On the road again!

We were off on our long-awaited trip to Europe this past September. It was our first international flights since COVID. I have to say though I was more worried about losing our luggage and the possibility of delayed or cancelled flights than I was about COVID, although it too was a worry. 

We flew from Ottawa to Toronto and our sister flying in from Calgary met us there, then it was on to Bucharest through Frankfurt. We had to clear customs in Frankfurt and worried about making our flight, but we needn't have worried as the automated customs clearance worked well and because the next gate was close by, and the flight was delayed in any case. We arrived in Bucharest midafternoon; the checked bags for about 20 people on the flight were missing, including three of us. The staff in Bucharest spoke very little English and the Wifi in the airport was extremely poor. Luckly, my sister had purchased a European SIM card so once she enabled the card, we were able to file our report with Lufthansa. Lufthansa had already sent an email to let us know that the bags had been left in Frankfurt and would be on the next flight that evening to Bucharest. 

Our bags did arrive the next day but after we had already checked out of our hotel to go to the pre-cruise hotel that Amawaterways was using. It was the hotel that let us know the bags had arrived. Lufthansa never sent an updated email and the contact information that they had for the courier company was out of date.

We had a four-day pre-cruise, two nights in Bucharest and two nights in Brasov.  I had wanted to do this itinerary because it included Bran Castle that is also known as Dracula's Castle. So, our first day in Bucharest was just an evening walk after checking into our first hotel. We were able to locate the Amawaterways hotel and have dinner at a restaurant I had found online. We walked down to the Parliament Buildings; it's the second largest administration building in the world, only the Pentagon is larger. And we also located the fountains at Piata Unirii, we would go back to the fountains another evening to see a multimedia light show.

Caru'cu bere restaurant

Romanian Parliament Buildings

The next day we met with our cruise manager and checked into the Marmorosch hotel; the building was at one time a bank and they still use the old vault as a cocktail bar. Just after we arrived at the second hotel my BIL got an email to say our bags had been delivered to the first hotel so he went to pick them up. There are no excursions on the first day of a pre-cruise, only a reception in the evening to let you know what would happen on the pre-cruise. We walked down to a nearby park and shopping district.

Book store

Bucharest Park

There are lot of little churches hidden in Bucharest as during the Communist era religion was discouraged so other buildings were built up around them or some were actually moved so as not to be so visible. My pictures show a very vibrant city but many buildings were still vacant or under renovation. The next day we had a walking tour with a guide that would be with our group throughout the pre-cruise. Walter, our guide, was quite funny and kept us entertained with stories and jokes during the tour and on the bus trips. After the walking tour, we split up, my sister and I to have a spa afternoon and my other sister, BIL and some friends who had joined with us went to an outdoor museum of Romanian life.

University of Bucharest

But before doing our spa afternoon, I had heard a woman ask Walter about the holocaust memorial, so we decided to walk over there first. 

Then we went down to the pool and saunas in the hotel. It was nice but once you turned on the fountains or water jets it made the pool area very noisy, not spa like at all. So, we just took some time to relax in the pool and then in the dry sauna. 

Not having heard from the others yet the two of us went to dinner. We did meet up with them to go see the show at the fountains. They do a multimedia show in the summer on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Luckily our last night in Bucharest was on Friday or we would have missed seeing this show. They shut down traffic on this boulevard during the show; but if you're too close to the fountains you will get wet.

As the others hadn't eaten dinner, they went off to get something to eat, while my sister and I went for a nightcap at the Vault, the cocktail bar in our hotel.

We had to have our bags out early the next morning for the bus trip to Brasov. We ended up being delayed leaving as there was a large summit being held at the Parliament and many of the officials were at our hotel. We even heard our Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau was staying at the same hotel. As a result, the buses weren't allowed to come up to the hotel until some of the officials had left.

Main Lobby

Our room at the Marmorosch

I'll leave off here and do another post for the second part of our pre-cruise.