Bran Castle day! Laszlo kindly drove us the two hours it took to get to Bran, which was mostly along the highway. During the journey we passed the town of Brasov, which had a rather distasteful Hollywood-esque sign announcing its name on the side of the hill.

Driving straight past Brasov, we soon arrived at Bran. Laszlo whisked us straight over to the gate of the castle, where we embarked on a lengthy walk up to the castle grounds. Once inside, we could see the rooms had specifically been designed to be a show piece for tourists. We quickly realised that the connection with Dracula and Vlad the Impaler was rather tenuous (just as it had been at Sighisoara) but the excitement of being at the famed 'Dracula Castle' hadn't faded.

The castle was actually built by Saxons from Brasov in 1382 to defend the Bran pass against the Turks. More impressively, Queen Marie lived in the castle from 1920 until 1947, which the castle exhibits actually focused on. There were a lot of ornate pieces of royal furniture in the rooms. The most noteable piece was a large brown bear fur rug! Lots of narrow passageways and staircases had to be negotiated, including a pitch black secret passageway that led up to the second floor. Many Dracula jokes were made at that point!

On our way out of the castle, we passed through the courtyard where we signed the visitors book. Needless to say, BTCV made their mark in Transylvania.

The bottom of Bran Castle hill had been transformed into a tacky souvenir village. Dracula trinkets were everywhere! We passed by all of this to visit the open-air Village Museum, which was tucked into the corner of the souvenir village.

The museum consisted of a series of traditional, Romanian houses and out-buildings which represented different aspects of rural life. The homes were extremely rustic and simple. What struck me the most were the elegant materials and colours which permeated throughout the homes. A stall of Wallachian pottery was closeby, so we all bought a mix of plates and bowls for our loved ones.

While walking through the souvenir village on the way back to the car, we came across a very tall, grotesque showman dressed as a goblin on stilts! He was trying to lure people into the museum of horrors.

The journey back was very quiet as we all dosed off. However, it was happily interrupted by a stop at the old fortified Saxon church which we had all passed a few times before. Going through the gate, we entered the mote where we found a man tending to his crops with his two young boys. Laszlo asked whether is was possible to have a tour of the church. Immediately, the boys jumped up to get the keys. They were eager to take us around! Little did we know that they would lead us up terrifyingly dark, steep steps to the very top. Rarely do I get a fear of heights but in this instance I did. It felt like we were the first people to climb the spire in years. Some sections were ink-black with the occasional flicker of sunlight. Beyond the dark stone steps, we cautiously climbed up steep, rickety wooden stairs which took us all the way to the top. The spire looked like a labyrinth of wooden beams, some of which had collapsed over the years.

The climb came with its reward: a spectacular view of the town and the countryside beyond. A lady down below who was sweeping her yard waved excitedly at us and blew kisses! While this was going on, the boys were chattering in Romanian and German non-stop, whilst hopping around and clambering over the terrifying rafters.

After descending back down, we took a look at the church itself, which looked like it had retained most of its original artworks and motifs. All the hymn books and literature were in German. We also found graffiti next to the organ which dated back to at least 1805.

We drove back to Meresti to have a quiet evening. The boys came round to watch the cows come home and play cards in the outhouse. Simon and Michael demonstrated a strange dance that was performed at the Labour Day festival. It involved them both lying on their backs side by side but facing each other. They then rocked back and forth. While doing this they each, in turn, hit each other on the bottom! Hilarious and very weird. Apparently not a traditional Romanian dance.