Europe 2016 – Page 6 – Beauperi Investments

Posted on May 10, 2016May 10, 2016 by beauperi

Transylvania

Saturday, 7 May, 2016 – Bucharest to Brasof

We check out of our Hotel and jump in the car to head to our next destination – Transylvania. The first stop is at Sinala to see Peles Castle.

When we arrive at the Castle, there are tons of people waiting in large groups to get in. I would have given up at that stage but Alexandra is a professional guide and is able to get us near the front of the queue with an English speaking group. When we get in we have to put blue plastic bags on our shoes. We are also told that no flash photography is allowed. So I have no pictures inside the palace that is called a castle. I encourage you to Google “Peles Castle” – Wikipedia has a great story of it. It is very ornate with lots of valuable art, wood work, weapons etc. We have a coffee outside, inside the cafe is full and it is raining somewhat but we get a seat under an umbrella and then take the medium walk back to the car in the rain.

We drive onto Brasov which is our destination for the next two days. I think it is the second largest city in Romania but it has a lovely old town where we are staying in the Bella Muzica Hotel.

It is quite an old Hotel but stuff inside is good. The following are photos from the Lobby.

A radio labelled 1944 - the year of my birth — A radio labelled 1944 – the year of my birth

There was a massive “attention bell” and they allowed me to ring it once. It was very loud.

We go to our room to drop off our cases while Alexandra, who is staying elsewhere, goes to check-in. There lots of passages going in all directions with layers of stairs going up and down.

We are having LLED (my new coining for Late Lunch, Early Dinner) in the Bella Muzica Restaurant in the Hotel. The menu describes it as Traditional Romanian, Hungarian and Mexican food???!!!

When Alexandra comes back, we go into the restaurant. It has a number of rooms / alcoves and we are lead into the bottom one which reminds us of a cave.

Lots of discussion about what to order off of the comprehensive menu. Alexandra recommends the bean soup>

Although I did not order it and only had a couple of tastes, I am voting this as the best dish I experienced in Romania.

Julie had a mouse of salmon and smoked salmon

Alexandra, getting into the Mexican theme, after the Bean Soup ordered Quesadilla

The waiter had warned us that it was probably big enough for 2 and he was probably right. I made a good fist (pun) of it but had a fair bit left in a doggy bag.

After the meal it was time for a tour of Brasov. I decided to rest up instead so the girls headed off. The following are photos taken by Julie on the tour.

The girls then went into a bar.

They then went to the “smallest street in the world”. I will concede narrowest maybe.

The girls part company and Julie comes back and said we should go to the bar shown above. Assuming it was not very far away, I did not rug up enough to cater for the very long walk across to the big square and then a long, long mall.

It is quite crowded but we manage to get a table.

The bar is getting more and more crowded and I am not that comfortable there so we leave for the long walk back to the Hotel. It is very cold. I was glad to reach our room and hit the sack.

Posted on May 8, 2016May 8, 2016 by beauperi · 1 Comment

The Lizard

Friday, 6 May,2016 – Bucharest and surrounds

Today we drive out to a wine area outside Bucharest to learn about and taste Romanian wines. We are picked up at 8:30 and there is a lot of rush hour traffic to drive through. Eventually, after 2 plus hours we read The Hill where there are a lot of grapes growing and wineries and arrive at our guest winery.

The Winery with our Host for Today coming to greet us

The Host is very knowledgeable, speaks English, friendly – just what you want.

We went in to see the various bits of equipment that they use to sort the grapes, crush the, ferment, bottle, label etc.

We had been given a glass of rose at the start and told to bring the glass along. From the steel barrels we had a taste of their multi-grape white and a very young Shiraz.

So, what is all this about the Lizard?

The Lizard - in Latin Lacerta which is the chosen name of the winery — The Lizard – in Latin Lacerta which is the chosen name of the winery

We eventually reach the cellar door where we started, we have been set-up with a table, stools and snacks.

The table, and my stool in particular, seem to be falling off a cliff but on close inspection there is glass there.

Out host asks me which wines to taste and I select three. He says that this is not good enough, 6 are required. The serves are quite generous, his point is that it gives the taster a chance to swirl the lot around and a generous taste and then tip the rest.

We bought several to take away. During the tasting a heavy downpour occurred but as we leave is has dampened down a lot. I would have to say, it was one of the better winery visits we have been to. BTW: Roy, have you tried Romanian wines? Some,e.g. the Shiraz, were very good. The Romanian grapes, a little less so.

After that we drive to a nearby town, Buzau for lunch a Taverna Buzolana. Arival time is, deliberately, after 2:00 and the large place is nearly empty.

There was quite a lot of discussion as to what we should have for lunch. Julie of course wanted the salmon on the menu but Alexandra cautioned that it was likely frozen and not very nice. She suggested we go for one of the platters for two:

We eventually selected the Outlawry Dinner

Pickled vegies and a big slug and variety of meats

Alexandra had ordered something that was not available and went for the lamb sausages instead

The latter dish for Alexandra and the large pile of sausages eventually defeated her. Julie had a side salad and with some of the pickled vegies, and a litle bit of the meat, evenually had enough. Me, I piked out with still a fair bit left on the platter.

We drive back to town. It is still realtively early in the afternoon, which does not stop me from napping and Blogging. The girls go out and their separate ways. Julie goes into a market with the following photos:

A young girl offered Julie "upmarket cheeze snacks" which were glorified Cheezels — A young girl offered Julie “upmarket cheeze snacks” which were glorified Cheezels

Julie brought some back and as I was busy Blogging I eventually snarfed some down.

On that disgraceful note I will sign off on this Post.

Posted on May 7, 2016May 8, 2016 by beauperi

Tour Bucharest

Thursday, 5 May, 2016 – Bucharest

Well, it is Cinco de Maio but we are nowhere near Mexico. Out main activity of the day is a walking tour around Bucharest. We start with the Hotel breakfast which is a typical buffet with one extra special for someone.

We are joined at the hotel by our guide, Alexandra, who proves to really know her stuff. We are not far out of the hotel where we see one of the most important aspects of Romania.

I won’t go into Dracula’s story here e.g. the Ups, Downs, Ups and very Downs, he was eventually beheaded – Google it. Suffice to say he is considered a Romanian / Transylvanian hero. After that we wander a bit and then Julie disappears into shops, twice, I hate shops. I thought ot myself I am paying money to be tortured, but things improved after that.

We learned a lot about the Communist rule in Romania, the brutal rule of Ceausescu, the Romanian Revolution which was the only violent removeal of a Communist Government, the eventual removal of Ceausescu and his wife, who seemed to be worse in many ways, by court and firing squad in 1989.

One of the heroes of the revolution and an artwork statue of a number of others

This spot was one of the key areas of the revolution.

The Balcony from which Ceausescu made his infamous speeches

The "Potato on a Stick" — The “Potato on a Stick”

A Mosque - amazing stories of whole buildings like churches being lifted out of their foundations and moved a distance away — A Mosque – amazing stories of whole buildings like churches being lifted out of their foundations and moved a distance away

But enough of this guff. Thie Blog is not a travelogue or a history channel. We take some back lanes and alleys.

We had booked lunch at a famous beer hall.

We ordered wine and food.

The Vino - a Shiraz — The Vino – a Shiraz

Julie's Beet and Horseradish — Julie’s Beet and Horseradish

Pork stew for Julie, sadly there was a lot of pork liver in it

Vine leaves stuffed with Goose and Rice for me

Anyway, it was time for me to crash which I subsequently did. Juile, of course, pranced around town. When she eventually came back she suggested we go to Bruno’s, Alexandra’s favourite Bar.

The street with lots of bars and restaurants

We depart back to the Hotel, stopping at the cheese shop at which Julie had bought wine and pie yesterday. We are not really hungry but pick up a small snack for each:

Cheese pie for Julie, an unusual Ham for me

It is an early start tomorrow so off to the sack.

Posted on May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 by beauperi

Auf weider sehen Deutschland, Hello Wlad

Wednesday, 4 May, 2016 Mainz and Bucharest

We are up very early, someone got up hours early from a too early moment. Nevermind, we have to go. A last photo of Karim’s apartment:

We are out the door at 5:30 and catch the 6:03 train to the airport. German trains inefficent as usual, arrive at the airport 2 minutes late.

At the airport we put up with the necessary personal infringements, I had to strip off 3 layers of clothes to get through the scanners, unfriendly immigration folk as we exited, but that is what the “glamourous jetsetting life” is about. Into the lounge, which is quite large as you might expect. A lot of snacks but the only hotfood was scrambled eggs. Crap lunch meats instead of hams. Give it a 5 out of ten, should have been better to mine. Board the plane, the usual chaos but as we are in Business Class we do OK. Meal is cold stuff, not my favourite, and no alcohol, I probably would have said no any way. OK flight, otherwise.

Arrive in Bucharest and the first thing we notice is that it is pouring rain outside. We get to immigration and there is a longish queue to get through. It moves OK, and we are out. We get to baggage and suitcases from our flight are going around. In spite of our priority bags, it is ages before ours finally come out, over 30 minutes or more.

When we finally escape, we are met by Alexandra, a delightful girl we enjoy meeting. She is our guide for the next 6 days and it looks like we have done well selecting her. Out to the carpark, in the rain a bit. Then more chaos as they have closed off exits, and then a car blocks the exit, but eventually we are on the road and drive through a lot of traffic in the rain and reach our Hotel.

Gambling everywhere - a MPEG add for the "jackpot Palace" — Gambling everywhere – a MPEG add for the “jackpot Palace”

We are waiting for Alexandra to return from parking the car. First Julie goes up to the room with the suitcases and when she comes down still no Alexandra. So I go up to clean my teeth etc and when I come down they are gone. I find them out on the street, in the rain, and they go off briefly to some shops.

Julie's favourite cheese and wine shop — Julie’s favourite cheese and wine shop

Alexandra had organised for a massuese to come to the room for deep massages. Julie gets back just before he arrives with her goodies.

We both had 90 minutes on the table. In my case he really dug in deep and there were a few bruises afterwards. Julie loved the massage. After it was finished, we had a booking at the restaurant across the street so we headed over there.

Note the huge courtyard but no people in it because of the rain

We are seated and it takes a while before anyone pays attention to us. Finally, we order some wine which is brought to us by our waiter along with menus. BTW: it is a huge place inside too.

Apparently it is common practice in Bucharest to decant the wines

Pouring Julie's wine — Pouring Julie’s wine

The menu was quite comprehensive and it was difficult to make choices. The waiter tried to help but his suggestions were all meals for two which did not really suit. Eventually we make decisions.

Julie starts with Beet salad with horseradish

I start with marrow bones with Horseradish

The horse radish was not very strong, sad, and the marrow was not as flavoured as the one Julie had had in Mainz. Then came the main course.

Julie said that the stew had good flvaour but there were lots of bones within. Very Romanian dish.

It wasn’t really a confit but there was lots of nice duck. It was served with pink peppercorns – very 1980s. I liked it.

Julie had coffee with Baileys - Irish Coffee — Julie had coffee with Baileys – Irish Coffee

Back to the room, it had been a long day and after a few more grapes we crashed out.

Posted on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Around Mainz

Tuesday, 3 May, 2016 – Mainz

This is really our only full day in this neck of the woods. Mainz is a modern city outside of Frankfurt. We had received an email overnight from our Airbnb host, Karim, Who suggested a great place for breakfast but also pointed out that there was a farmers market on in the city near “The Dome”. We find the breakfast place easily:

Sadly we were out “too early”, being 8:00 AM, things seem to start a bit later over here. So we depart and try to find the farmers market. Again we did that pretty easily. There were a large number of stalls in a lengthy mall type area as per below.

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Category: Europe 2016

Transylvania

The Lizard

Tour Bucharest

Auf weider sehen Deutschland, Hello Wlad

Around Mainz