Christmas in Europe - Romania - Day 4

Well, it's Christmas Eve Day and we had a full day of sight seeing  to do.  First stop, Peles Castle in Sinai.  This was the summer home of the royal family.  It was Christmas Eve and our taxi driver said it should be open to go in, but unfortunately it was closed.  We wandered around outside and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Jonny, Nicole and Vika at Peles Castle

 

Just beautiful, everywhere we looked.

 All throughout Sinai, they had these dogs just wandering around.  They aren't wild, but just live outside.  Don't know how they handle the cold.  This one was at the castle and was so cute.  We wanted to take him home with us.

One of the most beautiful places we have seen.

The gardens had all these different statues…this just looked a little scary.

 We were a little disappointed that we weren't able to go inside, but Gavin was able to go a few days later (pictures in a different post).

Marichia and Jonny

Gerber's

Playing with the boomerangs 

 As we were leaving there was a man selling these boomerang type toys.  They actually looked like hand painted large popsicle sticks in a cross.  It was amazing how they really worked.  The kids all had fun trying them and then we ended up buying quite a few.

After Peles Castle we headed to Bran Castle, better known as Dracula's Castle.  It was about an hour and a half drive so we stopped for some snacks and found Bacon chips.  Couldn't resist.

Bacon stripes and all.  YUMMY!

Nicole got a little bored on the drive and made this cool braid in Vika's hair.

Bran Castle in the distance.

 Bran Castle is the castle that was used to inspire the Bram Stoker's story of Dracula.  Vlad Tepes was a Romanian Count that was also knowns Vlad Dracul.  He wasn't the nicest guy around, but wasn't a vampire.  He was very cruel to the people.  Bram Stoker never visited Romania but used the description of Bran Castle for his fictitious story.  It was quite mysterious and creepy but quite the beautiful castle.  See History of Bran Castle for more information.

 The castle was set on top of a hill in the village of Bran.

On our way into the castle.

View from within the castle.

 This door led to a secret passageway to the upper floor.  Why a secret passageway?  Who knows.  Just makes it mysterious.

The secret passageway led to the library.  Not so mysterious.

Beautiful views.

  They even had a Christmas Tree and Santa in the castle.  Glad they were bringing the Christmas spirit into this mysterious castle.

We had a great day exploring castles and just happened to come across this crazy Santa entrance.  We were downtown near the main hotel shopping and eating dinner when we noticed this crowd gathering inside and outside the hotel.  We figured that it must have been for Santa since it was Christmas Eve.  We noticed that they were opening a window up on the third floor and were curious as to why when we saw this fire truck pulling into the parking lot.  Santa was riding inside the cab and then they put the ladder up into the window and Santa climbed in.  Now that's a new one for how Santa gets inside.

After Santa climbed the ladder and went inside his little helpers followed along.  I think this was the main reason for the crowd.  Lots of very happy men looking at that picture.  Not quite the "kid friendly" Santa Christmas Eve we were expecting, but it was quite the funny shot.

Still having the time of our lives.