retiredmartin

May 2026. Sibiu. Central Romania.

Right in the heart of Transylvania, in fact, close to Vlad Dracul’s home in Sighisoara and a string of UNESCO fortified villages.

Sibiu isn’t quite as eerily characterful as Sighisoara,

it’s busier and a touch more modern (Starbucks next to our hotel), but has gorgeous architecture at every turn.

And the Lutheran Cathedral has a tower you can climb at dusk for a quid.

Mrs RM let me do the scrambling while she took the important shots of angels with dirty faces towels.

It’s not quite the heights of a Cologne or an Ulm, but the acent up St Mary’s tower is steep, Boston Stump steep,

and there’s also that fear your visit may coincide with the Quasimodo moment.

Like Boston (UK), the walls are decorated with medieval graffiti.

It’s so bad they’ve provided 3 large boards half way up for you to record your love for Mary (not that Mary).

5 minutes to the top for those views of the hills,

the eyelids,

and that fantastic mosaic on St Mary’s itself.

And then, a descent, more worrying that the climb.

Hand rails are for wimps.

Oh, one more thing.