Romania road trip: The Brasov sign's wonderful panorama

Getting to the base of Mount Tâmpa

Finally here comes the most exciting part, at least for me, of our day in Brasov. After we have walked the streets back and forward, visiting some of main tourist attractions like "The Black Church" or "The Rope String" ( of which you can read about in my previous article ), we are now heading towards the last destination we planned to see in the city, more exactly the top of Mount Tâmpa where the famous Brașov sign is placed.

The fortified complex of the Medieval City of Brasov

From the Art Museum Brasov, using the gps and also our intuition – since we can kind of see where we have to arrive – we are going to The Tâmpa Cable Car. When we get at the bottom of the mountain massif, we follow Aleea Tiberiu Brediceanu on which are located some old historical monuments belonging to the fortified complex of the Medieval City of Brasovthat are catching our eyes too.

We find information boards about these constructions which help us to understand the origin of these constructions. The first one is the Draper’s bastion with walls of more than 2 meters in thickness with circular galleries inside. As we go further, we meet the Powder Store Tower or The Carpenter’s Tower which back in the days was used for the storing of powder, and currently it houses the wood carving workshop of the Romanian artist Ioan Croitor Bradescu.

The new Tâmpa Promenade

The street we are walking on is actually The Tâmpa Promenade which stretches along the foot of the Tâmpa Mountain. Besides the two buildings I already mention, here are also found The Rope Maker’s Bastion and the Weaver’s Bastion.

All of the constructions are looking quite good from the outside, but I don’t know if visitors are as well allowed inside of the monuments. Coming at this place, feels like we are out of the city, there are no cars, and the atmosphere is getting more and more silent as we advance towards the mountain.

We start to notice how Brasov appears like from a distance. We leave the promenade and go left to climb some stairs that are leading us to another pedestrian street from where between the trees, the strong red roofs of the city’s buildings are beginning to define the landscape.

Going up the mountain by following the hiking trail or by using the Cable Car?

For those who are hungry, here is situated a restaurant called Sub Tâmpa and, on the other hand, for those who are looking for adventures, from here starts a hiking trail known as "Drumul Serpentinelor" and marked with a red triangle. I have been on this hiking path last winter and you can read an article about the experience here: Brasov, the mountain city 

If you are visiting the city, are not in a rush, have some good mountain shoes with you and an average physical condition ( since the trial suits for beginners ), I recommend taking this hiking trail because it will lead you to  the top of the mountain by passing through a beautiful forest in which you can clear your mind and your lungs while watching all the time a wonderful landscape over Brasov.

Doing like this you can also save some extra money that you have to pay by going up the mountain with the cable car.

On the other hand, if none of the above conditions fits you, the alternative option is to pop up on the cable car like our group does. Thus, for taking the cable car you probably need not to be afraid of heights and to have some patience for waiting in line if the place is crowded.

When people can use the Cable Car?

The visiting hours are starting with 9.30 AM and finishing with 17.00 PM from Monday to Tuesday and from Saturday to Sunday. On Friday the cable car is closed.The last hour of going up is 16.30 PM and the last hour of going down is 17.00 PM.

How much it costs a both ways ticket?

We stay in line to get the tickets which cost 18 lei - meaning 3.76 euros - for both going up and down. Then we also stay in another line to get inside the cable car. Because is weekend and today is Sunday, it seems like there are many people wanting to go to the Brasov sign.

The journey with the "teleferic"

After 10 to 15 minutes of waiting in line, we get in the cable car and start climbing up the mountain. The teleferic is full packed with people and if you get a place near a window, you are lucky to see the beautiful view that is getting more and more spectacularas the cable car goes up and up. I notice that the tourists are not only Romanians, but of foreign origin too and the man working there who assists and guides the visitors, is quite funny and knows how to speak in English too.

The journey with the table care doesn’t lasts to long and in 5 minutes maybe we are up on The Tampa Mountain. The air starts to feel fresher and the weather gets a bit colder and windy. The working man tells us that by going left we will meet the Brasov sign in about 10 minutes. We also find an indicator that says the same.

Reaching the top of the mountain 

We are now surrounded by forest but walking on a wide visible pathalongside with many other people, so there is no way to get lost or something like that in here. I’ve already know the place and the trekking paths I am not worried about it. Suddenly, I begin to remember how this mountain top and its forests looked back in the winter. So beautiful!

The spectacular view from the Brasov sign

Slowly but surely we arrive at the view point located just near the Brasov sign. Phones and cameras are around because the landscape is just so beautiful. We can admire from here the entire configuration of the city and all of its hilly and mountainous surroundings that fit into the horizon. 

We are lucky because is a clear, sunny day and we can observe everything far in the distance, although catching a good spot on the platform view to take the best look at the landscape is quite difficult due to the high amount of people, but with patience we get there.

Let's spot the buildings we've already been visiting

In the previous articles regarding the city of Brasov, I wrote a few times about how the landmarks can be seen from top of Mount Tampa and now I can share these photos. We are pointing at the buildings and the first we recognize is for sure the huge Black Church that indeed looks like a giant among all the other buildings.

On the right side of the church, nearby, we find the triangle shaped Council Square with its visible from here Christmas tree. All of the roofs from the old historical area of the city are red and as the city spreads, the new modern buildings are changing the landscape. When we are up here, everything gets much more clear, we get a new perspective of things. But where is "the rope street"? Is it so norrow that we cannot discover it from up here? 

From literally the middle of the city, raises up a hill with what seems to be a fortress in the middle of an island. What’s that, a place that we’ve missed from our tour? I find out later that's called "Cetățuia de pe strajă" translated as "The Fortress hill" and which used to be a very important point of defense located back than outside the walls of Brasov. Today the monument is standing just in the midlle of the wide spread new urban area. 

I almost forget to mention about the Brasov sign which letters are huge now, but there is no posibility to get a nice picture from here with it because the terrain is too steep. Maybe a drone will do the job. 

Is beautiful here but we have to leave

We stay at the view point for quiet some time and just enjoy all of the around landscapes, but we keep an eye on the watch too because we need to be back at the cable car at 16.30 when the last trip down of the day is going to happen. And finally, when the time has come, even if we don't want to leave this extraordinary place, we have to, so we follow the way back to the cable car and get down the mountain. 

The upcoming destination is Sibiu, thus we find our parked car, pop up in it and start driving towards the next city. On the road E68 it takes us more than two hours to get there because the roads are kind of crowded. 

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