Left this morning on a full day excursion through the Transylvanian countryside, by far the most romantic in Romania.

The fancy hotel at our pit stop heralded sign New Montana — hmm, not the Montana I remember. A visit was made to the Sinaia Orthodox Monastery that goes back to1846. Sinaia was originlly the preserve of a few hermits and shepherds, and later an exclusive aristocratic resort. Nowdays, it's full of tourists who walk or ski in the Bucegi Mountains.  Our journey continued through this mecca for tourists to our final destination — Bran Castle, legendary home of Prince Vlad Tepes the Impaler, who inspired Dracula’s legend.

Commonly known as Dracula 's Castle, the Bran Castle was originally a stronghold built by the Knights of Teutonic Order in 1212. The building was used in 1378 as a defense against Turks and later became a customs post on the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia. From 1920 the castle became a royal residence until the expulsion of the royal family in 1948. Made famous in the story and movie, the real castle of Count Dracula is in a more remote area and in ruins.

Nearby is a little heritage park depicting the Bran area in years past and, of course, the souvenr stalls not to be missed. Then it was time for a traditional lunch before our return journey. This time we slowed down as we approached the gypsy village and finally got some good shots of sheep herders in the area.

It was dark as we entered Bucharest but we spotted the movie set of Hollywood action-movie star Steven Seagal. He was filming Shadows of the Past. (Yesterday, we had spotted him at our Marriott hotel with his 7 bodyguards.) The traffic was amazing and our normally very patient driver had a few choice words to a driver cutting across all eight lanes.

Safely back in our hotel, (today's driver really earned his tip) we met with our new friends for a final farewell.

It had been a great adventure. We had seen and learned so much. Everything had gone like clockwork. Well... NOT QUITE.

We were up at 3.30 a.m. getting our packaged breakfast and waiting for our promised Uniworld transfer to the airport.

If you are a traveller you know how stressful those last trips to the airport can be. Especially when the promised transportation doesn't arrive... doesn't arrive & doesn't arrive.

As the clock ticked , we were finally placed in a taxi and told to submit our bill to Uniworld (the tour operator). This same scenario had played out a couple of years earlier on a trip with another operator — Adventures Abroad. On contactiing Adventures Abroad we had been quickly compensated and received an apology.

This time, almost 3 months later we have heard nothing from Uniworld. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Update February 3, 2006: Explanation, apology and compensation finally arrived.

Gratefully accepted with thanks but may I make a suggestion to Uniworld.

Take whatever time necessary to investigate such claims but in the meantime send off a little memo to let people know that the letter has been received and something is happening.

A business guru I am not, but the idea seems to make sense.

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