Sights in Sinaia
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Bucegi
The easiest way up into the Bucegi from Sinaia is up two cable-car rides, one from the centre to the Cota 1400 station, then another up to Cota 2000 station. In the centre, the 30-person cable-car station leaves half-hourly with two station points marked by elevation. Lines are more likely in winter than summer. Buses just below the station also go up to Cota 1400 when full; there are also taxis.
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Peleş Castle
Full of pomp and brimming with confidence of a new Romanian monarchy, the magnificent century-old Peleş Castle, a 20-minute walk up from the centre, is really a palace. Fairy-tale turrets rise above acres of green meadows and grand reception halls fashioned in Moorish, Florentine and French styles, with heavy wood-carved ceilings and gilded pieces overwhelm our wee mortal minds. Even if you're bent on chasing 'Dracula', it's hard not to get a thrill visiting this castle.
The first European castle to have central heating, electricity and vacuuming(!), Peleş was intended to be the summer residence of Romania's longest-serving monarch, King Carol I (the hand-to-hip statue o…
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Pelişor Palace
About 100m up hill from Peleş Castle, the German-medieval Pelişor Palace has a hard time competing with its neighbour. King Carol I planned this house for his nephew (and future king) Ferdinand (1865-1927) and wife Marie (who didn't get on well with King C and loathed Peleş). Marie picked the design - pretty pastel decorations in simple Art Nouveau style. Most of the furniture was imported from Vienna. Marie used four apartments while Ferdinand had just one.
Marie died in the arched golden room, the walls of which are entirely covered in gilded leaves.
At the western end of the Peleş estate is the Swiss-chalet-style Foişorul Hunting Lodge, built as a temporary residence…
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Sinaia Monastery
Half way between Peleş and the centre, the Sinaia Monastery, home to 20-some monks, is well worth a look. Inside the gate, the large Orthodox church ('biserica mare') before you dates from 1846; two icons inside were presented by Russia's Tsar Nicholas II in 1903. Beside the church is a small History Museum.
Back toward the mountains, a passageway leads to a smaller church ('biserica veche') from 1695. Monks retreated into the Bucegi Mountains from the 14th century but it was not until the late 17th century that they built a monastery.
The tomb of Tache Ionescu, the head of a transitional government for a few months in 1921-22, is in the building next to the small church.
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Tomb of Tache Ionescu
The Tomb of Tache Ionescu, the head of a transitional government for a few months in 1921-22, is in the building next to the small church in the Sinaia Monastery. Stricken with cholera as a child, Ionescu came here. Quotations from his speeches are carved in stone on the mausoleum's interior walls.
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History Museum
Beside the Orthodox church in the Sinaia Monastery is a small History Museum in which some of the monastery's treasures are displayed, including the first translation of the Bible into Romanian (in the Cyrillic alphabet), dating from 1668.
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