We drove into Bucharest in the very late afternoon. First thing of note we saw — the Eiffel Tower of Bucharest 🙂
Then some ugly Communist era buildings. The second one is made fancy for members of the elite. And they forgot the “h” in the sign on the first and third buildings.
We checked into our hotel. John loved our bellman’s name so he had to take his picture!
There is a new church being built right now across from the hotel. It will be magnificent. In the background is Parliament.
On our last day in Romania, Toni picked us up for a city tour of the highlights of Bucharest. The first stop was the Romanian Athenaeum Concert Hall, dedicated to the Arts and Sciences.
We wandered close by to Revolution Square — a memorial to those who died in the revolution. The street pictured in front of the square was originally made of cobblestones of wood; they are preserved by the memorial.
The building below is where Nicolae Ceaușescu gave his last speech before being forcefully removed from the balcony, then taken away by helicopter before a trial the next day and his and his wife’s execution.
In Bucharest, old buildings cannot be torn down; the facade must remain. But you can add onto them with modern interiors.
We walked around some more, ending up in Old Town.
We stopped for a coffee at the oldest coffeehouse in Bucharest.
The coffee shop was just down the street from Stavropoleos Church; the others went inside, but I just admired the work on the outside! It is beautiful!!!
Then continuing our walk to a place to meet Toni who went to bring the car close to us — nice gesture!
Tomi called the building below the “ugliest” building she had ever seen. It was just behind the building below it — what a comparison!!!
Our final stop of the day was in front of the Parliament Building. It is the second largest building in the world, second only to the Pentagon. Nicolae Ceaușescu caused this to be constructed as his and his wife’s residence as well as a government building. He and his wife were executed prior to its completion.
We ended our tour with a trip to the Bucharest Village Museum which was on the way to the airport. The Village Museum in Bucharest (Muzeul Satului) was created in 1936 by the sociology Professor Dimitrie Gusti and funded by royal decree. Gusti went around the country and after many years of field research he came up with the idea of creating a Romanian village museum.
And our visit came to an end. We had a pretty long wait at the airport. We were lucky to find a table at a takeaway where we could get a ham and cheese sandwich and a bottle of water. AND, most importantly, outlets for charging our phones/cameras :). The sandwiches were actually pretty good!
Thanks for reading,
Beth
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