Day 3 - Wednesday April 30, 2025-Bucharest Romania

Parliament building, the third largest building in the world.

Today, with perfect weather (high temp was about 77 degrees with a light breeze and all sun), we left the hotel at 9:00 a.m. on a tour of Bucharest. Our first stop was in the parking lot across the street from the third largest building in the world. This is their Parliament building. The first largest is the Pentagon and the second building is in Thailand. While we didn't go inside it was interesting to stand across the street and see the immenseness of this building.

Interesting streetlight and the iron work

Across the street from the Parliament is a pretty street with 44 water fountains running down the middle of the street.

From there we went to the "Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum.  The outdoor museum is  devoted to Romanian village life, with hundreds of peasant farms & homes.

The fence is so intricately woven 

Typical entrance to a farmhouse.  The opening on the left is for people, the opening on the right, for animals.

Houses were often built underground and the only thing above ground was the roof made of straw or hay.  This was to avoid being attacked during the wars with the Ottoman empire.

Equestrian Statue of Carol I   It honors King Carol I, the first king of Romania, who reigned from 1866 to 1914. Carol I played a significant role in modernizing Romania and establishing its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Kretzulescu Church.  This red-brick Orthodox church with bell towers dates to the 1720s, 

On this spot, we met a man who talked about his part as a 15 year old boy fighting against Communism in the December 18, 1989 revolution which evicted the dictator, Causes u and his régime, sweeping the dictator from power.

The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. The revolutions of 1989 were a key factor in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

This picture i found on the Internet tonight.  Our speaker is the one holding the flag on the truck at the age of 15.

He was 15 when he and friends matched against the dictator along with 1,000's of others.  His good friend next to him was shot dead.  The number of bullets and shell casings numbered more than one per person marching that day. He gave a very moving story of the communist regime, the hunger in the land and their fight to oust the dictator.

The original communist flag, (shown on the truck) captured and the communist logo or icon cut out of the flag which eventually became the Romanian flag.

Memorial of Rebirth monument.

Residents says it looks like a potato on a spear costing more than 1 million euro.  This tall marble monument with a metal crown honors the victims of the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

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We then walked through the old city all with cobblestone streets.  This is an indoor eating area that was really attractive.  It reminded me of Italy, a bit.

Any bench will do!

This church was really beautiful, even more so inside.  

There are no statues inside, just frescos on the walls and all exquisitely painted.

Wayne found another bench and stayed outside.

It was 1:45 pm and finally time for lunch.

We were taken in the old city to a restaurant that could seat 1,000 people.  Lunch was a squash vegetable soup and a beef stew that was a little sweet.  They also provided a small show with local, folk songs and dancing.

For our first full day, it was a long one

  We had some free time after lunch for some independent shopping and looking.  Then on to the bus arriving at the ship at 5:00 pm. We managed to unpack and then up to the safety briefing.

Dinner was at 7 pm and then finally to our room at 9:30 pm.  A total of 10,922 steps before I tuck myself in tonight.

Tomorrow begins at 7:00 am with breakfast and then at 9:00 am our 8 hour excursion to Veliko Tarnovo & Arbanasi.  It is a village in central northern Bulgaria, set on a high plateauand is known for the rich history.  

But that's tomorrow. And right now I'm beat and have to get up in 6 hours.