Saying goodbye to Cluj already

Well, it's hard to believe, but our time in Cluj has already come to an end. We knew we wouldn't have much time here (well Beth has been here since June 12), but Brad and I just got here on July 5. We would like to stay longer, but that is how things work out, so we are just glad we were able to come.

It has been a great experience. We had a list of things we wanted to see in Cluj and I think we were successful in seeing everything on our list. Every day we walked between 15,000-20,000 steps, so we are usually pretty tired at night, but we aren't complaining as the weather has been great and the things we have seen have been so awesome.

Yesterday we had a tour guide from Italy. I think his name is GianLuco (sorry if I got that wrong). He speaks good English (which is always helpful to us) and of course he speaks Italian and Romanian too. He is friends with the family that Beth stayed with so they were kind enough to arrange for him to be our driver and tour guide to take us to the Turda Salt Mine. Too hard to explain and pictures probably won't do it justice, but it is just absolutely amazing! Here is a link if you want to check it out: http://www.traveltransylvania.net/en/Cluj_Region/Turda_Salt_Mine.php

Then from the Turda Salt Mine we went to the Turda Gorges. We did some walking around and a bit of climbing and the view from where we climbed to was unbelievable. We read that you can do rock climbing there, Beth said she wants to come back and do that sometime. We took a lot of pictures and again don't know if they will give the true picture of what it looked like, but at least we will have the memories. http://www.traveltransylvania.net/en/Cluj_Region/Turda_Gorges.php

This morning we walked through the Old City and also through one of the markets in Cluj. We had a Romanian pretzel called Covrigi, it was very good. That is one thing that is so neat about a city like this that we don't have at home. You just walk down the sidewalk and everything you would ever need is going to be in one of the stores you pass. Fresh meat, cold drinks, ice cream, pretzels, sandwiches, fresh bread and baked goods. Mmm Mmm. So much fun just to walk around and try different things.

Right now we are all packed and ready for the next journey of our trip. Our flight leaves Cluj at 7:40 pm and then we fly to Rome. We will then take a train from the airport and then a short walk (Brad's words) to our hotel which he tells us is near center the Rome. We will be there until Tuesday and then we fly back home.

That's all for now, sorry if my post got too long. Thanks for reading and thanks for praying for continued good health and safety.

Kathy (Brad and Beth too)