We had booked the rental car till 2000 last night with an after-hour return. So it was OK to return it this morning around 0830 before their 0900 opening. From the Avis office, it was only a couple of minutes walk to the train station for our 0858 departure to Sighisoara.
The train to Sighisoara had an awkward configuration of eight seats per cabin (looks like re-configured from a sleeper cabin), four on each side facing each other. It felt more cramped than the standard layout with a central aisle. It was definitely an older train than the previous journey, with toilets emptying onto the tracks.
Arriving 2h40 later in Sighisoara, it felt like the station was falling apart. The steps into the subway were crumbling, the subway itself was leaking water. Hhhmmm … is this going to be a nice town?
We went to the adjoining bus station to sort out transport for our next town tomorrow. The direct trains were either too early or too late and even the train ticket office said it was better to go by bus, for which no advanced ticket purchase was necessary.
The first taxi we flagged down didn’t want to go to our accommodation, the Casa Lia on the hilltop old town. He said there was a traffic jam. The second taxi obliged and the jam wasn’t too bad for our route but really bad elsewhere due to road works.
It was a short cobbled walk from the taxi drop-off to the very nice Casa Lia with a very hospitable host. He wanted to explain everything but was interrupted many times by other guests and their needs. We were very hungry and ready for lunch and after much waiting, managed to get ourselves out from the guesthouse to the town square for a meal.
The town was made up of pastel-coloured houses dotted with a few towers on the perimeter. It was like the setting of all our childhood fairytale stories! Many of Romania’s historic sites, towns and villages have German or Austro-Hungarian beginnings and the style has much in common with those seen in much of eastern Europe for that reason.
To walk off lunch, we walked up a covered stairway to the hilltop German church. The area wasn’t as picturesque as the main part of town so we didn’t linger long.
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- Our street in Sighisoara.
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- Sighisoara’s Town Square.
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- Clock Tower in Sighisoara.
After a rest, we came back out in the evening for another walk, climbing up to the top of the clock tower before dinner.
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- Around Sighisoara.
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- Sighisoara’s Clock Tower.
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- View from Sighisoara’s Clock Tower.
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- View from Sighisoara’s Clock Tower.
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- View from Sighisoara’s Clock Tower.