Follow the adventures of Andrea and Randy Goodell as they retire, leave the Rat Race, move to Tomar, Portugal, and continue to explore the world.
August 17 – 19, 2019 After leaving Bucharest and its millions of illegally parked cars, we want to go to Craiova as a stopping point between Bucharest and Belgrade, Serbia. However, there is one more Vlad the Impaler castle we would like to visit. During Vlad’s reign, he was in constant conflict with the Ottoman …
Continue reading “Craiova, Romania – Poenari Castle, sort of.”
August 14 – 17, 2019 In doing our research on Vlad the Impaler, we found that he lived near Bucharest in the town of Targoviste. He built a castle there and it was his primary residence during the 7 years he was the King of Wallachia. The castle is in ruins, but some walls remain …
Continue reading “Bucharest, Romania – The Royal Court of Targoviste and the Communist Museum.”
August 14 – 17, 2019 We continued to head south the next day out of Sinai, Romania. We say goodbye to the museum/hotel and drive into the big city of Bucharest. We have another Airbnb here. As the drive down from Sinai is actually pretty quick for a change, we arrive several hours before the …
Continue reading “Bucharest, Romania – park like a local and Mogosoaia Palace.”
August 12 – 14, 2019 After we got down off the mountain top at Bucegi Nature Park on Tuesday afternoon, we headed back to Sinai to see the Peles Castle. The nice old guy at the visitor center had told us yesterday that the castle itself was closed on Tuesday, but we could see, and …
August 12 – 14, 2019 Well, we didn’t meet Dracula or any of his friends in Bran Castle or Brasov. So, it’s time to keep moving on. We headed south to Sinai, Romania, expecting a short 1.5 hour drive from Brasov. Yeah, right. We knew that when we were planning this trip, that the months …
August 8 – 12, 2019 After we got back to the apartment from Bran Castle, we started to discuss the next day’s activities. Who wants to do what and how? I voted for the Rasnov Fortress and the Valea Cetatii Cave. Andrea had no other alternatives, so we figured these would be the two options. …
Continue reading “Brasov, Romania – Rasnov Fortress and Valea Cetatii Cave.”
August 8 – 12, 2019 Bran Castle was high on our list of places to visit as we were planning our Eastern European itinerary earlier this year. Hey, it’s a really cool castle. Dracula lived there. Maybe we can meet a vampire. Actually, the real history is not quite as compelling as the legend and …
Continue reading “Brasov, Romania – Bran Castle, home of Dracula.”
August 8 – 12, 2019 We headed south out of Bistrita, Romania with Brasov, Romania as our destination. Brasov is actually going to be one of the highlights of our Eastern European road trip. Next to Brasov is Bran Castle, which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Remember, we are still in Transylvania and …
Continue reading “Brasov, Romania – the Old Town and Tampa Mountain”
August 6 – 8, 2019 We decided to change our travel priorities a bit and explore some of Romania’s vast and beautiful mountains and countrysides. We headed north from Sibiu, Romania directly into the Carpathian Mountains. We are still in Transylvania and are checking mirrors on a regular basis, trying to catch a vampire. One …
Continue reading “Bistrita, Romania – Calimani National Park, not quite as advertised.”
August 4 – 6, 2019 We headed out of Arad, Romania cruising along highway A1 on our way to Sibiu, Romania. We picked this town as another not so difficult drive on our way through Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains to get to Bran Castle to see Dracula. A1 is going very well until we …
Continue reading “Sibiu, Romania – the Liars Bridge and Astra National Museum Complex.”
Andrea and Randy Goodell explore Europe, Asia, United States, the Caribbean, and then move to Portugal!