Eastern Europe 2026: Bran Castle & Brasov

When Danelle and I were initially planning our Eastern Europe trip, we decided against visiting Transylvania.  It felt "too touristy."  Then we realized that we were, in fact, tourists, and would likely not forgive ourselves if we didn't see the castle that inspired the novel Dracula.  So off to Bran Castle we went!

The vibes were perfect right from the start, with this bronze door knocker featuring the face of Medusa surrounded by writhing snakes mounted on the entrance door to the castle.

When the castle was converted into a summer royal residence in the 1920s, this room was designed for King Ferdinand I of Romania, husband to Queen Marie.

A "secret passage" takes you from the first to the third level of the castle.  I don't think I even realized I'd pushed the shutter on my camera as Danelle walked up the stairs ahead of me.  But the shot I got from it is appropriately creepy.

The castle's courtyard was a little too bright and cheery on this sunny spring day to really give Dracula vibes.  I was impressed with how well restored and maintained the structure is, though.

From this angle, I can imagine how imposing the approach to the castle would be on a cold, moonlit night.

The 19th-century Bran Cross, extensively carved with old Cyrillic script, stands on the hillside meadow directly below the eastern shield wall of the castle. 

After being favorably impressed with our time at the castle, we headed to the nearby city of Brasov.  The city is home to the largest Gothic church in the country, known as the Black Church for damage the structure sustained during a 17th-century fire.

The church was built by the local Transylvanian Saxon community between 1385 and 1477.  Its pulpit features a carved and painted wooden figure of Saint John.

The church's bronze baptismal font dates back to 1472.

This stone statue depicts Hermann Balk, a prominent 13th-century Teutonic Knight and the order's first master in Prussia.

This relief carving is part of the church's extensive Baroque woodwork.  The scrollwork and central face represent typical woodcarving motifs brought to Transylvania by German-speaking Saxon masters.

A bronze statue of the 16th-century humanist and reformer Johannes Honterus stands outside the church.

We had a delicious lunch a a cafe on the city's historic Council Square (Piața Sfatului).  The Romanian-brewed Zăganu Imperial Russian Stout was especially good.

The Hollywood-style sign overlooking the city doesn't quite mesh with the imposing presence of the Black Church, but we still enjoyed this view of the city.

Despite some initial skepticism, our visit to Bran Castle and Brasov was totally worth the drive!

Related Links:

• Eastern Europe 2026: Budapest
• Eastern Europe 2026: Fisherman's Bastion
• Eastern Europe 2026: Buda Castle
• Eastern Europe 2026: Croatia
• Eastern Europe 2026: Belgrade
• Eastern Europe 2026: Golubac Fortress
• Eastern Europe 2026: Vidin and Ruse
• Eastern Europe 2026: Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo
• Eastern Europe 2026: Comana Monastery
• Eastern Europe 2026: Stavropoleos Church
• Eastern Europe 2026: Bucharest Old Town
• Eastern Europe 2026: Istanbul, European Side, Part I
• Eastern Europe 2026: Istanbul, European Side, Part II

Heidelberg

Wednesday on our Rhine River cruise was spent in and around the city of Heidelberg.  American author Mark Twain was a huge fan, spending three months there in the late 1800s and writing lovingly about the city in his book, A Tramp Abroad.

We made our way first to Heidelberg Castle, whose earliest structure was built before 1214.  Over the years, repeated damage from lightning and wars has left much of the structure in ruins.  Dicker Turm tower was destroyed in 1689, and bears a plaque flanked by statues of the Elector Louis V (left) and Frederick V (right).

I always appreciate the look of dead foliage, especially seed pods.  I love how stark things look here with the bare branches, water droplets, and stone background.

Being situated about 260 feet uphill from the river, the rain falling down in the city was snow up at the castle.  The castle entrance is through this tower, across a bridge that spans the former moat.

The palace was built and extended over three centuries in different styles, including Gothic and Renaissance.

Looking back at my pictures, I'm surprised how often my eye shifted from the actual architecture to elements like these bare branches covered in water droplets.  I guess that's just the nature photographer in me.

Our cruise director gave me a tip to head out to a terrace for a great view of the Neckar Valley across Heidelberg's Old Town.  The thick clouds on the opposite hills and dusting of snow added some nice elements to the view.

As we left the castle I was able to stop and turn back for a shot of the medieval guards that look over the entrance gate.

We returned to the city for lunch and some more Christmas markets, including one in the town's Marktplatz that features the "Heidelberg Christmas Pyramid," a larger-than-life version of the candle-bearing table ornaments that are popular in Germany and Central Europe during Advent.

One last shot across the Neckar before we boarded our buses to return to the Viking Idi.

I enjoyed Heidelberg, even feeling that between the weather and being part of a tour group I barely got to experience the city at all.  Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to return for a longer visit at a different time of year!

Upper Middle Rhine Valley

Tuesday of our Thanksgiving week vacation saw us spending the day sailing through the historic Upper Middle Rhine Valley, home to castles, historic towns, and vineyards.

Our ship docked in Koblenz at the Deutsches Eck, a headland where the Moselle and Rhine Rivers meet.  The area features a monument to German emperor William I and three parts of the Berlin Wall.  My eye was most drawn to an extremely solid-looking mooring ring with its green patina.

From Koblenz we took a motorcoach to Marksburg Castle, which has the distinction of being the only hill castle on the Rhine that has never been destroyed.  The view up the river from the castle walls was impressive.

This image is actually a merge of two shots to get good exposure on both the close stonework and distant river.

Many areas of the castle were outfitted with period furnishings and paraphernalia, including the blacksmith shop.

Though the trees were bare of leaves, they still had plenty of greenery courtesy of moss which seems to thrive in the humid air.

Some vines were still quite vibrant in the late November cold.

The lighting conditions were not ideal for shooting castle portraits, with the skies being about as uniformly gray as possible.  Still, I felt the need to at last shoot some for documentation.  So here's the view we had of Marksburg as we got back onto our ship in Braubach.

The afternoon was spent sailing down the river past a number of other castles, including a pair in close proximity with an odd naming coincidence.  I give you Maus Castle ...

... and Katz Castle!

Living like we do in a town that was just incorporated in 1961, seeing and visiting places whose recorded history goes back more than a thousand years is a treat in any weather!

Dunluce Castle, Portrush Coast and Derry

Our final Sunday on the island of Ireland was actually spent in Northern Ireland, which is variously described as a country, province or region of the United Kingdom. I didn't know what to expect from an area that until fairly recently had been embroiled in civil unrest and strife between its Protestant and Catholic communities.  But it had elements that were just as captivating as what we experienced in the Republic.

A visit to Giant's Causeway took up most of our day, and the chance to see that natural wonder was a main reason why we booked this particular trip.  Those images merit their own separate post, which I hope to get to soon.  Along the way we passed the ruins of Dunluce Castle, which dates back to the 14th century and has a magnificent location on a basalt outcropping overlooking the North Atlantic.

Dramatic views of the ocean marked the entire area, including this spot along the coast near the town of Portrush.

We spent the afternoon in Derry, or Londonderry depending on whether you're Catholic or Protestant.  The city was a focal point of Northern Ireland's civil rights movement, and the place of the tragedy immortalized in the U2 song Sunday Bloody Sunday.  The Catholic population was long segregated to this slum area, known as Bogside.

The city boasts an impressive Victorian Guildhall, one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.  It's actually been destroyed twice -- by fire in 1908 and bomb attacks in 1972 -- but rebuilt both times.

The building has 23 stained glass windows, most of which represent groups such as carpenters, fishmongers, painters, musicians and glaziers.

The Guildhall has a massive pipe organ with more than 3,100 pipes.  As I was processing this picture I inadvertently rotated it 45 degrees and found the diagonal lines made it much more interesting.

I couldn't help but be saddened by Derry's recent history, but also hopeful for its future as relations between the two factions have improved considerably since the end of "The Troubles" in the late '90s.  Christianity has enough problems.  It doesn't need open combat and bloodshed between different denominations to further undermine its primary message of salvation.  The fact that very thing has occurred so often -- not just here -- shows how imperfect people truly are and how powerful and insidious Satan can be.

Killarney National Park: Part II

Click here for Part I.

Killarney National Park has a lot of the same great things I'm used to from national parks in the States -- picturesque lakes, majestic mountains and charismatic megafauna.  One other thing it has that I'm fairly certain none of our parks do is a castle -- Ross Castle, to be specific.

The castle comes into view across Lough Leane while you're still a fairly good distance away.  With this sort of view, it's easy to understand why someone would choose to build a castle here from both an aesthetic and defensive perspective.

I often like having foreground branches in a shot to provide some framing, but then I end up not caring for them later.  I think I just need to get more precise in how I place them in the image.

According to Wikipedia, Ross Castle was built in the late 15th century by local ruling clan the O'Donoghues Mor, and was amongst the last to surrender to Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads during the Irish Confederate Wars.

I'm glad that I was able to maintain good focus from the bottom to the top of this shot of all five stories of the main keep.

I'm learning that more contrast is important in black-and-white shots to provide drama and distinguish between elements when you can't do with with different colors.

It looks almost like this rowboat is racing to beat an approaching storm.  The clouds never dropped a really drenching rain, though.  And the boat seemed to just be providing a water tour to a couple of park visitors. 

On my return walk a jaunting car driver saw my cameras and alerted me to the presence of a red deer stag off the trail.  Sure enough, he was right where I'd been told.  Thanks, friendly jaunting car driver!

These ferns looked like bright green fireworks to me up close.  I like the general chaos with the hint of order provided by the central stalks.

The walk was just what I needed after spending so much time on the bus over the previous three days.  A great use of a free afternoon!

Jameson Distillery, Blarney Castle and Bleachfield Bistro

By our sixth day in Ireland we'd more or less adjusted to the time difference. It was nice having World Cup games to fall asleep to at night as well. Funny what big soccer fans the kids became when they realized it meant they could stay up later. ;)

First stop was the old Jameson Distillery in Midleton, which had this interesting contraption out front that I doubt was an actual working train.

A couple of chandeliers made from Jameson bottles hung in the entrance because, why not?

The exterior of the old warehouse was very consistent.  I tried to find some artistic ways to play with that consistency visually, like by including a sliver of shadow to disrupt the symmetry ...

... and by just giving the sense that the pattern could continue infinitely in all directions.  This shot is a little disorienting to me without any sort of visual anchor.

This shot has one purpose -- to convey how enormous this cask is.  Again, I wish I'd included a person for scale.

The old pot still on the grounds had a fanciful vibe -- like some sort of steampunk fairy house.

Next stop was Blarney Castle, nearly 600 years old and home of the famous Blarney Stone.  By midmorning it was very crowded with other tourists, as the castle is also a popular destination for locals.  Took some creative composition to get shots without other visitors in them.

But I managed!  That hole in the top of the battlements directly above the windows is where the Blarney Stone is located.  You have to lie on your back and stretch upside down to kiss it, which we all waited in an hour-long line to do.  Metal bars over the opening prevent anyone from falling to an untimely death right after they've acquired their new gift of eloquence.

I love how they've let nature reclaim parts of the structure.  To me, that helps reinforce an ancient sort of feeling.

Amazing the places that plants can take root.

After checking in at our hotel in Killarney, we headed out into the country a bit to the Bleachfield Bistro for a home-cooked dinner and some traditional entertainment.  Here a young Irish dancer waits to begin her performance.

Music was provided by three local musicians led by Brrrrrrendan Moriarty.  Rolling the "r" is mandatory.  He's a wonderful tenor and a fine squeeze box player.  I wish I could have gotten more good shots of him and the band, but the light was very dim and I didn't want to blow things out and create a distraction with a flash.  So I had to settle for what I could get at ISO 4000.

Not even halfway through our trip, and we'd already gotten to see and do quite a few wonderful things!