My weekend trips

Hi everyone I am back from my whirlwind weekend trip. I went to Bran and Sinaia, with stops several other places. I had a great time and took some good pictures. The first one here is the castle at Bran. The castle controlled one of the only passes through the mountains. This made it a very important castle. Now it is world famous as Dracula's castle. It became Dracula's castle when Bram Stoker wrote the novel. The character of Dracula was based on a famous Romanian Prince Vlad Tepes. He was known as Vlad the Impaler. Who knows what an Impaler does? If you do comment on the bottom of this post. This picture was take from across a valley. As you can see the weather was less than perfect. But imagine you were an traveler, or maybe more importantly a conquerer and as you rounded the bend this is what waited for you. You might think twice about whether you wanted to try to attack this castle. The castle was give to Queen Mary, the wife of King Carol I the first King of Romania. The castle was confiscated by the communist government in the 1940's. Since the revolution many people including the heirs of Queen Mary have petitioned for return of their property. The heirs were successful this year and the castle in again owned by the Royal family.
This is a picture of Peles Castle. This castle was not built as a fortress but as the summer home of King Carol I. You can see the differences in the way the castle is built. The furniture inside is some of the original furniture that was used by the King in the early 1900's. This property was also recently returned to heirs of the royal family. They have decided to leave it as a tourist attraction but there is a smaller castle nearby that they have moved back in to, at least part-time.
This last photo is of a well at the fortress at Rasnov. This fortress is built on top of a hill and was used to protect the people who lived in the area. It was first built in 1334. The well that you see was dug by two Turkish prisoners. They were promised their freedom as soon as they finished the well. They had to dig almost 500 feet down to get water. Oh by the way maybe you can guess how many years (yes years) they had to work before the finished. Again post your comments at the end of the page or if you are a teacher looking at this you can send me an e-mail on my Livermore e-mail. I can access it from here. Talk with you all later, and I look forward to your comments.

Mark