Honestly, Bucharest (and Romania in general) have not been one of my top priorities to visit. I checked my calendar and found that I have a flight leaving StL on September 24/25 to Brussels to start the Ambrose tour with son Stephen. I thanked Maria but told her I had that prior commitment. It must have crossed our minds jointly because after sending a double sad face, she suggested joining her in Bucharest for a couple of days before the Ambrose tour and then flying from Bucharest to Brussels on September 25. Bottom line was that I promised her that I would look into what it would take to change my United tickets to leave earlier and meet her in Bucharest for a couple of days.
Bottom bottom line was, after spending much of the next day on the phone with United, Maxine and finally Maria, I changed my United and my Delta flights. I will fly from StL to EWR on September 18 on Delta and catch a Lufthansa flight from EWR to OTP (Henri Coandă International Airport), via FRA, arriving in Bucharest at 1:30 pm on September 19. Maria will not arrive until September 20. On September 25, I booked a non-stop flight on Tarom-Romanian Air Transport from Bucharest to Brussels. I will still fly home on the originally planned United flight with Stephen from Paris to IAD on October 14.
At this time, there are no firm plans as to where we will be staying or what we will be doing. I chatted briefly with Maria this morning. She is doing the planning and is considering staying a couple of days in Bucharest before renting a car and heading into the Romanian countryside. The 14th century Bran Castle (of Dracula fame) is just southeast of Brasov, about a 2.5 hour drive from Bucharest. She is looking into finding a B&B in that area for a couple of nights, then spending the last night back in Bucharest before we both fly out on the 25th.
Sounds like an adventure!!!
