After a very busy Sunday, we had a day off, or at least a change. With the end of the bible club, our hosts took us to one of the tourist spectacles of Romania, the oldest Railway system in the country, which climbs 1000ft. into the mountains. Before getting on the train – which had been introduced not only to provide transport for the coal, but also to convey the king and his retinue from a spar town in the hills, to a casino on the River Danube. In the spar town they constructed a theatre for the production of plays and opera to entertain the Royal visitors. The theatre is quite small but lavishly decorated and is still in perfect working order. Though not used for productions at present. The theatre also housed a museum of the events surrounding the Royal family and the work of the theatre.
It was extremely hot as we waited for the train, which consists of 2 carriages pulled by a diesel locomotive. The original steam locomotive is a 010-6 though is in need of a major overhaul. The configuration of the wheels seems strange considering the tight curves which have to be negotiated. It was time for us to visit the local sheds, and talk to the railway men who seemed delighted to be engaged in conversation and were surprisingly well informed on the subject of world railways.
We were pleased to meet up with one of Mihaela’s friends, who being a Christian could not do enough for us! When the train arrived, the guard also was a Christian, and spent most of the journey pointing out the features as we progressed up the mountain. The journey was a very long 2 hours, as the max speed was 45km/h and most of the time we were only traveling at 15km/h. And, occasionally the very tight bends caused us to slow even more.
The line ascends to the summit through a large number of tunnels and clings to the hillside, in what appears to be a precipitous position. As it was extremely hot, the guard opened all the windows we could; even the very back door and the side door were left open! This gave us a lovely, clear view of the tracks we had traveled over and the tunnels we negotiated. Though, it would not have met with approval of our health & safety inspectors! As the train only traveled in one way, due to the time taken to reach the summit, we descended by road the cars having been brought up by Vali, Sabin and Ovido. After a quick ice cream, we headed for home! Where we had a meal awaiting us at John & Maria’s house! John is an elder in the church and entertained us on a previous visit when he enthralled us with tails of how he smuggled bibles into the country.
Ken, Mary, Sarah, Glents & Deirdre
