Tutova: Saturday August 1 Brasov and Bran

Today we started the day by eating breakfast in the restaurant at the villa. We then got on the bus to Brasov. While in Brasov some of us went in the Black Church, named that when the Turks tried to destroy it by fire. It was not ruined but there was black soot on the walls. It is the biggest church between Istanbul and Venice. There is a very impressive Oriental rug collection brought back by merchants who donated their best rugs as a thanks for a safe journey. One of the pillars has bullet holes from the Revolution of 1989. We then spent some time in the City square to shop or people watch. Amy, Trent, and I got a pre-lunch ice cream cone. We then went to lunch. After lunch we drove to Bran to visit "Dracula's" castle. Since Amy, Susan, and I had already been inside we decided to explore the city and get some Kurtos. Trent decided to join us. We bought our Kurtos and then we walked around to the side of the castle we had never seen. We found a "park" and took some photos. We ended up finding a memorial that turned out to be a resting place for Queen Maria's heart, placed there in 1940. We met up with the rest of the group and stopped at the Kurtos stand again so everyone else could enjoy them. And then we were on our way back to Club Villa Bran.
We had been told the night before there was a zip line on the property. Many of us wanted to try it, so we all lined up to give it a go. As I was climbing the ladder it was starting to rain. The worker just pushed me off the stand and I was off. It was a short line but a lot of fun. It really started to rain and the Amys did not get to go. We all went to wait for dinner and a group of us played card games while we waited. At dinner we were able to have our Sarmale we were promised last night. After dinner we were treated to tradtional Romanian Folk dancers. A few also took part in mulled wine at a bonfire while others got on their computers to catch up on email, and blogs.