GFE Stumpes: More Brașov II (3/26/2026)

Thursday, March 26, 2026 (continued)

Next we would follow the city wall to the southeast
along the base of Muntele Tâmpa/Tâmpa Mountain;
at this corner sits Bastionul Țesătorilor/Linen
Weavers Bastion (begun in 1421, in phases to 1573,
collapsed in 1701 and rebuilt, abandoned in 1750)

City wall with Turnul artelor/Potters Tower

Watch out for bears! (KSS)

A pair of large bulldogs sitting on a porch

Took the Telecabina Tâmpa/Tâmpa
Cable Car (1971) from an altitude of
640 m/2100' to the peak at 960 m/3150'

Panorama Restaurant and communications tower

Kent with an older model cable car
that was replaced in 2025

View down on Brașov (KSS)

I do not know if Vlad Țepeș/the Impaler did his deed at this height on Tâmpa. Forty-one merchants of Brașov refused to comply with trade agreements or taxes wanted by Vlad III. The merchants were brought to the mountain and impaled (stakes were driven through their bodies and then hoisted upright to create a forest of the impaled).

Passing the other cable car on the way down

Bastionul Funarilor/Ropemakers Bastion (c 1416);
is this the hexagonal lady in our hotel room?

Turnul Vânătorilor/Hunters Tower

Turnul Lemnarului/Carpenters Tower

Bastionul Postăvarilor/Postmen Bastion (1450 as
the Bastionul Aurarilor/Goldsmiths Bastion,
but was taken over in 1640) is under renovation;
to the right is Bastionul Cojocarilor/Furriers Bastion

We had lunch in the "underground" Sergiana
Mureșenilor Restaurant (2003, relocated 2009)

Already on the table were raw red onions and fried pork fat...

...served with crusty bread

Kent tried another Ursus beer

I had a 250 ml/8 oz Coke Zero in a glass bottle

Tochiturǎ/hearty stew with pork pot roast, chicken livers,
smoked sausages in tomato sauce with carrot, celery, and garlic
accompanied by Mǎmǎligǎ/polenta with cow's cheese and egg

Sarmale/minced meat, rice and onion in cabbage leaves
dressed with pickled cabbage and bacon, accompanied
by pork neck and Mǎmǎligǎ/polenta with sour cream and
spicy Hungarian long green pepper

For dessert we split a Papanaşi/fried dough stuffed with
sweetened curd Cheese, covered with jam and heavy cream,
topped with a donut hole; we wondered why we each received
this "donut," then learned one serving comes with two!

Expozitie de Trenulete/Train Exposition
was supposed to be open today, but
perhaps it is still the off-season

Instead we purchased a couple postcards
and stamps (being given a glue stick to
attach the stamps) and mailed them

Our hotel: Radisson Blu Aurum Hotel (2022); the name
includes the word Aurum/gold, and we were encouraged
to get a tour of the basement from a bellboy

The "bellboy" Dennis (who had his own story) gave us
the history of the hotel: when renovating a vacant structure
they discovered the remains of the Turnul Aurarilor/
Goldsmiths Tower (c 1639) as well as conduits for
trunk telephone lines from the 1930s-era
Palatul Telefoanelor/Palace of Telephones