Castles in the fog

Another morning with patches of freezing fog as we started on the frosty up hill ascent to Sinaia, in the Carpathian mountains. Peles Castle is set in alpine clad forested hillside and today was mostly in fog. 

It's more like a Palace with tiered statued terraces & ornamental wooden balconies. It was closed for tours today though we were allowed to visit a Klimt exhibition in the museum gallery where the best exhibit was a Tiffany lampshade that was usually on show in the Castle. Just up the hill is the Art Nouveau Pelisor Palace which was open and was very interesting but a shame we couldn't have compared the two. This was home to Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Mary, lived in the summer having married the Romanian heir and future king. Lots of superb oak panelling, stained glass windows and interesting furniture & an interesting tour, in English, of many of the family rooms. As our guide said when Dracula was mentioned, at Bran Castle they have the Legend but here we have the History (of Romania)

Leaving Sinaia suddenly we dropped back down to the very flat plains but sadly the sun had been left behind over the mountains. Now it was flat fields & long straight roads where a bend became quite an excitement. About every 20km would be a small village with the road passing through the centre and a 50km speed limit sign which must only seem to apply to foreign drivers. Often there would be a 'concealed' Polizia car but you are always warned by the other drivers who flash their lights when approaching you from the other direction. Apart from small lay-bys close to the road there was nowhere to pull off & stop for the night & we eventually found a quiet side street in Lanca, a small town where we just parked & had an undisturbed night.

Now we are almost a sea level it was 8C warmer last night but it still feels cold as a wind from the North has picked up & there is no sun.

Finally found a car wash where for 20 Lei we removed the dirt & salt of the last 2000 miles & managed to get a water container filled up as we never know where we will end up camped for the night especially at this time of year.

We were now out on the Danube Delta with the worlds largest area of reed beds (not many roads then!) There are many small lakes and waterways with some great looking wild camping spots. Not such a good day for navigating though as these maps seem to get harder to read as we age. Outside Braila we unexpectedly had to take a small ferry to cross where there surely should have been a bridge. We just fitted on!

In the next town Tulcea we tried leaving towards Murighiol, on 3 different roads where we had been following the signpost suddenly there were no further signs just a choice of roads & we somehow always chose the wrong one.

It was hillier than we expected after all it's a delta, but it does allow good views down over all those reeds.

We were also very close to the border with Ukraine, another unexplored country for us, but for another time. We don't need much from a campsite, somewhere safe to park, fresh water & toilet facilities & sometimes a shower and we don't need all of these every day. The gates at Camping du Lac were open so we drove in & conversing with the Romanian owner, in our only common language, of French explained our basic needs as they were busy renovating the facilities & would have sent us away had we required hot showers etc. We could have potable water, a toilet & somewhere to empty our Porta Potti & a space to park, all we needed, which cost us 10 Euro. From reviews I have read it always seems popular & the new facilities they are installing look very nice. We walked about a mile along a track on the side of the lake but you can't see much through all the tall reeds. The main attraction is boat tours & bird spotting on the Delta but obviously there's not much of either at this time of year.