Sighisoara
Finally after getting a new tire in Timisoara, we were off to Sighisoara. I have seen more garages than one would want during a trip, however, it was necessary and feel a bit safer especially since some road we take do not lend themselves to service stations. We are quite happy this episode is now behind us.
The drive to Sighisoara is what we hoped for, seeing the small villages, passing farmers on their horse-drawn carts, and locals selling their wares. If one has the option, I would recommend driving on secondary roads as you get glimpses into the lives of local people.
Arriving at our hotel, which we find out was shockingly was also on a hill overlooking Sighisoara, it's times like this I miss the flatness of Chicago. That being said, we had such a beautiful view from our room into the old town. Before you get envious, we had to walk down to the center of town which is fine, as it’s only a 10 minute walk, it was the uphill where I was more concerned with. That took double the amount of time. No wonder everyone is thin around here. It wasn’t as bad as my imagination had lead me to believe, but it definitely was a work out.
Sighisoara is a very old city, and a deep heritage of Germans living in this area. You will see this throughout Transylvania.
The Saxon Germans dates back to the 11th century. According to guide books, during those times, the Hungarian King wanted protection against the Ottomans had requested assistance from the Teutonic Knights and Saxon Germans. From there German tradesmen came to live in this area, establishing guilds while also protecting the king.
Similar to Poland, each town is more quaint than the next. The narrow alleyways are adorned houses in all colors of pink, blue, green and yellow. A lot of the homes have flowers hanging from the windows which also add to the attractions.
We thought we would check out the church on the hill which was a Gothic one and below on the hill was a very old cemetery. There is something about old cemeteries which we love, especially since some dated back to the 17th century, old and crumbling, you wonder when people stopped attending to them. On the other side further down we stop to visit a WW1 cemetery.
The following day we hiked up the clock tower to get an aerial view of the city of the old town. I would recommend doing this for anyone coming to visit Sighisoara. There were about 160 steps, but you can walk around the tower getting views from all sides of the town.
Some more meandering through the alleyways, stops here and there, dinner, and back up the hill to the hotel.
We were staying at a guest house which had a nice backyard, for relaxing afterwards. We met a young couple from Romania and discussed life during and after the fall of communism. Interesting perspective, as they felt of all countries under the Soviet rule, they (Romanians) had it the worst.
The next day were were leaving to go to Brasov. I would highly recommend Sighisoara, and add this to your list of places to visit in Romania, but give yourself a good 1 - 1.5 days for a visit. It’s worth it.