The English-speaking tourists gather in anticipation of their exciting Vienna Opera tour.

The upper lobby area, surviving allied bombs, comprises a large of portion of the opera making it through WWII unscathed.  The opera hall chamber itself wasn't as fortunate.

These galleries, the lower seating, the stage and back area were all reconstructed in the 10 years after WWII.

A view of the stage and lower seating from the central rear large balcony:

Now exiting the balconies, and descending down into the lower lobby area.  There are busts of all the famous Viennese opera composers.

Beethoven again with scenes from his famous operas.

We re-enter the opera chamber at the lower floor and get more views of the stage workers doing their thing.

Here's our young tour guide providing a nice conclusion to our English tour.

We begin our tour of the Imperial Treasury Vienna:

The coronation crown, with various coronation gowns.  Yes, those Liberace-looking gowns, as seen in old paintings, actually exist (and still exist).

The bassinet of Napoleon's son:

Religious relics - supposedly a face-piece of the burial shroud of Jesus, and an enclosure containing a piece of the crucifix.

 
A dedication to Mozart - at the time of his death, he was poor, and placed in a mass pauper's grave outside town, although a mass was performed for him in the city's cathedral.

The Hofburg Imperial Palace:

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At this point, Gerri, who had been feeling off for a few days, starting to really feel off - a weakening, dizziness, vertigo like feeling.  Not dehydration, we're good at touring with regular water drinking, she was thinking her BP meds were over-doing it.  She'd gone off them in this period as a result - thinking she had low BP.

So we decided to find a clinic - and the best option seemed to be heading to Vienna General Hospital to get checked out.  The walk-in clinic found her BP really high (huh, maybe she shouldn't have stopped taking the BP meds), and after doing a basic blood panel to rule out obvious causes, decided it was her system going through an adjustment to her BP meds, which suggested she should double her dose.  (She later conferred with her doctor/nurse back home and they agreed.)  So after $85 paid in full to the hospital and a $44 BP machine to continue watching it, we headed home - only about a 10 minute walk to our lodging, conveniently.

Hmmm, a person doesn't typically feel their BP edging up.  And a vertigo-like feeling continued - Tim and a cousin had had similar symptoms in last few years.  This turned out to be what is called calcium canoliths in the inner ear - a temporary calcium overabundance messing with the balance parts in the inner ear.  Gerri decided it was her turn for this malady - for which there are "exercises" to manipulate them away from the sensitive parts while they are reabsorbed.  I suppose these symptoms were fortunate in that they steered her to find out her BP meds needed adjustment - and the vertigo eventually went away, so we press on.

Although the plan for this trip wasn't to necessarily tour Austria, Vienna is positioned well for us to check it out, and take a break from car touring for a change.

Here's a tram promoting the relationship between the USA and Austria - not the one we did our audio tour with however.

Vienna Opera - just an exterior view today - we'll get an inside tour tomorrow.  Across the street we find the first of two trams, short runs, to do a circular tour.

The tram tour begins - we use a Rick Steves' audioguide - it's not the best way to see stuff, but we get a whirlwind overview of the area we'll do a walking tour of later.

Fountain outside the Opera House.  The walking tour begins.

"The Diving Board"

St. Stephen's Cathedral - the current version is largely from the 15th century, although earlier versions dated from the 12th century, were gradually built over and then removed from within.

Roman relics were incorporated into the front entrance.

St. Peter's Church peaking up the street.

WWII didn't treat the city well, but it resurrected itself to pretty fine shape.

A moon phase indicator, a clock, and a sun-dial.  And a rearing horse.

"The Blue Danube" is the common English title of "An der schönen, blauen Donau", (German for "By the Beautiful Blue Danube"), a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866.

Yes, we are again on the Danube River.

Tim emerges from the "water closet".

There's little Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

A good day for just driving to reach an airport in Sofia.

1,952 miles driven around Bulgaria and Romania with the mighty Honda Civic.

Hmmm, this is supposed to be a Ryan Airlines' airplane - okay, it is a subsidiary airline of Ryan.  It's an Austrian airline previously owned by the late Niki Lauda, Formula One racing champion, who used to occasionally even captain some of his airline's flights.

We're working our way back to Sofia, where we'll finish with this rental car, and hop a flight to Vienna, Austria.  Ruse is on the Danube River, just across the border bridge from Romania, and a good intermediate stop on the longish way back.

Tim was intestinially-off the previous day, and so didn't see much of Sibiu, so before we left for Ruse, we did a brief walk on Sibiu's square for him to get a look.

Here are some of the "eyebrow" roof-top windows the town is known for:

The Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral was built in the 14th century on the location of another 12th-century church.

Cat's eye...

...leaving the square, and off to Ruse, Bulgaria.

We're back!

Now in Ruse - on the Danube River.

On the square in Ruse...again, a travel stop for us - Rick Steve's tour-book only mentions it as the spot where we can cross by bridge to cross the border.  So we had dinner for one last time at a Happy's Restaurant, and did some strolling before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Sibiu is a middle-sized well preserved fortified medieval town in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania.  Nicknamed The Town with Eyes (given its historical buildings with partly open rooftop eyebrow dormer ventilation windows), the town is a well-known tourist destination for both domestic and foreign visitors. 

Gerri is on her own today, as Tim is hanging back in lodging nursing some intestinal issues.

The Bridge of Lies is  pedestrian bridge of many legends.  It is the first cast iron bridge built in Romania.  Located in the Lesser Square of Sibiu, the bridge crosses Strada Ocnei to connect the Lesser Square to the Huet Square.

The most popular story says bridge will collapse when someone tells a lie while standing on it.  Another legend says the bridge was often crossed by merchants who were trying to fool their clients. The ones who were caught were tossed off the bridge. According to another legend, the bridge was a meeting place for boys attending the military academy and their girlfriends. The boys wouldn't show up, leaving their girlfriends to wait until realizing they have been lied to. Another legend says the bridge was often crossed by young lovers who swore each other eternal love. The girls also swore that they were virgin, which often turned out to be a lie after the couples got married.  As a punishment, they were thrown off the bridge, since it was the place where they had lied to their lovers.

On the Bridge of Lies with the "eyes' looking down upon Gerri from an adjacent building.

The Council Tower of Sibiu is situated between the two main squares of the historic center, the Great Square (Piața Mare) and the Small Square (Piața Mică). It was originally built in the 12th century.

The Great Square

The Brukenthal National Museum was established in the late 18th century by Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803) in his city palace.  Baron Brukenthal, governor of the Grand Principality of Transylvania had established his first collections around 1790. The collections were officially opened to the public in 1817, making the museum the oldest institution of its kind on the territory of modern-day Romania.

Elaborate wrought iron installation.

Gerri decided to pay the price of admission and climbed the Councilor Tower to get some great views on such a sunny day.

There's Tim, hanging out in lodging in the building row behind the cream-colored one on the square.  The Bridge of Lies is seen near the center of the photo.

Now descending the tower, rounding down down down...

...and back at the Bridge of Lies.

Post at the ​Casa Calfelor - house for travelling craftsmen in training.

Food and drink is found.

A final "look" at the rooftops.

She cannot tell a lie, the Bridge of Lies is just as awesome at night.

The Merry Cemetery (Maramureş County) is famous for brightly colored tomb markers with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there in addition to scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.

Each marker has a small protective roof, but still you can tell which ones are the oldest from the weathering.

This one seems to tell some curious story.

The mother-in-law's grave:

Cemetery church interior:

Săpânța Peri monastery church, the tallest wooden church in the world:

Wikipedia:  Maramureș is known for its pastoral and agricultural traditions, largely unscathed by the industrialization campaign that had been carried on during Romania's communist period. Plowing, planting, harvesting, and hay making and handling are mostly done through manual labor. The industrial plants built during the communist period heavily polluted the area, but recently, due to the decline of the area's industrial activity, the area is less polluted.

The old and the new transporters co-mingle.

We toured a region of Maramures, concentrating on seeing countryside and strange wooden churches, but first a convenient relief facility is stumbled upon .

Wikipedia:  The wooden churches in the Maramureș region of northern Transylvania are a group of almost one hundred Orthodox churches of different architectural solutions from different periods and areas. The Maramureș churches are high timber constructions with characteristic tall, slim bell towers at the western end of the building.

Maramureș is one of the better-known regions of Romania, with autonomous traditions since the Middle Ages. Its well-preserved wooden villages and churches, its traditional lifestyle, and the local colorful dresses still in use make Maramureș as near to a living museum as can be found in Europe.

The wooden churches of the region that still stand were built starting from the 17th century all the way to 19th century. Some were erected on the place of older churches. They were a response to the prohibition against the erection of stone Orthodox churches by the Catholic Austro-Hungarian authorities. The churches are made of thick logs, some are quite small and dark inside but several of them have impressive measures. They are painted with rather "naïve" Biblical scenes, mostly by local painters. The most characteristic features are the tall tower above the entrance and the massive roof that seems to dwarf the main body of the church.

Eight were listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites in 1999, for their religious architecture and timber construction traditions. These are: Bârsana, Budești, Desești, Ieud, Plopiș, Poienile Izei, Rogoz, Șurdești.

While navigating, Gerri notices a Google maps reference to a Jewish cemetary a bit off the highway in the hills, so off we explore for it...

...and we find a nice vantage point to view the pastoral small town life.

Because they could at some point? - a more modern stone and metal church next to the old one.  We weren't able to enter it, but we're guessing it's far more spacious and comfortable inside.

We noticed everywhere where grasses are cut, they let it grow tall and then harvest it for hay, stacking it on the premises for drying in various ways.  Some places are just random grassy areas, while others are purposeful hay fields.

Inside another church, where a cemetary volunteer provided us entry, we find the many colorful decorations.

Then we visit Barsana Monastery - begun in the 14th century, but with some structures as new as 1993.

First peeks, much anticipation...

The ultimate gazebo...

We toured one building which contained old religious relics, as well as handicrafts and typical lodging decorations.

A display typically presented on first entry to a traditional Romanian home - family heirlooms from the looms.

Simple but masterful carved interior features...

Amongst the tower sentinels...

To the right, below, the half moon is captured atop the background church spire (click the photo).

Now inside the main church, the tallest spired structure.

An outside nook where memorial candles are burned - the better for not burning down a wooden church and also keeping soot off wall paintings.

I imagine this all needs continual attention of landscapers, maintainers and gardeners.

One more church elsewhere, this one with unique "sub" spires.

That's a big ladder, and another one of these hanging boards - a mystery to us.

Most every house have elaborate gates - the tour guide said this is all about some distant version of "keeping up with the Jones'".

The touring is mostly done, we head into Sighetu Marmatiei, and park right next to the birthplace of Elie Wiesel, a writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

This nail is here, as this city is located at the top of Romania, where when you have the map, a nail would be placed to tack it to a wall.

This is not Viscri, just something we spotted on the drive there.

Driving on a lane through the village, signs help us find the fortified church.  Notice the dwellings - a front wall with gate with a farm-house look about them.  The people here are mostly Roma (Gypsie), with a smattering of German ex-patriates.

After a short walk from parking, and then up a hill (there's always climbing), we find the church, along with art students sketching.  After paying a small ticket entry ($3), we enter the interior.

More climbing, up the watch tower, first with stone stairs, then onto wooden steps, and then wooden ladders.

The church is from the 13th century, but the fortifications began around 1500 A.D.  We're trusting timbers that are 500 years old.

The views from the tower are amazing.

After the Ottoman-Turk threat went away, the fortifications continued to be used by the village as store-rooms and work-shops.

The backside of the terra-cotta roof tiles - see how the tabs rest on the planks to fix them in place.

Grain stores - elsewhere a room had held ham rumps - these features were in use into the 1960's, when I'm guessing agriculture transitioned from medieval to modern.

From wagon wheels to tractor wheels (tractor viewed after we reentered the village).

The sketching continues, in the shade, amongst the flowers.

Our "sketch", in full living color, is completed at the push of a button.

The loo, date of construction unknown, architectural-style indeterminate.

Ah, one final "sketch" of the premises, the clouds placed as if in some renaissance painting.

Roma handiwork - the proprietor was no where to be seen.

This offering from the "Hobo" line was left behind, unfortunately.  It was instantly warm.

We saw these storks, the nests, and their people-placed supports everywhere.  Romanians consider the presence of storks as good luck omens.

We first saw these horses wandering up along the grassy area, and some minutes later a couple teens appeared to wrangle them back to their compound.  Apparently someone left the barn doors open.  Although we saw modern farm implements, we also saw horses pulling wagons as well.

We found most all the roads, big and small, were very well maintained.  Here we pass through a repair zone - green for us red for them.

Hop plants climbing their vine lines - the beer will continue for another season.

As if there was any doubt, the tour begins with a climb.

The clock still works, but we think any animation the figures had had no longer function.

Surprise!  It's the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler - inspiration for Dracula.

The back gate, amazing, they anticipated the separation requirements of modern cars.

Contemplating kitty.

The Stag House, 17th century, was a manor house.

This covered stairway was built so children could walk to school high on the hill above and be protected from the elements. 

The school.

Looking down upon the village on the other side of the high hill.  It almost looks like someone's life work of creating a model train railway village.

Taking the long way down around the hill, we come back upon the start of the children's school steps.

A preserved part of the defensive wall, now part of someone's private grounds.  It doesn't appear imposing from this side, but there's a steep drop-off on the exterior.

The other side...

Syanora Sighisoara - this may be the last we see of Vlad as we press on.

Sister-citied with Cleveland, Ohio, since 1973.  Population 250,000.  As typical, we start our tour on the main square of the old town district.  This building is city hall.

We're looking for our tour guide - he/she seems to be a bit late. 

It's a cathedral scale church.  "Black Church", finished around 1476 AD after having started in the 1380's,  people had come to think it received its name from a city-wide fire in 1689.  But 21st century science says it darkened from industrial revolution pollution, receiving its name, indeed, at the end of the 19th century.

We find ourselves at the finish of a 10K race.

The city name, high on the hill, originated from a political candidate's campaign - the man's name was morphed into the city's name afterwards.

Our tour guide arrives.

We learn more about the church - originally known at the "Church of St Mary".

Racers continue to finish, running past Black Church.

Preservation and reconstruction is noticeable here with the lighter colored replacement stones.

High atop the column rising up from the green dumpster is a figure of a young boy.  Legend says it's in memoriam of a promising German young apprentice who was mistaken for an intruder and pushed off the roof to his death by a Bulgarian laborer.

Posing in a long narrow alleyway (see "Brasov" on the hill in the distance) - although many have disappeared this walk space is relic from the time when "fire-fighting" was done by the townspeople ("bucket brigade"), and when called these alleyways allowed faster access to a scene of fire when alerted.

We emerge onto the next street.

Remnants of the old city defensive walls remain here.

A historical mansion house.

Saint Nicholas Church from around 1500 AD; and a stream along another part of the city fortress walls which used to carry away sewage, but now flows clean and pristine.

A view from one of the city defensive towers.

Clock towers...

...fluffy clouds, and teddy bears.

And then we stumble upon a wine tasting, featuring wines of Romania, and some adjacent countries.  They had 170 wines to choose from, $20/person for the event, and when you turn the glass back in you get your $20 back.

And again, dinner is served...

Outside the next city, we visit a church fort and "Dracula's" castle.

The church, what this says below in short, is 200 years after the church's 1218 AD construction began, built by German knights, the locals feeling threatened by Ottoman Turk invaders formed a fort around the central church.  When the bad guys would show up, they'd retreat to the "fort" that had everything they needed to withstand a short siege.

There are several examples of these church forts in the region - we chose one of the most preserved for a tour.
(the one below, at lowermost right)

Hard to fathom that all this structure is over 600 years old - a testament to why many Balkan roofs are still built this way into recent times.

There was no information, but we're guessing the furnishings aren't original, but in the style during use during the times of Turkish invasions.  Guessing in that, furniture is portable and valuable, so the originals likely would have moved on with it after the fort went out of use, or simply wore out, or maybe even some it is dated to later into the 18th century, at the end of Turkish threats.

A view of the defensive wall interior, with archery ports, and many ports used to channel boiling water or whatnot onto attackers.

Old timbers still holding the structure together, and more views of the defensive positions.

A school room - believe it or not.

The 13th century church - with Tom and Beth, who we picked up in Brasov (they had arrived some nights earlier).

Like the Holiday Inn, except with bows and arrows at the ready.  The lodgings had 270 rooms, and could contain all 1600 villagers.

Here's a look at the whole thing at once (we left our drone at home, ha, ha).

The entry gate (viewed from this inside) and a view of the defensive walls.  You might wonder why attackers simply didn't fling heavy flaming cannon balls to break through the roof, but then I imagine the villagers were at the standby with buckets of water.  I'm also thinking the attackers were bands of small raiding parties, easily defended against.

Onto Bran's Castle (imagined in later times to be the lair of Dracula).

Below the castle, we wade through trinket stands and small hordes of tourists.

Commonly known outside Transylvania as Dracula's Castle, it is promoted as the home of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Apparetnly, Stoker knew nothing about this castle, which has only minimal associations with Vlad the Impaler, warloard of Wallachia, the inspiration for Dracula.  Stoker's Dracula's crumbling fictional castle also has no resemblance to Bran Castle.

"Dracula's" bed - hmmm, I thought he hung from some ceiling in the form of a bat, during daytime.

Part of the Irish Embassy Bram Stoker exhibition.

Here's a cool nook - I suppose a way to ward off the chill of a large stone castle.

A look into the courtyard, and also showing some of the picturesque setting of the wooded hills.

Construction of the castle began after 1377 AD.  This view provides a view of why the castle is really here - a strategic position in a river gorge - 50 years later the Ottoman Turks came on the scene and the fort was put to really good use in defending the territory.  Later, much later, the 1920's, royals took residence in the castle giving it the interior look of some of the rooms we visited.

Cool and cheesy touristy "art" installations within other rooms.

A touch of interior decorating and useful features from the royals.

With an additional small ticket purchase we even toured some galleries of medieval torture devices - as with the Dracula myth, unrelated to the the real history of the castle.  But, there is a Vlad-like impaler device in the corner, raring and ready to go.

As inspired by Disney Amusement Parks, we exited through the gift shop.

Outside the castle, the scarlet vampiress and the wolf-man.

Time to escape, while it's still day-time.

About an hour, back to Brasov.

"Dracula, we salute you..."