After an excellent sleep and breakfast, Janyce gave one of the kittens one last cuddle – both Janyce and the kitten looking pretty hot in their multicolour coats – thanks to Nikki Kassel for making Janyce feel like a pro biker!

It was a very rural ride – a lot of potato harvesting going on and we passed thru a number of small villages. 

We had lunch at a small pension, lovely host and great food in Sambata de Sus.  Visited the local church built in the 17th century, with Byzantine paintings.  Like all the churches in Transylvania, surrounded by the local cemetery well kept with gardens full of flowers. 

Views of the Fagaras mountains to the south, we arrived in the small village called Carta.

Our pension, is less than a block away from the marvelous ruins of the Carta Monastery.  The museum inside has fascinating explanations of the complex history of the religions in the area.  The monastery was founded by the Cistercian monks (Roman Catholics – a breakaway group from the Benedictine order), who arrived from France in the 1200’s.  They contributed to the area by promoting agriculture, for example growing grapes from vines they brought from Burgundy.  When the local people brought them fresh vegetables, they in exchange would give the locals cattle and seeds.  The history since then is unbelievably complicated between Catholic and Orthodox (the Romanians for the most part are Orthodox) as well as the switch to Protestant (mostly Lutheran) after the reformation as well as various mixtures of Catholic/Protestant practice. There is a very heavy German (Saxon) influence in Transylvania though the German population has greatly diminished.  After slowly going thru the ruins, we enjoyed a glass of red wine on a picnic table.

After another 60 km day we enjoyed settling down in a room at the “Pensuinea Moara de Piatra”, a very nice, but basic accommodation.

Sibiu (Hermannstadt in German) was the largest and wealthiest of the seven walled citadels built in the 12th century.  We were so lucky to have the opportunity to enjoy a day in the Transylvanian old town.  After a short train ride from Carta we arrived.  We started at the Council Tower (built between 1224-1241) which after a wonderful breathless climb up multiple stair cases we arrived to great views of the historic surrounding buildings.

We visited the marvelous Evangelical Cathedral, built in the fourteenth century with remarkable views (again from a challenging and stunning collection of stairs initially spiral and then wooden creaky – and creepy stairs) as well as crypts dating from the early 1500’s.

Back to Carta for a little walk around the village, a beer and a pleasant meal before heading off to sleep with nightmares of our next cycling day!