We had breakfast at the pension (included with room price). Not a buffet here but fried cheese, sausages, bread and coffee. See pic.

Then we went to catch a local bus since the castle is 23km from the town. The bus is a minibus with a sign in the window. There are designated stops, but not designated times, so you just flag down the bus get on and pay the driver. The 1st driver was very helpful and wanted to make sure we got off in the right place and headed in the right direction. It was 2km to the base of the steps to get to the castle. There are pics as we got closer to the castle. As you can see in the last pic it is that small building on the hill of the hill in the middle of the pic.

To get to the castle we had to do 1550 steps to get to the top. It was hot today but at least there was a breeze. It was hard doing that many steps, but we made it!

There was a guide at the top even though the ruins are relatively small. She walks what we did everyday to get to work- she sure doesn’t need to join a gym. Also many pics on my camera. The walk down was much easier than going up but I was surprised at how long it seemed for us to get down. There was a restaurant there so, of course, we stopped for a cold drink. Then we walked to 2km to the bus stop and caught the bus back to town. I should tell you that here in Curtea de Arges the old women still wear babushkas and there are still horse and donkey drawn hay carts. Instead of hay bales and rolls the locals here dry and stack hay on homemade triangular racks – like those you see in old photos.
We did our usual for a place to eat, but there are not many restaurants here. However, the portions in Eastern Europe are huge and we have started ordering appetizers. I had a Serbian salad and potatoes fried with bacon, onions and peppers. Marsha had a pickle salad and polenta stuffed with cheese and Stephanie had dishes very similar to Msrsha’s.

Tomorrow we return to Bucharest by train.