Victory is so sweet.

Today is our last rest day in Bucharest before we start the ride further north to Brasov.  We'll have 2 days of riding then have another 2 days rest to see Dracula's castle and all the other sites of this region.

Today we went and visited Carol Park in the centre of Bucharest. Park Carol I is one of the most beautiful parks of Bucharest, with an incredible national historical significance. It took six years to build after being designed in 1900 by the French architect Eduard Redont. It was inaugurated in 1906 and the park was meant to commemorate 40 years of reign of the Romanian King Carol I and also 29 years since Romania won its independence and 1800 years since Traian, the Roman ruler, conquered Dacia, made it a province of the Roman Empire, this moment being regarded as the root of the birth of the Romanian nation.  Peter and I walked around the park checking out the busks of important rulers of Romania and just took it easy.

The central feature of the park is a 48m black-granite mausoleum topped with five arches made of red Swedish granite put up in 1963 in memory of the “Heroes for the Struggle for the People’s and the Homeland’s Liberty for Socialism” on the ruins of the Palace of Arts built in the first place and put down by communists. Both outside and inside, the mausoleum is surrounded by “fake” graves with the names of the most important Romanian communist figures engraved on them.  We wanted to go up close and check out the graves but were not permitted.  There was this guy wearing green clothes and was packing a rifle, that was good enough reason for us to keep walking.

The eternal flame is in a peculiar spot in this communist architectural composition. Built in 1923, it burns in memory of an unknown soldier, in fact for all those who died in the independence war (1877), in the First World War and in the Second World War. This flame is always protected by two soldiers of honor dressed in an authentic army uniform similar to that from the independence winning times.

 A photo of the guard near the eternal flame.

Another significant milestone on the tour was playing football against 2 young guys about 10 and 12 in the park.  Now I hate to lose at the best of times, and today was no different.  I took to the field wearing my best gear and attacked right from the whistle.  The boys were keen to show the old fella up but I still had some tricks to show them, I was not done yet.  I stole the ball from one of the kids after kicking him accidentally in the head and then ran around the other kid who was 10, and drove the ball into the top crossbar and the ball ricochet into the goals.  It was an amazing feeling of achievement in beating these potential football stars.  I'm sure they will benefit greatly from this experience.  To taste defeat at such a young age will no doubt help them in the future.

 That was the moment that Peter captured when I scored the winning goal.  I ran around with my shirt pulled up over my head just like those pommies do.  It felt good.  It was now time to go and celebrate with a coffee and cake at McDonald's.

 On the way to McDonald's I took a photo of one of the many clock towers around this city.  All are ornamental and in great condition.  They do pride themselves on their gardens in Bucharest.

 And that's a photo of Peter enjoying the spills of victory. 

Tomorrow is looking like being a good day for riding.  Predicted nice weather and hopefully flat roads.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.