I'm backing up a couple days to our 13 hour day of castle!  This is Peles Castle in Transylvania (Romania province), built from 1873-1914 and home of the Romanian Royal family.  Although there is not really a King anymore there is a disenthroned King Michael who is 92 years old and was born in Peles Castle and is 3rd cousin to Queen Elizabeth.  The "royal family" was fighting over money with German ancestors so he renounced publicly any claim to the German titles:).  After 1989 and the fall of Communism he exiled to Switzerland, the US and Britain.  His son Michael also lives in Southern California and is on Facebook!!!

 View of the castle from a nearby restaurant terrace.

 Downtown Brasov Romania near Peles.  This was our rainy day.

 I liked this house more than the castle.  Beautiful grounds, moss covered roof and not sure of it's purpose.

 Bran Castle - or home of Count Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer if you believe this!  Built in the 14th century as a fortress against invaders to Transylvania.  It seems the more we travel the more I hear about invaders in all countries!

 View of the Carpathian Mountains from Bran castle.

 The "torture chair".  It has wooden stakes which did not look very comfortable for back, butt or arms!!!

 "What is a Vampire?"

So I am pretty much caught up with pictures and it's nearing 9am May 6 in Bucharest and almost time to hit the road for the day.
We had a fantastic dinner last night at a nearby Italian restaurant.  It might seem like a lot of $ to some but for a huge plate of bruschetta, 4 glasses of wine (not 4 for me as it was 2+2), basket of foccacia, two entrees, two excellent desserts and coffee it was only $67 including tip.  As Ross says "you could live like a king here".  I think the average salary in Romania in Feb 2014 is 2247 RON or $700 USD per month.
As we were walking by the "Kinky Girl" club yesterday there were two guys also taking pictures so I offered to take them together and they were pleased.  Then I was asked if I was from Canada - no US, where?  Minnesota.  They were from Winnipeg and I told them I went on my senior class trip to Winnipeg and they had shopped in Grand Forks ND!!!!  The world is so small!