Spring Visitors 2 - Part 2a (Hiking in the Piatra Craiului)

The highlight of Martha's visit was the 2-day hiking trip we did.  We traveled by train to Brasov on Sunday, where we walked around the city, rode the cable car up to the top of Tampa, walked around the summit, and enjoyed supper with my friends and colleagues.  Monday and Tuesday we hiked with Horia, standing in for Iulian Cozma with whom I had made arrangements, in the Piatra Craiului National Forest and surrounding villages. We covered approximately 11 km (7 miles) each of the 2 days over a wide variety of terrain.  The first half of Monday we spent going up - literally! - but the view when we stopped for our lunch break was well worth it!  I am using a few pictures from Martha in addition to some of mine.  She has a fancier camera than I do and was able to take some shots I could not get.  I also refer you to Iulian's website: http://www.mountainguide.ro/.  In June I will be hiking for 9 days with Iulian - he is well organized informed about the country, listens to his clients' desires, etc.  Horia was interesting and informative as well.  The only thing I haven't yet got an answer to is what elevation change we covered.  I would like to know...

Pictures from Sunday...

Monday we began by driving about 40 minutes from Brasov to the start of the trek.  We began by filling water bottles at a fresh spring and then walked into the park.

A well-deserved break at the summit.  Notice there is snow lingering up there!  The cheese on roll that Horia  had prepared for lunch was mighty delicious!

Unfortunately the cloud cover interferes with fully capturing what we saw from the summit, but you will get the idea...  There is snow covering those distant peaks. That is the Piatra Craiului range behind us.  The mountains viewed between the barns below are the Bucegi.  Both ranges are part of the Carpathians.

 We are headed down there...

End of the trail for Day 1.  We overnighted at Cosmin's house, a second home for him and his family and available for renting to folks who want to be in the mountains.  It is situated on land left him by his grandfather and he did most of the work on it himself, over a period of about 3 years.  Dinner was fabulous! We had vegetable soup prepared by his mother from produce grown in her garden (both this year and last), cheese that a neighbor had made, bread another neighbor had baked, and sausages that Cosmin had made when they killed the pig at Christmastime.  All local, all fresh, and very tasty!