We reached Sighișoara just before check-in time and found Hotel Central Park with ease. It looked a very smart hotel and, as the name suggested, overlooked a small park. We were fairly confident there wouldn't be any parking issues here and sure enough there was a large car park at the rear of the hotel. When I booked the only rooms available were in the attic which was a little concerning but in fact the room was fine, we just had to reposition the furniture to stop ourselves cracking our skulls on the sloping ceilings. After a quick cuppa we were back out ready to explore the town and what a lovely place it was.
This belonged to a Pizzeria just across the road - may do us for dinner.
The imposing Clock Tower showed us we were really close to the old town but finding the way in was another matter.
After a few dead ends and wrong turns we found a flight of steps which took us to the bottom of this cobbled walkway. (I had to do a fair bit of cloning to remove a large woman in red trousers from this one and couldn't get the colours right so turned it B & W in an attempt to disguise the cloning.)
The old town is lovely with cobbled streets and brightly coloured buildings.
In medieval times the small turrets on each of the four corners indicated that the town had the power to pass death sentences.
Once again many of the buildings have a distinctly Austro-German feel style.
The Church on the Hill which sits above the town and was the final line of defence.
Also on the hill is the School on the Hill, one of Romania's most venerated schools which at one time catered exclusively for the Saxon population. Back in the day, in order to make the walk to school less hazardous for the pupils in winter, 175 steep wooden steps were built under a covered walkway - it became known as the Scholar's Stairway.
The church was supposed to have been open until 1700 but unfortunately the door was firmly closed when we got up there, although there was a handwritten note on the door (which we couldn't understand!). Judging from the beautiful choral music coming from inside we assume it was choir practice which was a real shame as we'd have like to have seen inside and also enjoyed the singing.
Instead we had a quick walk in the graveyard.
This is part of the old town wall
I was a little worried there was a 100ft drop the other side and Ian would just vanish, but luckily he returned safely and reported that the view wasn't anything special.
We walked along some delightful old streets.
These umbrella installations are now quite commonplace the world over.
More buildings with eyes.
This magnificent building is the Town Hall but I couldn't get far enough back to take a decent photo.
And the superbly renovated Monastery Church
Looking down on the Romanian Orthodox Holy Trinity Church situated below the old town and just across the river.
This is the house Vlad Tepes (The Impaler) was born in (c. 1431) and lived for the first few years of his life. In recognition for his prowess in fighting the Ottomans, Vlad's father was awarded the Order of the Dragon by the Holy Roman Emperor of the time. That led to him acquiring the epithet Dracul (the dragon) and his son was therefore known as Draculea (son of Dracul).
From the young age of 6 he spent 5 years as a hostage of the Ottomans and developed both a hatred of Turks and a taste for innovative methods of torture and execution. He became ruler of the region in 1450 and ruled with a harshness that was unusual even for those times, with execution being the most usual punishment for any crime or affront to his dignity. His favourite method of execution was impaling, a particularly horrible death in which the victim has a sharpened stick slowly forced up the rectum and was then hoisted up to die a slow, excruciating and humiliating death. Defeating the Ottomans in a 1462 battle he impaled 20,000 captive troops along the roadside which scared off the remaining forces planning a second attack. He was assassinated in 1476 and is now largely seen as a hero of Romania's independence struggle and his "excesses" glossed over.
He certainly looks a wicked man if this statue is accurate.
Before long we were back at the Clock Tower, the figurines represent the days of the week; Diana, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the Sun.
This made me chuckle; the chap had picked the flower from the rubbish bin and, presumably thinking he was being romantic, offered it to his lady.
4 frames on you can tell from their body language that she was less than impressed and the bloom would soon be ending up back in the rubbish.
Back in the main square, this is one of the oldest buildings in town.
Famous for the stag.
We walked up the little street to the left and decided it was now time for a well earned pint (the beer is really nice here). We looked around for a suitable place to stop and there were two bars opposite, both completely devoid of customers outside, and so we mentally tossed a coin and sat ourselves down. With that numerous other people also came to the same bar and the one opposite remained empty - pure chance of course but we could feel the stares of the unoccupied waiters opposite.
Sitting next to us was this cute and very well behaved pooch, along with his/her owners who were in their late 40s.
We got chatting, as you do, he was Turkish and she Moldovan but he said that as Christians they were no longer welcome in Turkey and so they’d had to relocate to Moldova. Their 19 yo daughter was with them and she spoke very good English (as well as several other languages) which she said she'd learnt from school and online gaming!
Up next to the Scholar's Stairway Ian had noticed a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the town and so when we finished our beer we wandered up to look at the menu. It all looked delicious and so we headed in and another couple there with a small child kindly motioned us to take the best table overlooking the street (the beige umbrella on the left is the bar we'd had our beer in).
The meal was fab-u-lous; I had a chicken burger and Ian a beef one and we shared a lovely bottle of Romanian wine - we really do need to research it when we're home. The food was lovely, the setting perfect, nice staff and the bill was very reasonable at £35. We both said we wished we had another night here as it was a really lovely old town.
Incidentally these flowers were in the hotel foyer (yes, for once we were in a hotel posh enough to have a foyer) and I didn't recognise them so I asked - apparently they are Polianthes tuberosa or Hawaiian garland flower (despite being native to Mexico)
