank goodness for my previous driving experience in the area and the expert road atlas I had purchased a few years back! We were able to continue are journey with great cartography, a limited sense of direction and limited sign postings.
Waiting for the bus just outside of Hosman. Most people do not have cars so they rely on bus service, bicycles or travel by foot along with hitchhiking in the rural areas.
Shepard with his flock
Burning of the fields
More stray dogs. It is horribly sad! We must have seen 25 today.
School children on there way home from scoala (school)
One thing I was looking forward to on this trip was the fall colors
and mother nature did not disappoint!
We had lunch at the medieval restaurant Unglerus in Biertan This includes Ciorba (Soup) and rigatoni pasta in a black truffle sauce. The soups and stews in Romania are out of this world! Jim had essentially a pui (chicken) noodle soup and I had a traditional smoked ham and bean soup, both were foarte buna (very, very good).
Inside the restaurant
Romanian Post Office
Piata (city square) in Biertan
Biertan Saxon fortified Lutheran church
Friendly street dog that we fattened up with our left over french fries
The church at Biertan is incredible and comes from the 16th century and is massive! It costs 8 lei ($2.50) to enter and has beautiful architecture inside and out as well as tapestries from the 18th and 19th century still intact from the different guilds within the city. For example the wheel makers guild, woodworkers guild, barrel makers, winemakers and textile guild. Each Saxon village had experts in each area and would have seating together within the church; I suppose this was a early form of networking? The way the villages were ran and supported each other was amazing.
Entry stairway to the church
Wheel Makers Guild
Beautiful embroidery and weaving in these Saxon rugs and tapestries!
Amazing locks on the church doors
Wood Worker / Carpentry Guild
Amazing craftsmanship
Fallen Soldiers of World War I Memorial Plaque
Beautiful old photos of the wine making business in Hosman!
Grape press and wine making tools and equipment
Now that is a wine keg! WOW! It is the size of a truck!
Set-up of a traditional Saxon home and clothes
The mans winter coat is made of sheepskin exterior hand painted and embroidered and a sheep wool on the interior and a rabbit fur collar. Amazing craftsmanship!
The Saxons would always place the date on everything they created and their family name, including on clothes, aprons, furniture and houses!
Typical Saxon bed with drawers underneath for storage.
Grape vineyards between the first and second fortified church wall
Wagon full of harvested corn
Terraces in the valleys for growing grapes
Beautiful log home being built
The last stop of the day was Schassburg (Sighisoara) which has a beautiful collection of buildings atop of a hill overlooking the city. It is also a very tourist-oriented city with many cheaply made souvenirs at a variety of street vendors. Unfortunately most of these items appear to be made in China. The City Council building is incredible with characters that tell the day of the week like a cuckoo clock tells time. Once again the torture museum that is there was just closing like on my last trip so we could not visit.
City Council building
It is a rough life for dogs in Romania :-(
Antique store in Sighisoara. Saxon mans winter jacket. They wanted $500 US dollars for this coat that was not in very good shape. Unfortunately many of the old Saxon homes in the villages are broken into and the items sold to antique stores.
Stairs that lead to the fortified Saxon church
Statue of Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler). Bram Stoker was believed to use Vlad as his basis for his novel "Dracula". Vlad Tepes was born in Sighisoara
I purchased two Transylvanian (Siebenburgen) Saxon maps and a great book written in English about the Saxon fortified churches from the book store at Biertan. Most books written about the Saxons are in German and Romanian. I need to write a book about my families village in English just like Jessica Klein did on her families village of Meschendorf! It is a great read by the way!
Siebenburgen (7 cities) map
My families village Gergeschdorf (Ungeurei) (Ungureni)
The book forward is written by Prince Charles who owns several houses in Viscri
and spends 2 weeks here each year.
Once we got back to Sibiu we had to find our way through the city streets to our apartment which was somewhat challenging without the GPS; but we managed somehow.
Electric Train - CFR Railroad between Sighisoara and Medias
Beautiful Romanian Orthodox Church
This road construction was hell. It will make it nicer on my next visit though having
newly paved roads
The Saxons would primarily use cattle or oxen for pulling wagons.
The Romanians traditionally use horses. This was the first time I saw cattle pulling a cart!
Gas here is 5.58 RON per liter. That makes gas here about $7.50 US per gallon!!!!!
Women coming from church
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