Since 1998 I go a few times a year to Romania and Eastern Europe.
Last time it was in Winter 2001/2002 and here now you'll find some
nice photos of this short tour. We visited the old castle of Biertan/Birthaelm.
Biertan is possibly the most beautiful castle in Romania and has a really
nice, cheap and clean Youth Hostel. Biertan is a small village which has a saxon
history. But since most of the Germans have left Romania to live in Germany
in almost all houses now Gypsies live. But the typical character hasn't changed
there. You should have a look there...

The old Three-Wall-Rings-rounded castle of Biertan in winter.

One of the towers of Biertan ...

It's cold enough for this in winter here ...

A face? No! Just a nice house around the castle.

Ion Constantinescu is a Romanian painter. He lives close to the castle.

He works in the outer ring of the wall with his children. The girl attends

the German School in Medias.

His pictures could be seen in international and national galleries. He offers

paintings of the castle and much more.

Here you can see Ion Constantinescu with his children painting at sunday evening.

Some snow on the road on the way back from Biertan to Turda.

And now you can read, how it began with my "East-European" Love:

During the time of writing my Diploma I got so stressed that I needed to go on vacation. I was looking for some time free from everydays stress.
So Thomas and me thought about a "short tour". But where to go? After USA and Iceland we were looking for new "kick". Since we have never been to eastern Europe, we decided to go to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
We started in August for a 3-week-tour on the "old and wellknown" MZ's.

After crossing Austria we reached Hungary near the Balaton. The main holidays aim for the eastgerman tourists has changed only a little bit and is a good place to go swimming and relaxing.
Then we went to Budapest and used the campground in T”k”kbalint close to the city center. Visiting Budapest is a nice experience. A beautiful city with friendly people... After 2 days we crossed the romanian border and drove on small roads east. Romania is agriculture orientated country with a lot of friendly and open inhabitants and heavy smoking trucks.
In Transilvania and Banat there are a lot Hungarians and Germans. It's no problemto find german German villages or Hungarian cities. Reaching Cheile Turzii and the city of Turda we met other biker on MZ and Jawa. Together we visited the beautiful canyon of Cheile Turzii. Next day we left the friendly the people in the village of Mihai Viteazu, where the Jawa-driving-girl lives.
We rode to Brasov (Kronstadt) where the Bran-Castle is located and we visited "Draculas" house. But it was really interesting fo me that nowhere in the castle the "Cracula"is written. Close by there is a interesting native museum, which gives a lot of information about Romanian history. After that we drove down to Sibiu (Hermannstadt). Sibiu has a campground and I needed to write a letter to that Jawa-Girl from Turda ...
Sibiu is an old german city and has a lot of wellknown buildings like the Brukenthal-palais.
After that we went over Pitesti to Bucarest. The most interesting building in the city is the Peoples Palace in the city center and has about 2000 rooms inside. It is known as the second largest building in the world. In Bucarest we saw a lot of a lot of big Harleys, we were really surpised by that.
We left Bucarest to see the Black Sea near Constanta. Close there we crossed the border to Bulgaria and took an old campground, that was years before something like a campers city. But now it is in terrible condition. Only a very few tourist are there since 1990. On the way to Varna and Nesebar we could visit the Rock of Kaliakra. This Rock is is known for the legend of 14 virgins who jumped into the Black Sea when the Turkish army came.
Nessebar is an international and intensivly visited place, so that we decided to visite it early in the morning before the temperature goes up and the tourists fill up the roads.
Plovdiv is with about 4000 years one of the oldest cities in the world and especially in Europe. It has an ancient roman theatre which is used also today for concerts and theatre performances.
Sofia, the capital fo Bulgaria has many interesting and impressive buildings and places. The most famous is the Nevski-Cathedrale. The 3 golden dome-shaped roofs were changed to brass, when they needed money... sorry, but looks good today too.
...So long so far... We decided to cross Romania second time when we will go back home. We have been along the Donau (Duna) for some days. There are beautifull landscapes and a national park for birds.
Through the mountains of the Fagarash we rode cross southern Romania. I Transilvania we visited Turda once more. In the Baisoara hills we have been to Cabana Baisoara and found beautiful landscape.
After that we went home through Hungaria and Austria... 7000km in the 3 weeks .. and a lot of beautiful new impressions of eastern Europe ...


But now some photos of this tour.

... just read the sign and smile ... at the austrian/hungarian border

an old MZ ES250/1 with 2 ETZ251 and a real traditional vehicle ...

At a small salt lake in the centre of Transilvania, in Turda

One of the last Germans in Transilvania, Andreas Hartmann lives
in Agirbiciu and keeps the old Church in good condition. To all interested
tourists he shows the old german traditions in Transilvania.

Sibiu is the "capital" of german Transilvania. There are the most
Germans living in all Romania (25%). There market place has a lot of fascinating
buildings around.

Mamaliga Cu Brnza is the wellknown meal of Romania made of corn,
Cheese and water. The taste is very good!!!

Just a fallen tree in the Mountains of Baisoara, close to Cabana Baisoara.