Tag Archives: Travel

Putna II – still damp, but not dreary

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Thursday 25 September 2025 – Once again, the weather was damp, and colder than yesterday, with temperatures in single figures during a rainy morning. Accordingly, we dedicated the morning to full-time sloth, only emerging into the afternoon when things looked a little less bleak, when we went for a walk. Obviously.

Our objective was another monastery in the vicinity, called Sihăstria Monastery. The attentive among you will have noticed a similarity in name with the hermitage we visited yesterday, Chilia Daniil Sihastrul. All will become clear in good time.

Getting to this monastery involved a walk of some 5km.  Our walk took us past MishuCoffee where we again indulged ourselves in a couple of flat whites before heading out of town on a road that took us past the tradesmen’s entrance to the Putna monastery that we’d marvelled at yesterday.

We passed another selection of the attractive cottages one finds here

as we broadly followed the Putna river upstream. We passed a building that in jest I suggested was the local hydro power station and when we got close,

lo and behold, that’s what it was. The Putna river is not, it must be said, in full spate, but there is evidence, in the form of storm drains, that there are times when it’s a powerful flow.

After about 4km, we came to a building which I was sure was the monastery we sought.

I mean, it looks pretty monastic, dontcha think? Google maps swore blind that we had another kilometre to go and, when we drew closer and looked at the other major building on the site,

it became clear that this was a building site, not a monastery. Quite what they’re building we don’t know – there were no signs on view and Google maps remains tight-lipped on the subject. So we walked on, along the road which was now quite muddy in places from all the lorries and other heavy vehicles rumbling along it. We passed a shrine

and then, in the distance, could see our real objective.

See what I mean about the limited flow of the Putna river?

As well as the central monastery building, there were several others to be seen (including a cafe, which came in handy),

including a very cute little churchlet, reminiscent of the stave churches we saw recently in Norway. Initially, I thought it was a modern construction in traditional style, but it is probably older than that – see below.

It was locked, but I managed to get photo of a bit of the interior.

The main buildings of interest on the site, though, were the monastery, of course,

and a neighbouring stone church,

which, like so many places here, had a guard cat on duty.

The stone church is small, but, as is frequently the case in these parts, has a very ornate interior.

Walls and ceilings are covered in devotional images.

supplemented with carved wooden panels.

Aurochs’ Heads, with sun, rose (lower left) and moon, which appear on the Moldavian coat of arms.

There are also beautiful decorative details on the outer walls, including niches with representations of Romanian saints.

Obviously, our main interest was the monastery itself, and, as with the Putna monastery, front porch and narthex

suggested that the interior would be quite something.

I was quite surprised at how light the monastery was inside – others we’d been in had been really gloomy. But this building had windows and, on researching it, this shows that it’s a modern building. A bit of history and terminology follows….

The main building is called the Sihăstria Monastery. “Sihăstria” means “hermitage”, so it’s the Hermitage Monastery. Yesterday’s hermitage was called  Chilia Daniil Sihastrul, which I said was Daniil Silhastru’s hermitage. Actually, Daniil Sihastrul means “Danny the hermit” so a better translation would have been “The cell of Danny the hermit”. I hope that clears up that bit of terminology.

The reason for the Sihăstria Monastery name is because the building is on the site of what was a hermitage in the mid-15th century, with several cells occupied by hermits who wanted even more silence than a monastic life afforded, and a small wooden church. The site’s popularity led to the building of the stone church in 1758 (with the wooden church being moved to the “apple orchard” – this could well be the one pictured further above). The timing was unfortunate as the site fell into disrepair under Austro-Hungarian rule (1775 onwards); the church was closed and the site was deserted for some 200 years. In the 1990s, the hegumen of the Putna monastery began to restore the area and found the tombstones of the area’s original founding fathers, and so restored, redecorated and reconsecrated the stone church. This attracted more monks and the church became too small. So, in the early 2000s, the monastery building we see today was erected. That’s why it’s so light inside – it was built in the Windows era. Thank you. Thank you for reading my joke.

The stone church is reportedly built of “river stone”, presumably the stone which created the remarkable formations we saw by the river on our walk.

It’s clear that the area is being developed. As well as the not-really-a-monastery building we saw earlier, there was a lot of heavy construction traffic along the road, and evidence of heavy work on the verges.

On the walk back to the hotel, we saw a couple of slices of northern Romanian life: a traditional horse and cart;

and a dock fight,

a combination of a dog and cock fight, as farmyard animals noisily settled a dispute.  We also passed an enigmatic building,

the “Panzer Club”, which looks like it was once a place of ill-repute but which now simply looks disused. We stopped by at the mini-mart in the village petrol station and, having drunk the hotel dry of tonic, bought some so that we could indulge ourselves in G&Ts with dinner.

We’ve had a pleasant time in Putna. We’ve been able to relax a bit but still managed to absorb a lot of the culture and history of the area as well as learning something of its Orthodox religious background. And this despite some less-than-optimal weather. However, the weather is once again on the turn. Although summer has, I fear gone for this year, at least the sun is forecast to make a reappearance tomorrow, which is good, since we have an 18km walk tomorrow, involving a rather abrupt and steep lump in the middle. Today we ambled about 12km, which was at least some practice at getting ourselves back into the hiking mindset. Let’s see if we can complete tomorrow’s walk without whinging, eh?

Zărnești to Putna – getting to the start of Phase III

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Tuesday 23 September 2025 – The start of the third and final phase of this trip was reached via a long car journey, as we had to travel 400km to the northernmost reaches of Romania. The delightful but incomprehensible Ioana had set up our breakfast for us prompt at 8am and so we had our various egg orders there for us, amid quite a spectacular spread, including little sausages, slices of bigger sausages, ham, various cheeses, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken goujons and some croquettes of some description. There was also bread and jam, so we were able to construct ourselves toast and tea to go with the eggs, and we left the rest of the spread substantially untouched. The lounge area is a nice place to breakfast in, anyway.

Prompt at 9, our driver arrived to whisk us away. He could speak English, but largely chose not to, instead concentrating on getting us to Putna, our destination, as efficiently as he could, allowing for three stops for breaks on the way. The stops were all at petrol stations, and I noticed with a little amusement the slightly old-fashioned nature of these places. They still offered squeegees at the pumps to clean the windscreens,

and the shops offered things that no self-respecting British service station offers any more:

stuff that motorists might actually need, like oil and windscreen wipers. One of the service stations had a guard cat.

On the way over, I contented myself with reading the papers (and dozing – Ed), and Jane tried to capture photos of the passing landscape – not easy when you’re whizzing past it at 80kph.

To start with, the scenery was distinctly agricultural,

as we were crossing a large (and, as you can see, very flat) plain. Corn or maize was a major crop, as were sunflowers, which, having flowered, were patiently lined up in the fields awaiting their doom.

Another major crop was potatoes, as evidenced by this not untypical lorry load.

There were also churches, of course,

various roadside decorations

and many interesting buildings, which were of course, vanishing into the distance behind as soon as one realised that there might have been a photo there if we’d been able to stop. Jane did register that several roofs featured the same sort of wooden tiling that had adorned the barn we’d seen as we left Măgura.

The towns featured, as one might expect, some unattractive communist-era apartment blocks, but Jane particularly noted that the rural villages appeared to have escaped unscathed; there were lots of buildings of wood or brick, which (while in some cases in need of renovation) displayed wonderful architectural details and ornamentation – including crosses on every possible high point – which we imagine might have characterised pre-communist Romania.

One signpost we passed outlined why we were headed on this long journey.

Keep reading. All will become clear in good time.

We got to Putna, which, incidentally, is less than 10km away from the border with Ukraine, at around 4.30pm and checked into our accommodation, the Pensiunea Mușatinii.

With time to kill before dinner, we decided we’d go for a walk. Obviously. The nice man on reception applauded this move on the basis that today’s nice summer weather was emphatically going to end tomorrow. So, off we went, with the main objective being, of course, to visit what Putna is best known for whilst the sun was shining,

En route, we passed the village’s very handsome church

and some attractive houses.

We puzzled a little as to what the thing was outside the house above – Jane had noted several of them in the towns and villages that we’d passed through. We walked by another one

and closer examination showed that it was a well.

Soon, we reached the gateway to Putnas’s main attraction:

and indeed its rather handsome portal.

In we went, and were greeted by this magnificent building.

This is the church part of Putna’s monastery. The monastery premises house this and several other photogenic corners.

The monastery was founded by Stephen the Great in 1466 and consecrated in 1470 as one of the first and most important monastic establishments of his reign. It houses Stephen’s own tomb along with those of his family and other Moldavian rulers. Over the centuries the monastery has suffered damage from fires, earthquakes and invasions, but it has been repeatedly rebuilt and strengthened, preserving its role as a stronghold of Orthodox faith and Moldavian culture. It’s one of several monasteries for which this area is well-known, among monastery buffs at least, and our plan over the coming days is to visit a few more, each of which has its own story to tell.

We wanted to get a brief look at the monastery while the weather was decent, hence the swift visit today. We got back to the hotel in the nick of time to get dinner before a coachload of bloody tourists arrived to cause utter bedlam.

Tomorrow, as the weather propects are uncertain, we plan to look inside the monastery’s church and museum. We may also get to see some of the other significant buildings around here. You’ll have to come back and find out.

Măgura to Zărnești – Enjoying the results of a good decision

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Monday 22 September 2025 – The utter correctness of our decision to ignore the extreme hike that was scheduled for the day became apparent almost immediately we got under way. Before that, though, we had a pleasantly leisurely start. The bathroom was a clear winner in the “Best Bathroom So Far This Trip” competition, and since breakfast didn’t start until 9am, we were able to take things nice and easy. At a few minutes after 9, we got down to the rather attractive terrace outside the building, to find a forest of upturned chair legs, but people fairly soon appeared and got things in order

and we had a decently eggy breakfast to set us up for the day’s walking.

We were joined by the family cat.

Romania seems to be a very cat-friendly country. Wherever we’ve gone, cats have been in evidence. There has been the usual plethora of dogs which spend their day (and night – Ed) barking at nothing – we suppose that this is just such a part of the local way of life that no-one really notices – so it has been lovely to see cats being such a part of the pattern of life here.

Although we weren’t doing the Well ‘Ard hike, we still had some 8km to cover to get to Zărnești, and set off a few minutes after 10am.

The overall direction of the route was downhill, descending some 300m in the 8km. However, although I felt fine walking along the straight and level, there were a couple of very gentle uphill stretches to start with, and it was immediately clear that my body hadn’t replaced the energy sapped from it by yesterday’s exertions – my legs felt leaden and uncooperative, such as when being asked to walk past a pub. However, these gentle uphill gradients were short, few and far between, and we could enjoy the great views in the lovely weather – glorious sunshine and temperatures around 20 Centigrade.

Măgura is a textbook example of a “Kalibash Village”, a uniquely Romanian development. Farms are scattered along ridges with these dramatic views over the Piatra Craiului mountains. The emphasis is on harmony with the land and self-sufficiency in the community. Just as well, frankly; it’s bloody miles from anywhere and the local shop

doesn’t look as if it keeps a ready supply of life’s necessities. The library is small, but perfectly formed

and there are no tarmac roads. It’s a lovely place, very strung out, with well-spaced houses. It was a 2km walk through the village from the church end, passing a couple of interesting buildings, such as this fairly modern place with a very traditional turf roof

and this barn, which had a very unusual texture to its walls.

On closer examination, the texture appears to come from wooden tiles

which are of an unusual shape. If of clay and on a house, I would call these hanging tiles, but these were clearly nailed into position.

It was right at the far end of the village that our route left the dirt road and headed off into the valley.

The sign says that it’s 15 minutes to the Zărnești gorges. The path leads clearly downhill and we were prepared for it to be steeply downhill. Just as well, as it was probably as steep in a couple of places as anything we’d encountered yesterday.

Being the misguided macho man that I am, I tried to cover this 100m vertical descent without using my poles. However, there were a couple of places where I really needed them, so I was glad to have them with me. It wasn’t all steep downhill

but most of it was, right down to the dirt road that leads to Zărnești.

The overall gradient we walked down (ChatGPT calculates for me) was 1 in 7, which doesn’t sound very steep, but I invite you to consult my knees for a second opinion on that.

At the bottom is a riverbed, which seemed dry, with a dirt road beside it.


The area is part of Piatra Craiului National Park, and had we done the Difficult Bastard Hike originally planned for the day we would have headed off up there, to toil up 600m and then down 900m over 15km – er no. Bollocks to that. We went down the dirt road instead. It seems to be popular as a destination for a stroll; we passed several people just walking about, and you can clearly get a car up the dirt road so you don’t have to walk too far.

We passed some mystery buildings

labelled “Danger!” and with other ominous signs outside.

We also passed the point where the Difficult Bastard Hike would have rejoined our route.

The national park has an information centre, with info boards telling you about some of the lovely wildlife you might find there, and

also some for which care is recommended. There was plenty of poo lying around on the track, of various sizes and consistencies. Because this wasn’t actually in the woods, we assumed that none of it was bear shit, but we could have been wrong, I suppose. Some of it clearly came from a couple of cows that were grazing in the margins.

As we approached the end of the dirt road and the start of the tarmac that leads into Zărnești

we were adopted by a friendly little kitten

which I think was hopeful that we could feed it. It certainly did the kitten thing, running around us and between our legs. It would have been ironic to have made it down two mountainsides without falling, only to be tripped up by a bloody kitten, but we made it intact into Zărnești and eventually the kitten stopped following us.  It was a cute little thing, and it seemed harsh to ignore it, but there was nothing we could do for it.

Zărnești is an attractive town, with a few local quirks: driveways with decorated gates;

a relaxed attitude to piping rainwater away from the houses;

some interesting chimneys;

a stork’s nest;

and several rats’ nests.

One restaurant has a quirky entrance

and another house has a very fine grapevine growing all over it.

Our accommodation, Maria’s Dream House, was by the roundabout that houses the town fountain

and appeared to be closed, as we might have expected – it was not yet 1pm. However, Jane optimistically rang the bell and the door was opened by the charming, vivacious and moderately polyglot Ioana. Her languages didn’t include English, so we used a mobile phone app to understand what the deal was, and a very nice place it is, too.

We had free rein in the kitchen, which could have been fantastic had our bags, with their useful supply of Twinings finest Earl Grey, turned up. So we satisfied ourselves with Nescafe and mint tea and settled down to relax until the bags arrived and we could have a Proper Cup Of Tea, after which it was time go out for a bite to eat.

We got a nice surprise when we did, too. Jane had identified a candidate restaurant. It was identified on Google Maps as “Pizzeria Family”, but had a real name of Orașul de Sub Munte – “The Restaurant Under the Mountain”. We walked up through the town, which is handsome

with its not necessarily oil-driven transport

and passed the church, dedicated to St. Nicolas,

at which point we decided, hungry as we were, that it might be worth looking in. The very elaborate door

seemed to have swung shut, but we dismissed this as merely caused by a gust of wind and looked in. Inside was a chap in overalls and

a quite extraordinary interior – beautifully decorated. The church is 600 years old, but has been renovated more than once; the main part in its current state dates from 200 years ago.

The chap inside was delighted to allow us to see the church and particularly its museum, which was in the 400 year-old chapel beside it, featuring some remarkable original frescoes.

Serendipity is a wonderful thing; we hadn’t known about the church and might not have looked in and might therefore not have met the deightful chap inside who was so proud of the church’s wonderful treasures.

We carried on to the restaurant, where we had a very fine meal, of mici (Jane) and pizza (me). We got chatting to a neighbouring couple, who were American but had Romanian family connections, which was a nice distraction from the service, which was, well, strange. The lass who was supposed to be looking after the tables seemed to be lost in the teenage thing of it being NOT FAIR that she had to do all this stuff; but the food was very good. And they had gin. So we had a nice time there before stumbling back to Maria’s Dream home, where we could have another Nice Cup Of Tea.

We have a very relaxed schedule for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, we will be whisked to Putna, some 400km further north. It’s a six-hour journey (at least, if our experience so far is anything to go by) and will deposit us in the area which is the main objective of our visit to Romania. The hiking bit is only a bluff really, and you’ll have to keep your eye on these pages to find out why we really came to Romania.