Sunday, February 17/2013

Palatul Parlamentulul

Laze over the stunning breakfast whilst admiring the thin coating of snow on the roofs and watching the odd snowflake land on the ledge outside the window and not melt.

Then south along Victoriei, congratulating ourselves again on the centrality of our location. The parliament building is, like everything on the map, oddly closer than we anticipate. It's enormous - second only to the Pentagon the guide books say. Ceaucescu period and lots of grand staircases, marble, etc but we forgo the £16 that two adult admissions with camera would be - there`s more that we want to see in the old city. The Palatul Parlamentulul, as it`s called, is actually best photographed from across the road as it`s so big. And not, as we`d expected, ugly.

Then we follow the south side of the river past the magnificent court building (nearly 100 metres long, beautifully pillared - and we`d have to cross the river to get enough distance to photograph it. At Unrii Piazza there`s a large shopping centre. It`s interesting - plenty of high end international shops and products but no large open spaces in which to gain perspective. It`s an endless warren of tiny corridors leading to more shops. Actually rather claustrophobic, and we`re not particularly interested in acquiring Cartier watches or expensive exercise clothes, so time to exit.

Back along the cobbled little wtreets where we ate yesterday. There`s the striking Biserica Stavropoleos Orthodox Church built in 1724, with beautiful stone and wood carvings. It`s Sunday, though, and, like the other churches we`ve passed, full to overflowing with worshipers, so we don`t go in. The old city is alive and adjusting very gracefuly to the twenty-first century, with little bars and boutiques in eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings.