Page 21 - Seniors Today - May21 Issue

After two sightseeing days in Bucharest,
Aug 23-24, I left for Villa Oblique, my hotel
in the mountain town of Sinaia. (Romanian
pronunciation: [siˈnaja]) which is a town
and a mountain resort in Prahova County,
Romania. It is situated in the historical region
of Muntenia. The town was named after the
Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it
was built. The monastery in turn is named
after the Biblical Mount Sinai. King Carol I
of Romania built his summer home, Peleș
Castle, near the town in the late nineteenth
century.

Aug 25
After dinner at a local restaurant and
much-needed sleep, I woke up as dawn was
breaking to take a short stroll around, have
breakfast and meet with the rest of the group
on this tour.
This was a small group tour where we hiked
from one small town or a village. The luggage
was transferred to our next hotel. The routine
was to depart around 8 am after breakfast,
walk with periods of rest, in a mountain hut
(when available), break for a packed lunch,
and reach the next hotel by 4/5pm, rest, walk
around town, visit a bar or not, have dinner
in a nice restaurant and go to bed. We were a
group of six, comprising a middle-aged UK
matron, an Australian couple, a Romanian
girl, the guide and I. It was good to have some
non-intrusive company on this first hiking
trip.
In the morning, on our first day-long hike,
we left after breakfast armed with a packed
lunch. At the end of the trek we were picked
up by a van and returned safely to our
hotel. After a short rest, I walked around
the one street town and dined at the lovely
Forest restaurant - a place with a distinctive
character made more interesting with a glass
roof. The food and service were superb.

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #23 | MAY 2021 21