07/10 Sibiu - Alma Vii (Transsilvània)

Bicycle tour, 10-day circular tour (by bike) to Transylvania, in the Carpathians of Romania, in August 2018.

- 65.68 km
- Average speed av: 15.6 km / h.
- Positive difference in level: 539 m.
- 85% asphalt and 15% bad track and a small stretch of cross country on foot before reaching Alma Vii.

We leave the "Pensiunea Ela" in Sibiu at 8:50 am.

Just get out, we have to cross the train track for a walk, where we can drag the bike up the stairs. A ramp that I claimed years ago in Sant Cugat in various places in the municipality ... (moment of protest!)

Today we enter the most rural and quiet Transylvania. Plateau of ups and downs, secondary roads, fields worked with simple tools, colorful houses, fortified Saxon churches, small and friendly villages, friendly people ...

Basically we wanted to go from Sibiu to Sighisoara, about 105 km (depending on the chosen route), but not to do it in the fastest and most direct way. We will do it in 2 days route and do a little lap to sleep in an interesting place.

From home we choose to go to sleep in a village that is more or less in the middle of the road. We want to go to sleep in Alma Vii, a tiny village with a fortified Saxon church. We found on the internet a kind of "country house", a bit expensive, but it seems a good option.

To get to Alma Vii we choose a track to do the last 10 km. There is an uncertain point, from the small village of Metiș, that we have no references, no tracks, no known paths. From home and through GoogleMaps there seems to be a step, but we don't know what it's like. Once there, it turns out that there is a stretch of dragging the bike through a high grass field and a mud track. A bit of adventure and guidance to get to Alma Vii. You are warned. Recommended. You can also go around a bit more and enter another place on a paved road ;-)

We go straight to the house "Alma Vii 104" and start looking for the administrator who lives in another house. No cell phone coverage (we already knew that).
Double room: 50.00 € (235 RON) Breakfast: 5 € / per - Dinner: 11 € / per. (http://www.experiencetransylvania.ro/)
It turns out to be an old house to ourselves. Large, spacious rooms, high ceilings, antique furniture, hardwood floors. A very large garden but very wild and sloppy. We have dinner and breakfast in the same house, because there is nothing else. The girl who brings the subject, brings us the food from her house and serves it to us at a table in the garden. All food is traditional.
It's the most expensive night of all.
It looks like there will be more places to sleep in the area in the near future.

There are no shops in the village. There is a kind of very small bar (which opens very late) in a house where they sell something and we find it hard to find. All very precarious. We buy drinks, because at home he tells us that we can't get water, because it's not drinkable.

It's very hot.

In the afternoon we will visit the magnificent fortified Saxon church, which is restored and also serves as a museum. Recommended.

Next day's route:
08/10 Alma Vii - Sighisoara (Transylvania)

Transylvania; Transylvania; Transylvania; Siebenbürgen; Erdély; Erdel; Erdelistan.