I have now completed the third side of the triangle (Brasov/Sighisoara/Sibiu) that more or less makes up the Siebenburgen.
I had one more walled church to see which came highly recommended,about 20km down the main road towards Sibiu,then 10km up a smaller road.This was in the small country town of Biertan(German:Birtalm).The trip there was not quite such a raw experience as the visit to Viscri yesterday:the minor road to it,although rather bumpy,had no holes,and even had a white line in the middle,although there was quite a lot of horse drawn traffic.Imagine the most bucolic of gentle English valleys,pasture and ploughed areas in the bottom of the valley,woods up the slopes.I drove along here several km before Biertan came into view,and towering over the small town was the mother of all walled churches, in fact, a cathedral :it transpires that it was the seat of the Lutheran Evangelist Bishop of the area for several centuries.Biertan is a sleepy little town.It does has tarmacked roads (in the centre, anyway),and a central square with a bar and a shop but that’s about it,other than several apparently German-run pension B+B's in the centre.Walking around ,all I could hear were the birds,and gentle clucking of chickens.The cathedral complex is reached up a long wooden staircase,like the one in Sighisoara last night,roofed over with wooden shingles.At the top,around the walls, are several watchtowers and a clocktower.The cathedral is a bit tatty,but seems to be undergoing a bit of restoration. Some of the floorboards were up and some pews piled up.I don’t know if there are any Lutherans left around here,but I think the local economy is cottoning on to the tourist draw. Mind you, with the entrance price of all these places the equivalent of about a pound they won’t have a massive amount of money coming in from the visitors.
I had one more walled church to see which came highly recommended,about 20km down the main road towards Sibiu,then 10km up a smaller road.This was in the small country town of Biertan(German:Birtalm).The trip there was not quite such a raw experience as the visit to Viscri yesterday:the minor road to it,although rather bumpy,had no holes,and even had a white line in the middle,although there was quite a lot of horse drawn traffic.Imagine the most bucolic of gentle English valleys,pasture and ploughed areas in the bottom of the valley,woods up the slopes.I drove along here several km before Biertan came into view,and towering over the small town was the mother of all walled churches, in fact, a cathedral :it transpires that it was the seat of the Lutheran Evangelist Bishop of the area for several centuries.Biertan is a sleepy little town.It does has tarmacked roads (in the centre, anyway),and a central square with a bar and a shop but that’s about it,other than several apparently German-run pension B+B's in the centre.Walking around ,all I could hear were the birds,and gentle clucking of chickens.The cathedral complex is reached up a long wooden staircase,like the one in Sighisoara last night,roofed over with wooden shingles.At the top,around the walls, are several watchtowers and a clocktower.The cathedral is a bit tatty,but seems to be undergoing a bit of restoration. Some of the floorboards were up and some pews piled up.I don’t know if there are any Lutherans left around here,but I think the local economy is cottoning on to the tourist draw. Mind you, with the entrance price of all these places the equivalent of about a pound they won’t have a massive amount of money coming in from the visitors.
Biertan walled cathedral
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Biertan-it felt like it could almost be Hobbiton
Further on my way to Sibiu I passed many more Saxon villages with walled churches:there was one down at the junction of the main road at the turn off to Biertan.Any number of villages looked as if they would be interesting to explore but I pressed on.In one village I passed a funeral procession.The coffin was being borne on an open trailer pulled behind a jeep.Everyone was in black.The men were all walking in front of the hearse,the women all behind it,and the leader of the procession carried a big cross.In another village I seem to have entered the territory of a specific tribe of Roma,for all the men here had beards (unusual in Romania)and wore small black sombrero-like hats.
 More and more walled churches... |  ...this one had a very persistent little Roma kid who kept asking for money. |
 some examples of the many horsedrawn carts.These boys stopped to have their picture taken. |  This one was going at a good trot |
Sibiu (German:Hermannstadt) is a city that looks as if it has a lot going for it.The current president of Romania,Klaus Iohannis,an ethic German,started his political career as mayor here.I managed to find a parking space just below the city centre,never an easy feat in the van,and walked up to the main square,which is an attractive space next to the cathedrals, and filled with pavement cafes,and leading from it there are some big pedestrianised shopping streets.Still the Germanic style of architecture in multi-coloured paint was evident ,although on a much bigger scale than Sighisoara last night.I had a stroll around but it was 25 degrees and a little too hot for vigorous exploration so I left after a fairly short while to head on to my next campsite .
Piata Mare,the main square in Sibiu
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My strangely named campsite (Camping Ananas) was in the nearby village of Cisnadioara(Saxon:Michelsburg)where there was one more walled church awaiting me, this one more compact without the towers but in a very defensive spot at the top of a little steep hill above the village.A later church with a steeple sits below in in the village.I was the only person in the beautiful orchard campsite for some time but the German owner eventually turned up.As we watched a cowherd bring his herd of cows and calves ,with jangling bells,past the campsite, I asked if the herder would have to stay with them the whole time.The answer was yes, they are free roaming: there is just one fenced location he can leave them for an hour or two, that’s all. When I walked up the lane later he’d taken some into an orchard and was sitting on a stool milking one.As I have now travelled south to about the level with Brasov, the snowy Carpathians are back in view again to the South, behind the wooded hills which climb directly above the village.
The view from the campsite tonight-the village and walled church of Cisnadioara (Michelsburg)
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