Bran

Yesterday morning, we left the village of Rua Alb and drove to Bran, where Dracula's Castle is located. We encountered a few unusual traffic issues along the way, but it was a fairly easy trip. The first thing on our agenda was to see the castle. In reality, it has very little to do with the Dracula story, but it was still a very cool place to visit, and since the story was fresh in our minds, we were able to picture certain scenes perfectly. The boys' favorite part was the torture room, which displayed a variety of ways to die, be mangled or, at the very least, be publicly humiliated in the Middle Ages. Besides the cool exterior, Jeff and I were especially interested in the secret staircase, encased between two walls and not discovered until a fairly recent renovation. The place we are staying here is beautiful and roomy and has a wonderful view of the Carpathians. The hosts do not speak much English, but they are very kind and obviously crazy about kids. The woman brought us dessert and hot chocolate last night and then swept the kids off to the game room to play pool and air hockey.

traffic problems

Dracula's Castle

exploring the castle

secret staircase

This is the torture device the boys were most interested in.
It's a spiky chair people would be made to sit naked in
until they were ready to confess their crimes.

I would not want to be locked in this box!

The scales of justice, which were used to "weigh" the sins of the accused.
It was believed that those in cahoots with the Devil would weigh less than they should.
Sometimes, the person was weighed against a Bible and would usually go free, after enduring
the public humiliation of being stripped down and weighed in public, because they would
obviously weigh more than the Bible. This was used much in witch hunting.

No vampires here!

Our Bran home

the view from our balcony