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A baroque castle

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

…well the ruins of it actually. But still it was an interesting place to visit. And again I have begun talking about the subject, without first presenting it. So: what is the subject? The subject is the Bánffy Castle from Bonchida, a small village near Cluj. The construction of the castle started in 1437 and was finished in 1543, but it was still standing until WWII. The castle had a mixture of renaissance and baroque style. It was owned by the Bánffy family who also had a palace in Cluj.
Banffy Kastely
So, how to get there? Well if one starts off from Cluj, then the main road towards Gherla has to be taken. One has to pass Jucu (Nokia) village and from then it is basically a straight road until the crossing of the entry road to Bonchida (Bontida). At the entry to the village there is a huge map of the area and one can easily spot where the castle is. Now this was a nice surprise: at last something that is easily found. The entry fee is 2RON (50 cents), so it is a bargain 😉

A lot of people do not know about the castle, simply because it does not mean much to the local population and it’s touristic potential is barely being scratched. But there is hope: the castle is being slowly restored after signing an agreement between the Romanian Ministry of Culture and “Institute of Historic Building Conservation” from Great Britain and The Office for Hungarian Cultural Heritage Protection (I hope I translated it right). The restoration works have been under the high patronage of Prince Charles of Wales who has visited a number of times the construction works.

What is sad: this is only one of the numerous castles and fortresses which have been destroyed after WWII and under the period of the communism. I have visited several countries and admired the abundance of cultural heritage sites. These are the backbones and pride of a society: something to fight for, something what gives you the necessary power to move on. Much of this is completely lost in our country. We have a lot to work until we can get things right, but as this example shows, nothing is lost forever…

Picasa photos here.

—===[ #14 ]===—

Posted in Cluj, Romania, Travel | 1 Comment »

A salt mine

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

I find myself in the same situation as I was at the time I started to write about my travel experiences. Again, I could not find too much information about the place we wanted to visit on the internet. Or… I must correct myself, I found something, but of course it was wrong… from two points of view: the opening hours of the place we wanted to visit were wrong (due to which we actually changed the day of visit) and the entry price was wrong. What was this place? It was the Salt Mine of Turda (a nearby town), which can be visited by tourists. The mine has undergone recently an extensive renovation process making it more accessible for visitors of all ages, so we said we have to visit, to see how it looks like.
Salina Turda
Yesterday at around 13:00 we had the idea of doing this short trip. On the internet I have found a timetable saying, that the mine is open from 9:00 to 13:30, so we postponed the trip to today. We started off at 10:00 to get there on time. One little thing: look for small indicators saying “Salina Turda” they forgot to mark it on the big indicators (good thing they didn’t put out an A4 and hand-written the directions on it 😉 ). Anyway we arrived there safely and relatively easily (the short road connecting the main road to the mine which is full of holes can be ignored).

We got to the ticket-office, where to my surprise I saw indications in three languages (wow): Romanian, English and Hungarian (a lot of Hungarian tourists by the way). On one of these indicators there was also a time-table: the mine is open between 9:00 and 15:00 (so much for the accurateness of what I have found on the net). Anyway we payed the entry price of 15RON (€3.65), contrary to the internet price of 10RON and we went in. The whole visit started with a quite long walk through an entirely lit tunnel until we arrived to the actual entrance to the mine. From here a larger corridor lead us to separate chambers. Nothing spectacular there. There was however, a small, wooden staircase leading downstairs: now don’t miss that, that IS the actual entrance into one of the modernized chambers (photo below).
Salina Turda
The chamber itself is huge: it even has it’s own lake on which people can go row boating. There is a mini-football field a small theater even a ferry’s wheel (which was stopped at the time of our visit). The view of the walls was breathtaking. The sheer size of them and the stalactite-like formations of salt give the place a unique feeling. Even the bottom is filled with salty-sand which is sparkling in the internal lighting of the place. Amongst all this salt, we met a few tourists, who have not been able to see the salt: “Where f…k is the salt? All I can see is big gray walls”.

It is really hard to write about it. One most go see. It has a little bit of ‘Sci-fi’ feeling: at first glance I thought I was in a secret underground facility where spacecrafts are built 🙂 . The whole trip lasted between 90 and 120 minutes (at the entrance it says it takes 1:30h).

Here are some photos I took.

—==[ #12 ]==—

Posted in Cluj, Romania, Travel | 1 Comment »

Mariborsko Pohorje 1042m

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

This year’s skiing destination was chosen to be in Slovenia, in the vicinity of Maribor: the 2nd largest city in Slovenia. The city is situated on the Drava river at the bottom of the mountain Pohorje.

Unfortunately I did not have much time to explore Maribor itself, but the hotel itself (Hotel Orel), where we stayed, was right in the heart of the city. The small part I’ve seen gave the impression of a quite nice and clean city. It is important to note, that Maribor is planned to be the European Capital of Culture in 2012.
Maribor Pohorje
So, the slopes. The slopes on Pohorje are OK. The only bad thing is the fact that last year I’ve been to one of the biggest resorts in Europe (Les 2 Alpes, France) so the point of reference was quite high. Of course it is by far not as big as last year’s complex on the very top of the Alps, but I think it is a quite neat place.

The difficulty of the slopes varies from easy blue trails to steep black ones. Personally I enjoyed the winding blue slopes mixed with a few wide, red shortcuts. Although it was the middle of the week the slopes were quite crowded, with children learning to ski, but also with pro-skiers thundering down with high speed.
There is a quite modern system of cable-cars and open-chairs which one can use to go back up the top after a fun-ride down. I have no idea about the prices, because for us it was included in the holiday-package we just asked for it at the ticket-shop, presenting the papers they gave us at the hotel.

The entire atmosphere reminded me very much of Austrian/German atmospheres: beer, huge quantities of food and the music. The music was the exact sound as the German counterparts, just that they were all in Slovenian. I guess neighboring countries borrow a lot from each-other. And speaking of neighboring countries: Slovenia is also neighbor with Italy. Italy is famous for their pizzas. That was borrowed also: I do not know if it was the fact that I was hungry or not, but the pizza I ate in a restaurant at the bottom of the slopes was really-really good.

The Pohorje slopes also allow evening-skiing. The front part of the slope-system can be entirely lit in the evening. So after the break between (4PM to 6PM), when the slopes were closed, the second part of the skiing-day started and the slopes were lit to allow skiing in the evening. I did not try it because I was always too tired of the morning rides, but it was quite an interesting sight from the city to see the slopes lit on the neighboring mountain.

Because I am a fairly newbie skier, this year I have only bought ski-boots, because I was told they were more important that the skis themselves. The skis: I have rented them at the bottom of the slopes. They charged me €61.2 for a pair of skis and poles for 4 days. The good thing about renting was that I could leave the equipment at the renting office every day, so I did not have to drag them with me every day.
Which is a good thing, because we were four and I could only fit 3 pairs of skis+poles in my car (although I have a quite neat inner ski carrying system in the car, about which I could tell entire stories, but this is not the time).

The holiday package also included free pass into the local wellness center: a good place to relax after a day of skiing. We used it every day. They have a lot of things from different types of jacuzzi, to sauna. They also had an outside swimming pool with hot water in it. It was interesting to swim in hot water while it was snowing 🙂 .

I must also not forget the community which invited me to this great holiday: the Élő Erdély Egyesület (“Living Transylvania Association”). I am not a member, but I know some people from it, so they were kind enough to invite me also, so I think I have to say: Many Thanks 🙂 , I enjoyed the holiday.

I almost forgot: here’s a link to my Picasa gallery about the holiday. Enjoy 🙂 .

—==[#8]==—

Posted in Slovenia, Travel | Comments Off on Mariborsko Pohorje 1042m

802 km… and back

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

First I have to say I am sorry for the long time span during which my blog has been in the same state. Think this is what happens when someone goes on vacation for a week before another busy week at work.

So… where was I? Well, I went skiing. And this post is going to tell the first part of my experiences (Yuppieeee, back to posts about traveling 🙂 ). In this post I would like to talk about the road to our destination: Maribor, Slovenia. About Maribor and the ski-slopes I will tell in the next part of this double article. That story requires a bit more writing and my fingers right now are not suitable for that great task… In this article I am going to talk about something much more important than the skiing itself: how to get there? (After all, there is no skiing if you can’t get to the slopes).

Since I decided to go by car, I had planned a simple route using Google maps. This is what the plan looked like:


View Larger Map

This meant a simple drive from our sluggish roads until I got to the Hungarian highways. From there on it was a piece of cake. I must say the Hungarian highway system is quite good (so far I have tried driving on M1, M3, M35, M7 and M70). The roads are new, consequently still good and the traffic was always acceptable. What I didn’t like was the fact that Budapest’s highway-ring was… well, practically unusable: M0 has such a big radius, that it is better to use one of the inner circles and drive through the city. I also noticed the annoying fact, that after entering from Slovenia (M70->M7) if you do not buy a vignette in Slovenia, you have to drive for a couple of kilometers until you find a place to buy a vignette (basically driving illegally in that period).

After Hungary, the portion which worried me a bit was the supposed break of the Slovenian highway (A5). On Google maps it looked like this (I made a snapshot because this might change soon):
Slovenia A5
I have actually printed the map in high detail in case I got lost on the side-roads which connect the two loose ends of the highway. When I got there, surprise-surprise: the A5 was ready entirely and I just had to follow it until Maribor (shame on you Google 😛 )

A few more things about prices:
Hungary: Vignette for 4 days: is 1170HUF (€4.5 or 18RON). Despite this fact, I have payed cash at the entry in Hungary from Romania and they told me I can use RON, too. I was not paying attention to the conversion and they charged me 30RON for the vignette (nice busyness…). A small fine (like forgetting to turn the lamps on, after re-fueling and driving like that for a few kilometers): 10000HUF (~€35 – if you can explain yourself to the policeman). The gas price was around €1.14 (at a Shell pump).

In Slovenia I payed for the Vignette for 7 days €15. I did not have to re-fuel so I have no idea on fuel prices, but I am guessing a little over the Hungarian prices.

—==[#7]==—

Posted in Hungary, Slovenia, Travel | Comments Off on 802 km… and back

The rival of Brugge

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Just halfway between Brussels and Brugge, there is a city with a marvelous cityscape and canals, in some areas very similar to the ones in Brugge. The city itself seems a bit larger than Brugge, after all, it is the capital of the East Flanders province: Gent.
Gent
Gent is merely 56 kilometers away from Brussels, an easy ride by car, we were there in less than an hour. The city is very accessible by car, just follow the E40, then the signs into the city center. Pretty soon one can discover the signs marking the directions to the nearest parking areas. There are several parking places in the city, (and are really close to the city center) which are advised to be used, because there are a lot of pedestrian-areas which make driving around in Gent pretty difficult. The actual parking fee can be checked out on this website.

The picturesque cityscape of Gent is marked by its three huge towers dominating the central area: the tower of St. Nicolas’ Church, the Belfry and the Saint Bavo’s Cathedral. St. Nicolas’ Church, though not very fancy, it is still is very imposing both from the inside and the outside. The Belfry is interesting because it has a whole museum inside, telling the story of the Belfry and of the bells used in it. The museum itself is arranged on different levels inside the Belfry, in the end leading up to the top of the Belfry, where a splendid view awaits the curious tourist. The entry ticket into the museum of the Belfry is €3.00 which is I think a bargain… About Saint Bavo’s Cathedral: it is very imposing from the inside also. It houses some great paintings of some of the most famous painters in the area. Sadly it is forbidden to take photographs, so I could not take any.

Before someone embarks on a pointless exploration of the city: ask for a city map in the information office (under the Belfry). The walking-tour guide-maps are quite useful, because they show a pretty logical route in which to explore the city, with most of the highlights being touched by it.

A little bit further away from the city center, just as one crosses the canal towards the west, lies the medieval Castle of the Counts. It is rare by the simple fact, that the entire fortress is in the heart of the city. Entry fee here is €8.00 per person. Another interesting thing, close to the fortress is the Great Butcher’s Hall, a very nice restaurant serving of course mostly meat. Oh and one more interesting thing close in the area: Gent has it’s very own Manneke Pis, it is not easy to spot, but there is one 🙂 .

I have uploaded some of my pictures to my Picasa Account.

Posted in Belgium, Travel | Comments Off on The rival of Brugge

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