I had to share a quick post about the charmingly pipe-happy town of Saint-Claude, France, and the nearby Trou de l’Abîme, an enchanting hiking spot in the Jura region of France. With the June weather getting a little too hot for us in the village of Thoiry where were spending a couple of weeks house-and cat-sitting, we were off for a day in the low Jura mountains searching for somewhere cool. The pipe-happy town of Saint-Claude and the nearby Trou de l’Abîme riverside hike were the perfect finds.
The Saint-Claude Cathedral (with a pipe plant sculpture)Saint-Claude and the Musée Pipes et Diamants
Saint-Claude bills itself as the pipe-making capital of the world and sports a giant puffing pipe, pipe plant art and pipe-shaped trash cans throughout town to honor its claim. We were really planning on hiking, but of course, we had to check out Saint-Claude. The old town perches atop high walls looming above a valley river. We visited the cathedral (always a promising place for a little break from the heat) and then were lured in by the quirky Saint-Claude Pipe and Diamond Museum. I’m so glad we were! We loved the collection of elaborately carved pipes including “pipe portraits” of famous figures and the personal portrait pipes of members of the local Brotherhood of Master Pipers club. We learned about the town’s history of pipe making, read directions on how to properly smoke a pipe, and watched a video of the robed brotherhood doing their thing. Oh yes, and there is a smaller area with diamond exhibits, too, but we’ve seen lots of diamonds and passed through that area quickly after the pipes. After a short break for cold beers and lunch, we were ready to move on to the Trou de l’Abîme (hole of the abyss).
The easy hike starts just off the road beyond an old mill covered in bright green overgrowth and looking like something from a fairy tale. Soon, we were walking along a pathway in the cool shade of moss-covered trees along a small, rushing river. Metal and wood stairs and catwalks took the path upward along the side of a narrow gorge carved by the river. The river opened into three “marmites de géant” (giant’s cauldrons), deep holes carved in the river by swirling water carrying small stones and grit. The air around us carried a wonderful, fresh-smelling chill, Nature’s own air conditioning!
Les Marmites de Géant
The hike continued past the marmites and upwards through more moss-covered forest until we reached the Trou de l’Abîme, the entrance to a vast underwater river that reaches a depth of 45 meters and surfaces and retreats underground for a total of 667 meters, 345 of which are subterranean.
Trou de l’Abîme
So there you have it. No famous sights, but a quaint town and unique natural beauty made for a fun and interesting (and cool!) day.
Looking back at Chamonix, France, from the Aiguille du Midi cable car as it ascends
Decades ago, I was intrigued to learn it is possible to take a cable car over the Alps from Chamonix, France, to Italy. I’d wanted to make the trip ever since, but I learned that weather was a huge factor. The Aiguille du Midi (“Needle of the Midi”) is a 12,606ft mountain peak in the Mont Blanc massif. The Aiguille du Midi cable car is the highest cable car in France and the closest you can get to the summit of Mont Blanc without climbing. Weather can turn bad quickly at such high altitudes and the cable car can be halted without notice. Losing visibility is also a risk if clouds form on the mountain peaks. Even when living in Paris, a dash for the Chamonix cable car (a 6+ hour drive or multi-stage train trip) on a day forecast to be sunny just never made sense. With two summer weeks to spend house- and cat-sitting near Geneva, I realized we were only an hour and twenty minute drive away from Chamonix. My time might finally have come to visit the famous ski town and the Aiguille du Midi cable car!
Aiguille du Midi cable car rises from Chamonix
I realized I wouldn’t be going over the Alps to Italy this time. We needed to stay in Thoiry to take care of the house and our charming feline charge, Leo. The practicalities of traveling via cable car didn’t really make sense either the more I thought about it: What to do about cars? Luggage? Riding up the highest cable car in France to look Mont Blanc “in the eye,” so to speak was more than good enough for me. I scoped out the weather predictions for the Aiguille du Midi mountain peak, picked the sunniest near-term forecast, and bought our tickets for the Aiguille du Midi cable car online.
The day arrived bright and sunny in Thoiry and we headed off. I’d chosen at 12:05 time slot thinking we’d have a leisurely start, time to look around Chamonix, and hopefully let any clouds burn off. My plan mostly paid off, but my concerns about weather were well-founded. We arrived to a clear day in Chamonix, parked just across the street from the cable car base building at the Parking du Grépon, and walked around to find a crowd in the paved plaza in front of the building waiting for their time slot to be called. Touristy types like us mingled with mountaineers hauling gear. It was warm in the sun and we headed on into town to explore and to find the makings of lunch to take up the cable car with us.
Chamonix and the Arve River with the Alps and Mont Blanc in the distance
Chamonix is every bit the pretty Alpine ski town I expected it to be. We had fun wandering the streets and really lucked out with our picnic lunch choice: Le Refuge Payot, offering local foodstuffs, turned out to have a terrific deli in the back with baguette rustique and aged meats cut to order. I chatted with the young man making our sandwiches about the changes wrought by Covid and how Chamonix was starting to regain its mojo. We also discussed the jarring shortage of Dijon mustard in France. David and I had only just discovered the empty mustard shelves upon arriving in Thoiry. There’d been plenty of mustard –which we use copiously – in Antwerp, only a shortage of certain cooking oils due to the war in Ukraine. Our sandwich-maker informed me that Chamonix, too, had no mustard. It was a sad state of affairs in a mustard-loving country and we commiserated the shortage as we discussed the crazy state of the world in general. We talked about masking and anti-maskers, government restrictions and lack thereof, all the things that most of the planet has had to deal with in one way or another. It’s a strange, bonding experience in a way. In some form or fashion, we’ve all experienced the global pandemic. Despite huge progress, all was not back to normal in Chamonix and business was relatively slow, even for the summer season. I wished him luck as we paid and packed our sandwiches into backpacks full of the warm layers we’d brought for our cable card ride.
Passing another cable car on the way up. Mid-way, the mountain slope is pretty barren, but there’s a small bar and hiking paths.
Business wasn’t so slow at the Aiguille du Midi cable car when we returned following our walk. Buying tickets in advance was definitely the right move. I’d been happy with our 12:05pm time slot, but I’d been eyeing wispy clouds growing in the direction of Mont Blanc apprehensively as we walked around Chamonix. The skies were still cloudless in the other direction with more than a dozen hang-gliders flitting above the town. For all the good that would do us if clouds snagged on the higher peaks around the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. I wanted to get up the cable car as soon as possible while the skies were still reasonably clear in that direction. Once our time slot was called, we moved quickly through the line to be packed in a probably-not-pandemic-smart way into the cable car. We snagged good spots and had wonderful views as the car moved steeply upward. There’s a stop midway, but getting off there risks being unable to find space on a crowded summit-bound car, so we stayed on to the top. And what a top! The Aiguille du Midi and the mountaintop buildings at its highest reaches exceeded my lofty expectations. Wow! And, wow, was it cold after the warm day below!
Mont Blanc across from the Aiguille du Midi. Look closely to spot climbers.
Thankfully, we’d come prepared and I’d even managed to wiggle into some layers on the ride up. Icy air and bright sunshine greeted us as we stepped onto the first of many terraces in the sprawling complex of buildings at the summit of the cable car. I hadn’t realized just how extensive the structures on the summit are; they’re truly impressive, and the soaring Alps surrounding them are even more so.
Just some of the impressive construction atop Aiguille du Mid
We wandered from building to building, terrace to terrace, marveling at the sweeping views. In all directions, we could see lines of linked mountaineers and other mountain climbers in pairs and smaller groups. It was so strange to watch people engaged in strenuous activities out in high altitude as we watched from the ease and comfort of viewing decks and big plate glass windows. Binoculars are a must-bring for a trip up the Aiguille du Midi! We could zoom in on people climbing Mont Blanc itself, wondering if gathering clouds would make them turn back, idle-if-fascinating entertainment for us, potentially life-threatening for them. Equally incongruous were the climbers around the summit buildings: We were watching Mont Blanc climbers at one point when a woman climber appeared over a boulder just in front of us. More than once, a climber appeared beside or just above a viewing deck.
A climber summits a peak adjoining a viewing terrace
Facilities at the top of the Aiguille du Midi included museum-quality exhibits on the effects of altitude and the construction of the cable car and its buildings, Le Tube, a large passage suspended between two buildings, a café, a restaurant (still closed due to Covid on our visit, but due to open soon), a gift shop, toilets and more. There is also that connection to the cable car descending into Italy. I found the whole thing wonderful, the vision, skill and chutzpah required to conceive of and build such a place remarkable.
Pas Dans le Vide with buildings and terraces below and Chamonix beyond
It would be easy to spend hours at the summit buildings, and we did. One of those hours, though, was spent in line for the Pas Dans le Vide (“Step into the Void”), a clear box over a breathtaking drop into which visitors step for an extra-special view and photos. There’s no extra charge for the experience. At first, we thought the whole concept was a waste of time, but as we found ourselves mesmerized by the views and realized we still have a view as we waited, we gave in and joined the queue. Would it have been a great trip without the Pas Dan le Vide? Yes! Am I glad we did it? Oh heck, yes! I mean, who knows if we’ll ever go back and it was unique and fun.
Wanting to take full advantage of our time house- and cat-sitting in Thoiry, France, I avidly browsed local websites and scanned any tourist brochures I came across. I was excited when I discovered that Voltaire’s home-in-exile-from-Paris for 20+ years was in nearby Ferney-Voltaire, France, only 15 minutes away. I’m a fan of the famous, witty and irreverent French philospher and writer. We had to go!
Banished from Paris by Louix XV, Voltaire (né François-Marie Arouet) lived at Ferney (later Ferney-Voltaire) from 1758 to 1778. Among other well-known works, Voltaire wrote Candide at the château in Ferney in 1759.
The Château de Voltaire at Ferney-Voltaire sits on extensive gardens perched above Lake Geneva and only a few miles from the city of Geneva. The outside is much as it was in Voltaire’s time, but the interior was changed significantly over the years. The last private owner reassembled furniture and art belonging to Voltaire and the property now belongs to the French state. Displays of models and diagrams depict the changes and show how the château looked when Voltaire lived there with his niece, Mme Denis née Marie Louise Mignot, the daughter of Voltaire’s sister. Mme Denis served as hostess for the many guests who visited the château. Although they never married, Voltaire was reported enamoured of Mme Denis and she inherited his estate upon his death.
Statue of Voltaire just inside the front door of the château
The interior of the château is beautifully maintained with inlaid floors and period furniture. A life-size statue of the puckish Voltaire stands just inside the front door. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit of the château, which finishes with a room of books and comic books depicting Voltaire in some way. The variety of books and the way in which Voltaire remains relevant to so many is surprising and a tribute to the man.
Looking towards the Alps from the château gardens
The château offers views of the Alps from the formal gardens. A small orangerie at one end is apparently an event venue now. In addition to the main gardens, the château grounds include woods, a tree-lined bower, a field with sheep and plots used for farming.
Practical info: From April 1 – September 30, the château is open from 10am-6pm. From October 1 – March 31, the château is open from 10am-5pm. During both seasons, it is open every day with the last entry 45 minutes before closing. The château is closed on January 1, May 1 and December 25. Check here for more details and prices.
The Palais de l’Isle in the middle of the Thiou River dates to the 12th century.
I’ve known several people from Annecy, heard about it for years, but had never had the opportunity to visit. With Annecy just under an hour drive away from our house- and cat-sit in Thoiry, now was the perfect time.
The route took us over the Rhône River and through the Haute-Savoie region of France. We arrived on a warm, sunny June holiday (Lundi de Pentecôte) to find Annecy absolutely buzzing with people. Despite the hordes and lack of street parking, we found ample cheap parking in the château parking lot just a short walk up the hill from the city center. I was worried about the crowds at first, but the city absorbed them well and the atmosphere was festive rather than claustrophobic. For lunch, we surprisingly had no wait for an outdoor table in the shade at the café of our choice, Café Bichette. We enjoyed trying award-winning local beers – a blonde for me and a triple for David – from Brasseurs Savoyards.
Busy old town Annecy
Annecy is picture-perfect little city in an idyllic setting on Lac d’Annecy/ Lake Annecy, one of the five Alpine lakes. Only 40-45 min. down the A41 from Geneva, it’s well worth the drive. The old town dates back centuries with its iconic Palais de l’Isle in the middle of the Thiou River dating to the 12th century. (See lead photo and viewed from behind in the photo immediately above.) The Palais was a small castle near where the river and lake meet, then a prison and a courthouse, then a prison again during WWII. It houses a small history museum now and makes for a nice stop.
Boats abound on Lake Annecy on a sunny June day.
We explored the old town at leisure, enjoying the weather, walking along the lake and lakeside park, people- and boat- watching. Motor boats, tour boats and lots and lots of small pedal boats dotted the lake. At the end of our day, we wandered back up the hill to visit Château d’Annecy (Annecy Castle), the former home of the Counts of Geneva and the Dukes of Genevois-Nemours before before heading back to the parking garage and our car. The château is large and houses both historical items and art depicting the region as well as a display relating to the five alpine lakes, their marine life and the local fishing heritage. Château d’Annecy also offers a view over the old town rooftops, lake and mountains.
It had been awhile since David and I did a pet- and housesitting gig for someone new, but we had a couple of weeks to fill between our latest cat-sit in Antwerp and the time I’d set aside for a long-wished-for trip to Corsica. On whim, I searched Trustedhousesitters.com for something that might work. (See my earlier posts on pet- and housesitting here and here.) I was intrigued to find a two-week cat- and housesit in Thoiry, France, a small village nestled against the Jura Mountains just outside of Geneva, Switzerland. I wrote the owner, Lydia, right away; we had a great video chat and it was a done deal. Her tomcat, Leo, turned out to be the easiest cat-sit ever. He roamed at night and came home in the morning for breakfast and to socialize and nap. He never even used his litterbox during our stay. Lydia’s home was cute, comfortable and modern and a breeze to maintain with techy touches including a robot lawn mower and big, retractable awning over the patio.
A mere 7.5 miles (12 km) from the Geneva airport (GVA), Thoiry is an easy commute to the city, but still retains a charming “main street” with a terrific bakery (La Boulange), a grocery store, a wine shop, a few eateries, and a lively market filled with regional goods every Sunday. A modern mall sits amid a commercial center 2 km from the village center. Thoiry prides itself on its beekeepers and honey and wooden bee statues are scattered throughout the town.
One of two bee statues flanking the approach to the Thoiry town hall
I hadn’t been in the region in many years, since the first year I’d lived with my boys in Paris. Back then, we’d trained to Geneva to stay with family friends at their chalet in the Haute Savoie on the other (still French) side of Geneva from Thoiry. I was looking forward to revisiting beautiful villages along Lake Geneva/Lac Leman and discovering others yet unknown to me. Then, there were interesting places to explore in the Jura and daytrips to be had in Alpine towns.
There’s been plenty written about Geneva and the gorgeous towns along Lake Geneva, so although we loved Vevey, Montreux, Ivoire and more, I won’t go into much detail here save to share a few photos and say that the castle at Montreux (Château de Chillon) is worth a visit, especially on a pretty day. Just remember to have your paper “parking clock” to put under the windshield if you’re driving and want to park on the street. We picked one up for free at the castle, but it turned out the car rental company had provided one in the glove box, if only I’d thought to look.
View from the Château de Chillon in Montreux with the Dents du Midi (in the Chablais Alps) in the distance
[Note: France now requires an international driving permit or that a foreign-language license be translated into French by government-approved translators (a near impossibility for short-term tourists). One-year international driving permits are easy to get and cheap at AAA, but need to be gotten before leaving the U.S. unless you’ve got lots of time abroad to mail your application and for the permit to be mailed before you need to drive.]
Driving was easy on great French and Swiss roads. Like everyone in the region, we made frequent border-crossings, always passing right through with no passport check; even though Switzerland is not an EU member it is in the Schengen Area. The biggest driving hassle was Geneva traffic which seemed never-ending and made the city an annoying-if-lovely bottleneck. I’ll touch on a few of our favorite daytrips in the posts that follow: Annecy, Voltaire’s château, Chamonix, and the Jura, with quirky little St-Claude and its pipes and lush hiking trails being an unexpected treat.
Enchanted Princess docked in Ponta Delgada, Azores, en route from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Copenhagen, Denmark
I haven’t blogged since last fall’s Belgium/Paris/Kenya/South Africa travels, but that’s not to say we haven’t traveled. David and I spent three months doing a transAtlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen, 5 weeks in Antwerp, 2 weeks near Geneva and a final stay in Corsica in the spring before heading home to Texas for a 4th of July family reunion and some summer pool time in the sun. Our spring travels were great, but I wasn’t sure I had much to add to the ever-swelling ocean of travel reviewers and bloggers. A dear friend disagrees, so I’m back at Wanderwiles just for you, Phyllis. I won’t detail it all (I’ve written a fair amount about our much-loved Antwerp already.), but there were some fun discoveries I’m happy to share.
First up, I guess a quick recap of the cruise is in order. We always love a repositioning cruise, but in 2022 it made more sense than ever given the travel frenzy as the world emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic. We needed to be in Antwerp in early April and flights were ridiculously expensive (in dollars or miles/points) and inconveniently routed, too. So, I went to Vacationstogo.com (“VTG”) to see if any repositioning cruises would get us there. We’re not brand loyal when it comes to cruises, choosing them for destination, usually as a one-way trip to start or end longer travels. I found a really intriguing Princess repositioning cruise from Florida to Copenhagen and a less interesting and more expensive option on Norwegian. We had a little bonus credit which Princess cruise line gifted to us in addition to a refund for a transPacific cruise to New Zealand that was canceled as the pandemic took hold. I confirmed lots of cheap direct (1 hour) flights from Copenhagen to Brussels Airport (the main airport for Antwerp), and the choice to go with the Princess cruise was a no-brainer. After deducting our credits, we paid a mere $1478 for both of us for 14 nights in a balcony cabin. (Without our credits, the total cost with taxes and fees would have still been only $2102.) With all lodging, meals, transportation and entertainment included, this was cheaper than the economy flights I’d seen, forget about business class! (There are gratuities to be factored in, although this cruise remained a great bargain.) The stops were appealing, too: Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Brest and Cherbourg in France, and Skagen and Copenhagen in Denmark. We’d been to Ponta Delgada before, but really liked it. Despite all my years in France, I’d not been to Brest or Cherbourg. It had been ages since I was in Copenhagen and David had never been. Fun!
In the spirit of keeping reviews of this cruise brief, I’ll hit only a few highlights and tips:
Ponta Delgada is a great cruise port, allowing an easy walk into the charming town. For those with the time and inclination to explore the island, there’s a car rental agency ANC Rent-a-Car (azoresholidays.pt) at the end of the main pier to the right as you head ashore near the swimming area. We rented a car last time we were in port for an overnight and made a full circuit of the island, eating lunch cooked by volcanic heat and admiring the gorgeous views and prolific wild hydrangeas. A favorite Ponta Delgada restaurant that demanded a return is A Tasca which offers tasty local food and reasonable prices. It’s a popular place and fills up quickly with a line forming outside. We were there and waiting at the lunch opening along with a few others in-the-know. A food tour stopped in on our last visit so I guess that’s a possibility, but we much prefer to skip the cost and restrictions and eat when and what we please for as long as we please. (A Tasca’s tuna steak is my personal favorite.) Another, quirkier, recommendation are the mojitos in the bowling alley on the pier just before the cruise ship boarding area. When we returned to the ship and discovered multiple excursions had just arrived creating a huge line, we decided we had time to grab a drink to go. Atlantic Bowling was the closest spot, and the bartender quickly produced as good a mojito as this Texan has ever had, poured it in a go-cup, charged us an extremely reasonable €4, and we were off.
Bayeux Museum courtyard. Photos of the famous tapestry are not allowed.
We also really enjoyed Cherbourg (another walking-distance port, boasting a seafaring history and flair), but only after we hopped a train to picturesque Bayeux to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry. [We walked to the train station and bought tickets from a machine. The machine is only in French and I helped two other English-speaking couples purchase their tickets. Senior rates mentioned online weren’t available on the machines. There was plenty of available seating on the trains to and from Bayeux.] Despite living in France for years and wanting to see the tapestry since my parents read to me about it as a child, I’d never made the trip. It was well worth it and an easy train ride from Cherbourg. Bayeux is a charming town of half-timbered buildings and a lovely cathedral. The tapestry is actually a 70m x 50cm (230ft. x 20in.) embroidery which wraps around several walls of the viewing room. It’s an amazingly intricate work of medieval art which tells the story of the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy in 1066.
Nyhavn in Copenhagen
I was disappointed when rough seas canceled the scheduled stop in Skagen, the northernmost town in Denmark. Such changes are part of traveling by ship, though, and it hardly ruined our cruise, we just ended up with an extra night in Copenhagen. Construction is underway to extend the local metro out to the end of the cruise port which will be great, but for now, it’s a distance into town and too far to walk to the closest station. Princess offered complimentary buses in and out the first day, but we were on our own on debarkation day. We caught a cab to Orientkaj metro station and took the modern M4 metro into Copenhagen Central Station. The metro exit opened onto Stampesgade where we could see the sign for Hotel Tiffany, my choice for our stay. With its reasonable price, nice rooms and fantastically convenient location, Hotel Tiffany was perfect for us. The close proximity to the main train station made a daytrip to Malmö, Sweden, (over the Øresund Bridge, the longest combined rail and road bridge in Europe) and our departure to the airport very easy.
That’s all I’m going to write about the cruise except to say it was smooth, sunny sailing the entire time, fun and relaxing, and it’s always good to arrive overseas sans jetlag. As I mentioned at the start, I’m skipping our five weeks in Belgium as I think I’ve written enough about some of our favorite things there over the years. We did explore a few out-of-the-way places while staying in a village just outside of Geneva that I think are worth a mention, so in coming posts I hope to share a little about daytrips around the Jura Mountains and alpine lakes followed by highlights of Corsica. In September, we took a transPacific cruise to New Zealand where we spent three weeks and 2000 miles of driving exploring both islands.
This post is not as fun as some, but I wanted to share practical travel-during-Covid info that took me awhile to pull together for our recent travels to Belgium (via the UK), France, Kenya and South Africa.
This year was a big birthday for me, so I was hoping we’d be able to do something special after last year’s pandemic isolation. We were thrilled when Europe opened up to (non-essential) American travelers again after we’d been banned for so long during the pandemic. When Antwerp friends asked us back for a favorite house- and cat-sit in September, we decided to launch my birthday trip there. I came up with a 2-month/4-trips-in-1 birthday trip that included Belgium, Paris, Kenya and South Africa. I made plans with the understanding that any portion of our travels could be canceled at any time given the vagaries of ever-changing Covid restrictions. I researched travel requirements throughout the summer, thinking early on that South Africa might be out when that country raised its Covid Level from 2 to 3 to 4. A ban on all alcohol sales and the closing of many venues would make our planned Garden Route exploration and wine tasting impossible. Fortunately, South Africa was back to Level 2 by the time we traveled there. When –just prior to our September 2 departure– the EU recommended member nations consider banning Americans as our Covid numbers spiked, we started to wonder if we’d even make it to our first stop in Belgium. I decided each and every step of the trip would be a gift. As each portion of our trip materialized, we counted ourselves lucky and crossed our fingers for the next. In the end, all four portions of our trip worked out and we had a wonderful time: We spent three weeks in Antwerp, two weeks in an apartment in my beloved Paris, a week on safari in Kenya, and 15 days in the Western Cape of South Africa.
Traveling to these four countries required the usual check of entry requirements, visas, etc. plus country-specific Covid requirements. A useful, but not perfect, starting place for determining Covid travel requirements is the site Sherpa. Happily, Belgium had dropped all entry restrictions for vaccinated Americans like us. Unfortunately, flying American Airlines meant we were once again funneled through Heathrow which meant we needed a PCR test for the dubious “pleasure” of connecting through Heathrow to Brussels. A suddenly-filled CVS schedule meant an expensive trip ($139pp) to a Denton, Texas, testing clinic. Aggravating, but necessary. (Surprisingly, our health insurance did cover $51.31pp of these tests, so even if you need a totally discretionary Covid test for travel, it’s worth filing a claim.) The UK also requires a passenger locator form submitted within 48 hours of departure. Belgium, too, required us to fill out a passenger locator form prior to arrival and we had to show it at Belgium customs.
Entering France (via Thalys train) from Belgium was no problem. We did fill out the “required” French Covid Statement of Honor just in case we needed it to board the train, but no one asked us for it. I applied online at the French government website prior to our trip for an EU Digital Covid Certificate giving me a QR code establishing that I was vaccinated with an approved vaccine (Pfizer, in my case). This arrived prior to our trip and I was then able to upload that to the French TousAntiCovid app. In the app, I was able to mark this certificate as my “favorite” which then let me create a widget on a home screen so I always had the QR code easily to hand. This is important in France as nearly every restaurant, museum and venue requires a quick scan of that “passe sanitaire.” The French government has recently done away with the online application, and tourists can get the QR code establishing their vaccination status at local pharmacies, potentially at a cost. In a pinch, showing your American vaccination cards should work most or some of the time, but the passe sanitaire is the norm and definitely preferred. Alternatively, visitors can test at the many tents around Paris and provide a negative Covid test for entry.
To fly from Paris to Nairobi, Kenya, we again needed a PCR test. I found several sites offering the tests online and some by simply walking around. We opted for a Biogroup lab at 134bis, rue de Vaugirard, in the 15th arrondissement which did not require an appointment, was fast, and reasonably-priced at €45 (appx. $52pp). Once again, it was necessary to research entry requirements. Kenya specified the test must be 96 hours before our flight and we needed a special health surveillance form with QR code. Officials were waiting to check that form (digital or printed) as we deplaned in Nairobi. It was possible to look up the form by phone number, too, if the actual form was lost. Kenya also requires an eVisa that must be printed. Our flight was delayed an hour as Air France staff sorted through many passengers who thought a digital copy was sufficient, as apparently it had been in the past. [Note: The Kenyan eVisa is easy to apply for and relatively cheap at $51 including a $1 credit card fee. Use the official link above and don’t be fooled by much more expensive online “facilitators.” Also, although the Kenyan government said they’d email the eVisa, they didn’t, but it was online very quickly. We just had to check back to the accounts we created.]
To fly from Kenya (Nairobi) to South Africa (Cape Town), we needed yet another PCR test within 72 hours of our flight and a health screening form completed within 48 hours of travel. The PCR test was problematic as we would be in remote Masai Mara on safari during the window we needed the test since PCR results can take up to 24 hours and the labs are back in Nairobi. Searching online, I found a group offering tests at Masai Mara (on site for $110pp or at our lodge for $140). I arranged with our safari company to go to this testing site. In the end, they arranged for the doctor to come to us for no extra charge. There was a delay and some confusion in getting the results, but all worked out in the end.
[In addition to Covid tests, South Africa requires proof of yellow fever vaccine for travelers arriving from Kenya (and other yellow fever zones). The lifetime vaccine must be gotten at least 10 days prior to arrival in a yellow fever zone. We got ours at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp; easy, extremely knowledgeable, and much cheaper than in the United States. We booked an appointment by phone before leaving the United States. Prior to boarding in Nairobi, Kenya Airways staff checked that we had our yellow booklets proving our yellow fever vaccination status. We also got prescriptions for anti-malarial medicine at the Institute, not required to travel to Kenya, but highly recommended.]
Finally, we needed an antigen test to return to the U.S. from South Africa. The test had to be done 3 days (not 72 hours, which potentially allows a little more time) prior to our departure flight. In another online search, I found a testing center at a Cape Town rugby club less than a 10 minute drive from our final hotel. I booked an appointment and paid 450 rand ($30pp) for the tests online via EasyTesting while we were in Paris. This worked like a charm and we had results emailed to us within 30 minutes.
All of this extra Covid testing and documentation is expensive and a hassle, but it’s doable. (Our total out-of-pocket costs for Covid tests for this trip was $559.) Travel now requires both expense and research, planning and constant checking for changes. In normal times, I usually keep a folder with all the documents David and I need for travel, stacked in chronological order, this includes any visas, tickets (many countries require printed proof of departure tickets), etc. These days I’ve separated documents in the folder into a manila folder for each of us to accommodate the increased number of documents: our proofs of vaccines, Covid tests results, contract tracing forms, etc. Note: Printing can be tricky, depending on where you’re staying, so planning and attention to detail is essential.
The one daytrip I really wanted to make from Sofia was to Rila Monastery. It’s one of the, if not the, Bulgarian site most touted when I was doing my pre-trip research. (Rila Monastery even made an appearance in an audiobook I enjoyed, Street Without a Name, by a Bulgarian woman who left Sofia as a teenager shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and returned years later to her much-changed country.)
Lots of tour companies offer day visits to the monastery from Sofia, many of them combining the monastery with a stop at Boyana Church, another UNESCO site. I settled on Traventuria, a company that operates mid-sized motor coaches from near the Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral to Rila Monastery and Boyana Church.
In less than an hour, we arrived at Boyana Church which didn’t open its doors for 15 minutes after our arrival. We stood outside the gates in the chilly morning as our guide explained a little about a war memorial in front of the church. Once inside, David and I opted to just take in the gardens and the exterior of the small medieval church. While the church is known for its frescoes and we admired the photos we saw of them, we didn’t feel particularly moved to pay the entry fee and be herded through in a group. I like to think of it as one of the luxuries of having traveled and seen so much; I don’t feel much pressure regarding the touted “must-sees” and “must-dos,” especially of the variety on offer at Boyana. (“Some of the best preserved frescoes in the Balkans” just didn’t pull that hard on my curiosity.) On the other hand, I guess there’s a little sadness, or at least inevitability, to that raised bar for interest that comes with age and experience.
Boyana Church and the grave of Queen Eleanora of Bulgaria
Leaving Boyana, we drove through fields, vineyards, and wooded mountains up to Rila Monastery. We arrived to beautiful weather, a gift given the weather forecast and the frequent chance of clouds and rain in the mountains. The entrance to the fortified monastery, through an arched gate and under a wide pair of antlers (lead photo), is entrancing. (There are two, nearly identical entrances to the monastery.) This place had my full attention. It was impossible not to just rotate in the spectacular courtyard, trying to take it all in. Four stories of residential apartments overlook the courtyard and surround a central church and square tower. We headed for the church, drawn by the eye-catching paintings covering the vaulted arches and walls of the striped portico. Too soon, our guide was assembling us in the courtyard for a history lecture. The stories were interesting and worth hearing, but it was hard not to be impatient to just go exploring.
Rila Monastery is located at 1300m (4200+ft) in the Rila Mountains. The monastery was founded near where Saint Ioan (Ivan or John), a 9-10th century ascetic monk, lived for twelve years in a cave and then for another seven years on bare rock in the open air. Saint Ioan is the preeminent Bulgarian saint and Rila Monastery is its preeminent monastery.
After visiting the interior of the church with our group and guide, we headed off on our own to the small museum which houses various religious artifacts along with the monastery’s prize treasure, the Cross of Rafail. The cross is made of a solid piece of wood (81×43 ccm). It is named after its creator, a monk named Rafail who carved 104 religious stages and 650 small figures into the wood, a process that took him more than 12 years. The work finished in 1802 when Rafail lost his eyesight.
Back outside, we discovered that our gorgeous day had given way to a downpour. It was actually beautiful to watch the rain pour off the surrounding buildings while we ate a picnic lunch (bought in Sofia on the advice of Traventuria whose tour info warned us that the only dining options were notoriously slow). We visited a surprisingly lavish period monk’s cell that even included an attached room for a novice/servant who cooked and cleaned for the monk.
When the rain passed, we spent our remaining time exploring the monastery courtyard, grounds, Hreliov’s tower (a defensive structure built in 1334-1335 and the oldest surviving building in the monastery), and impressive kitchen. The far room of the kitchen boasts a 20m tall, room-sized chimney of amazing construction that, along with enormous pots and utensils, converted the entire room into a giant cooking area.
Practical info:
The cost for the Traventuria 8-hour tour (9am-5pm) with English guide was €30pp and does not include the 10 lev entrance fee to the church or the entrance fees to the various for-pay sites (museum, kitchen, etc.) on the monastery grounds. Our guide’s English was decent, if not great. Pick-up and drop-off is available for a fee, but must be at a hotel with a 24-hour desk. If staying at an apartment, etc., guests need to meet Traventuria at a qualifying hotel. We walked to the meeting point since it wasn’t that far from our AirBnB apartment.
There are shared and private rides available to the monastery from Sofia as well as a public bus. Info on those is on the monastery website.
Entrance to the Rila Monastery and church is free. Entrance to the monastery church is 8 lev ($4.48 US). Entrance to the monastery kitchen was, I think, 3 lev ($1.68 US). Entrance to the Tower of Hrelio, Ethnografic museum, Bulgarian renaissance guestrooms and Monastery farm is 5 lev ($2.80 US).
It is possible to stay at the monastery, but this is geared primarily for people on pilgrimage. The monastery also owns a hotel. 150′ from the monastery.
Viewed from Vitosha pedestrian street: A streetcar passes in front of the Sofia Courthouse. Sofia has one of the longest tram systems in Europe, some of the cars dating back 50 years.
I added Sofia, Bulgaria, on whim to the 8-night side trip I’d planned for us before our latest house- and cat-sit in Antwerp, Belgium. It was really a matter of “as long as we’re in the area (Bucharest, Romania), why not?” I didn’t know much about either Sofia or Bulgaria before then. Pre-travel research confirmed my general impression of a less-than-wealthy Eastern European capital, still recovering from Communism and still relatively new to the EU. As of the latest census I could find, Sofia has a population of 1.2 million people as compared to Bucharest’s 1.8 million. Bulgaria is both the poorest country in the EU and the fastest shrinking population in the world.
We flew Romanian Tarom Air from Bucharest to Sofia. Arriving at 5:30am at the Bucharest airport, we found a long (albeit fast-moving) check-in line and a bustlingly busy airport. When we arrived in Sofia at around 9:40am, passengers on our flight were the only people in the baggage claim. Following online advice, we used an airport-sanctioned OK Supertrans taxi from the queue and had a friendly (non-English-speaking) driver with a working meter. It was a bargain 10 lev + 2 lev tip ($6.80 total) for the ride along a wide, straight boulevard into the center of Sofia and our AirBnB apartment.
First impressions were generally good. The wide, smooth boulevard turned to yellow glazed brick roads (Yes, the yellow brick road is real! :D) as we entered the older center of town. Boring residential architecture further out gave way to elegant and imposing public buildings with grand columns, arches, fountains and statuary. Less than a block from our apartment, a wide pedestrian street, named Vitosha after the mountain that rises above the city, bustled with people enjoying the many cafes and shops that lined it.
Facing the pretty open courtyard of a Spanish restaurant, our apartment boasted a much more appealing entrance than our lodging in Bucharest. Self check-in was a breeze using an electronic fob and keys left for us in a small safe locked to an adjacent shop gate. The one-bedroom apartment itself was spacious and modern with a remote that opened electric privacy shutters on windows and doors on two walls that opened to a patio and narrow side path. Nice!
We settled in and were back out the door by 10am our first day. Early flights have their benefits. After a quick run by the local grocery store to stock breakfast supplies, we headed back out to explore. Turning left at Vitosha, away from the pedestrian street, and putting the imposing Sofia Courthouse on our left, we walked toward the large Sofia statue, a personification of the city. Using the metro entrance to cross under the big intersection there, we popped up at the Serdika ruins which date back to ancient Roman settlers. The ruins are open-air and free and worth a look. David, more hungry than impressed with history, pushed for a lunch break so we left the ruins to settle into shady seats at upscale Largo Bar and Dinner under the high-arched portico of the adjacent Constitutional Court of Bulgaria building. An elegant lunch of grilled shrimp appetizer and a chicken pasta main course for David and seared sesame-crusted tuna salad for me along with local beers was tasty and reasonably-priced at 52.10 lev ($29.45 US).
The awnings of Largo on the left on the Constitutional Court building, plaza Nezavisimost on the right and the Sofia Concert Hall in the distance.
Happily fed, we continued on to the number one site in Sofia, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The cathedral, in classic Eastern Orthodox style, was a tribute/thank-you from Bulgaria to Russia and is named after a Russian national hero. The elaborate painted interior of the cathedral with its huge dome is impressive. Entrance to the cathedral is free, but there’s a charge for photography. Two smock-clad guardians busily tut-tutted anyone snapping photos (even those waving their receipts) and scolded anyone who looked like they might even be considering wrong-doing of any sort. Since kissing and touching icons is a big part of religion in this part of the world, I had to wonder what was going on when these guards seemed to complain about people getting too close to certain items.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
Interior of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
After the cathedral, we meandered our way down boulevards and through parks on our way back to the apartment. I wanted to scope out the park meeting place for the free food tour I’d booked for the following day.
The free food tour turned out to be big fun and way more than I expected from a free tour. We ate lunch (at another health food stop for a salad to counter all that hearty Balkan food) beforehand, and I really should have skipped it. The two-hour food tour stopped at five locally-owned restaurants and shops, each of which offered us hearty tastings. The tour was so well attended that we were split into two groups. The guide for our 16-person tour was an eloquent 23-year old student named Ioan. At Supa Star, an all-soup diner, we were given cups of tarator, a traditional cold yogurt soup made with cucumbers, dill and garlic. Bulgarians are very proud of their unique and healthful yogurt and eat it and cheese in a myriad of dishes. We were surprised to descend into a pedestrian underpass on blvd Vasil Nevsky in front of the Ministry of Youth and Sports for our next stop at a shop selling national-favorite banitsa, a coiled savory pastry. The lady baker cut us generous portions of the fresh-from-the-oven pastry, filled with fresh farm cheese.
The least picturesque of our stops, but we had really tasty cheese-filled banitsa at this little shop.
We had a non-traditional bonus stop at Skaptoburger, a hamburger joint (one of a small locally-owned chain and very popular) where we each got a quarter of a hamburger. After that, it was off to Sun Moon, a well-known vegetarian restaurant and bakery where we sampled toasts spread with two classic toppings, one predominantly tomato and one eggplant. Sun Moon grows and grinds their own grains for their breads. Our final stop was at the impossibly-named Hadjidraganovite izbi, a Bulgarian tavern restaurant set in a wine cellar with traditional decor. There we were treated to a shot of a pelin, a celebratory wine-based absinthe drink, along with three types of bread-with-topping appetizers. As a final send-off, we joined hands to form a cramped ring as Ioan taught us a traditional dance.
As we walked from restaurant to restaurant, Ioan explained life in Sofia. When we came across this post-wedding gathering, he explained that the crowd was shouting “Bitter! Bitter! Bitter!” until the couple kissed to make things sweet.
I’ll save the rest of our Sofia stay, including a day trip to Rila Monastery and a cooking class in the apartment of a charming local hostess, for separate posts.
Practical info:
Find the free food tour (and other for-pay tours) on the Balkan Bites web site. Reservations aren’t necessary, but they will guarantee you a spot. This is a popular tour, so book if you know you want to go. Two late-comers were almost sent away the day we took the tour. Meet for the tour every day at 2pm by the large head statue in Crystal Garden (a/k/a Crystal Park).Although the tour is free, do tip. These guides put a lot into a full 2-hour tour.
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is open 7 days/week, from 7am-7pm. Entry is free. There’s a10 lev ($5.66 US) charge for photos. Find photos and a virtual tour on the cathedral web site.
For fresh salads in a casual small lunch spot, we liked Greens near Vitosha Boulevard.
Bucharest viewed from Closer to the Moon rooftop bar
I admit I had low expectations of Bucharest. I’ve been to many former Soviet bloc countries and there are certain less-than-positive aspects to them all: the ugly over-sized Brutalist architecture (so often built on the site of historic buildings that would be a treasure now), abundant graffiti (which my dad plausibly chalks up to unleashed freedom of expression), and infrastructure and common areas suffering from the financial costs of Communism. Bucharest definitely has those aspects, but it still boasts a wealth of gorgeous French-style architecture, a picturesque old town, and lots of restaurants, cafés and bars (beyond the “drink till you puke” bars and strip clubs that some Eastern European cities use to entice westerners looking for cheap thrills). Despite some streets still holding onto that grubby party vibe and derelict buildings scattered amongst the pristinely restored, Bucharest has the feel of a city moving up and offers many charming streets, elegant boulevards, and cosmopolitan shopping and dining options at great prices.
Stavropoleos Monastery Church in Old Town
Our AirBnB apartment was Bucharest in a nutshell: Located steps from the picturesque old town with a view across the river that included the enormous Palace of Parliament, the apartment was spacious and totally modern. To get there, though, we entered through a graffiti-covered front door near a corner where residents had piled trash that was not collected during our 4-night stay. Still, the rest of the sidewalk as well as vast majority of those in the city were very clean, more so, in fact, than many Western European cities. There were grocery stores, shops and cafes in easy walking distance and we never felt unsafe wandering the city. We wanted to spend most of our time in Bucharest just rambling and exploring. Warm, sunny September weather made this a winning plan.
David by the not-so-charming front door to our AirBnB building. Fortunately, all was lovely and modern inside and the neighborhood was great for exploring.
I really didn’t have many must-sees in Bucharest itself other than the Palace of the Parliament (formerly “the People’s House”), the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. The palace was built on the orders of Nicolae Ceaușescu at a staggering cost, a cruel expense considering the deprivations endured by the populace in that era. Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, were executed before the palace was finished so never got to enjoy the lavish apartments they planned for themselves there. Today, the the building houses the Romanian parliament as well as conventions and diplomatic events, but 70% remains vacant decades after its construction. English language tours are available daily by calling the day before. I tried calling two days before, since we had a day trip planned the following day, and was told it was impossible to book then. The day before means the day before. I guess a little of that strict Communist attitude remains. The tour of the Palace of the Parliament took 2 hours and we only saw a small fraction of the building. Yes, it was a criminal waste of money, but it is a beautiful neo-Classical building nonetheless and showcases materials and craftsmanship from around Romania. Enormous chandeliers, lush carpets, parquet floors and marble cover the vast rooms, hallways and sweeping staircases.
Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the second largest building in the world. It takes about an hour to walk the circumference.
My one big must-see while in Romania was Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle. Yes, I knew the connection between Bran Castle and Vlad the Impaler was tenuous. Yes, I knew the interior retained little of Vlad’s time and that its exterior gets all the praise. But, still. It’s “Dracula’s Castle”! And, the Romanian’s are proud of it and the exterior is everything it should be. There are lots of tour companies offering tours of varying sizes to Bran Castle. I did my research and settled on a small mini-van tour with a maximum of 8 guests and an itinerary that included Peleș Castle and the medieval town of Brașov. This itinerary makes for a long day, but all three of these destinations are worth a visit.
Our tour started out fine with our guide, Bogdan, picking us up at 7am as promised in a nice, modern mini-van. He then picked up a Spanish woman and her two adult sons, then headed to pick up the final couple whom he’d tried to pick up before us but couldn’t find. Thus, began a nearly 1h 30 min. frustrating bit of chaos as he tried to find the missing couple. Clearly, there was confusion about the meeting place, but the problem was magnified by the tour company owner’s insistance on acting the middle man between Bogdan and the missing couple. Apparently, the owner refused to give the missing couple’s phone numbers to Bogdan either to safeguard his business from poaching (a ludicrous precaution if so since Bogdan would spend the day with these people) or as some form of protecting the privacy of the clients (again, silly given the situation). After circling through clogged Bucharest traffic, leaving, getting a call from the boss to return, and repeating the same three times, we finally located the pair of equally frustrated Italians and headed out of town. We could have slept another hour and had the same departure time! Oh well, we were on the road at last.
The road turned out to be a wide, modern highway…at least for a portion of the drive. It narrowed to two lanes later, but remained in excellent condition. –EU money at work in Eastern Europe and far cry from the potholes and ox carts that greeted travelers not so long ago. Despite the decent roads, it was still nearly two hours to our first stop, Peleș Castle.
Peleș Castle was built by King Carol I and his wife, queen Elizabeth, in the 1870’s. It was a miracle of modern technology in its time, boasting the first central heating in Romania along with such wonders as electric lighting and an enormous skylight that opened with the push of a button. The palace is gorgeous inside with elaborate carved wood paneling in the German style and beautiful Romanian marble throughout. Peleș (“pelesh”) is beautifully preserved and not to be missed when exploring Romania.
Peleș Castle music room. Peleș is more a palace than a castle.
We enjoyed a cheap and tasty pizza and local beer lunch in the palace café before heading on to Bran Castle some 40 minutes away across the Southern Carpathian Mountains and into the Transylvania region of Romania. (Romania consists of three regions: southern Walachia including Bucharest and Sinaia, central Transylvania and northern Moldova.) As promised, the view of Bran Castle from below the rocky promontory on which it sits is imposing and impressive. It’s easy to imagine it as the foreboding abode of Vlad or Dracula. Inside, however, things are a bit different. Dowager Queen Marie remodeled the old castle in the twenties. Later her daughter Princess Ileana ran a hospital there during WWII (and later moved to the U.S. where she became a nun). Nowadays the interior is more homey than spooky; two overstuffed couches and a fireplace warm one large stone room.
Iconic Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle
For an extra price, Bran Castle offers an exhibit of medieval torture devices, something I’ve seen plenty of and would have skipped if David hadn’t been interested. I have no desire to spend time with memorabilia of man’s inhumanity to man. The exhibit turned out to be uncomfortably warm as well, although less crowded than the narrow and packed castle corridors and roofed battlement walks in the rest of the castle. I ended up feeling nauseous and headed back out only to be blocked by throngs of large, slow-moving tour groups. I finally threaded my way through the crowds and threatened to faint until a stubborn old guard let me exit through the entrance into the blessedly cool mountain air. A few minutes outside and all was well. Oh well, we’d been warned that the interior of Bran was nothing remarkable in the way of castles and I have to agree. Still, I’m glad we made the stop at Bran and enjoyed seeing the imposing castle looming above us like something straight out of Stoker’s book.
Brașov town square
Our last stop on this long day was Brașov, a picturesque Transylvanian village which is home to one of the largest churches in Romania, the Black Church, so named after a fire blackened its walls. We wandered the streets admiring the embroidery wares of a peasant woman and stopping for a light meal in one of the many cafes circling the expansive main square. We bought a piping hot kürtős kalács (“chimney cake” or “stovepipe cake”) from a food cart to eat as we walked. The big, hollow croissant-like pastry is similar to trdlo we’ve had in Czechia, but the caramelized exterior of this Romanian version, fragrant with orange peel, was something different and delicious. A stroll through a park past a medieval city gate wrapped up our visit to Brașov.
The kürtős kalács stand. Delicious!
As the only English speakers, the others invited us to sit up front with Bogdan as we had the easiest time visiting with him. I enjoyed talking about Romania and life philosophies on the two hour ride back to Bucharest as David nodded asleep against the window. Bogdan is twenty-six and has some of that familiar Eastern European mixture of frustration, self-deprecation, and hope that I so often hear there. He was well-spoken, thoughtful, and curious about many things including Protestant Christianity and how it differed from his own Catholicism. It was an interesting conversation as we drove on in the dark, finally arriving back in Bucharest around 9:30pm.
Caru’ cu Bere outdoor seating in Old Town Bucharest
We spent the rest of our Romania time in Bucharest. Visiting the Palace of the Parliament, exploring the streets and parks, churches and restaurants. We had a well-prepared lunch in the large courtyard of the oldest operating inn in Bucharest, Hanu’ lui Manuc (Manduc’s Inn). We put off eating at the well-known but super touristy old beer hall, Caru’ cu Bere, until our last day, then caved after hearing that they really did offer authentic versions of traditional dishes. True to the billing, we enjoyed skinless sausages, cabbage rolls, hunter’s stew, and the local polenta-like corn mash with the house-brewed beer. The beer hall itself is beautiful and the outdoor seating on a cobbled street in Old Town is delightful in good weather. On our last evening, we headed to the charmingly-named Closer to the Moon rooftop bar for a sparkling water before a return visit to Energeia, a restaurant focused on healthy food (and awesome gin-and-tonic craft cocktails) where I could indulge a craving for greens with round two of a huge kale salad. Balkan food is tasty and hearty, but really short on green vegetables!
We used One Excellence Tours for our “Transylvania Castles Day Trip” from Bucharest to Peles Castle, Bran Castle and Brasov. The tour is in a minivan with a maximum of 8 persons. The cost was $128.80 US for the two of us not including admission fees which are normally 70 RON pp for both Peleș and Bran, and I booked online with Viator. I used Viator, a Tripadvisor company, both because I trust them and the price was good, and because I could book through Topcashback for a rebate. (I’ve gotten over $800 in rebates from Topcashback on things I’d buy or book anyway just for using their links.) Entry to Peleș Castle is normally 30 RON (lei) ($7 US) per adult, but One Excellence Tours comped our entry as an apology for the confusion and late start.Entrance to Bran Castle is 40 RON (lei) ($9.31 US) per adult. Both castles offer reductions for students and seniors.
We paid a total of $217.28 for four nights in our AirBnB apartment, on the corner of Calea Vitoriei (a main road and a great place to be) and Splaiul Independentei.The apartment was a spacious and modern one-bedroom in an excellent location and run by a responsive host. I’d happily stay there again.
Uber works great in Bucharest, but we did have some issues connecting with our driver when we arrived at the airport. He only spoke a few words of English and while Uber directed us to wait upstairs by Arrivals at the big airport parking lot, he waited downstairs by Departures. We did finally sort things out, but it wasted some time. I read lots of warnings about Bucharest taxis, so was hesitant to use them. We had an early flight when we left and I worried about using Uber since I’ve had them cancel before in the States and couldn’t risk that at such an early hour in a place where we didn’t speak the language. I ended up booking a private ride with Transport Air Bucharest a top-rated company on Tripadvisor. I paid 85.09 RON ($19.81 US) in advance on the Internet and communication with them was excellent. Our driver was waiting with a new, immaculate sedan when we exited our building pre-dawn. The cost was not all that much more (maybe $5) than we would have paid for pre-booking Uber or a taxi.
