The road to Maramures

This is not the most picturesque photo of our holiday, but it needed to be added to the journal as a reminder of our journey north to Sighetu Marmatiei, the northernmost town in Romania and Mr G's mum's choice of destination.

Take it from me, this is an understatement. The 16km we had just driven through when we stopped for this picture have to be among the steepest, most serpentine stretch of road in the world. My father in law achieved hero status for conquering them with calmness and care. The less said about the lunatics overtaking us on them the better, frankly.

Maramures is truly beautiful. But we should perhaps have paid more attention to the section in the guide book that told us it had been cut off from the rest of Transylvania for centuries by a range of "impassable" mountains... Then again, maybe we shouldn't because we might then never have ventured there, and that would really have been a shame.

Sighetu Marmatiei, on the other hand, is a long way from beautiful. But our hotel was lovely, the staff friendly, and the food delicious. It made a good final stop for our explorations.