Palace Of The Parliament, Bucharest

 I don't understand calling this place of government a palace, although it certainly qualifies in opulence and beauty, not to mention size. Our drive from the hotel to get to the building was round about since several roads were closed due to the celebration of the founding of the city by a shepherd named Bucur, as legend has it. Other sources credit Vlad again sometime in the 1400s. I like the shepherd version and it was the one we heard most often.

Poster shows size better

Getting back to the Palace of the Parliament built from 1984 to 1997. Up until recently, it was said to be the second largest building in the world. Now it is third after Thailand has built something bigger. The Parliament is 3,930,000 square feet of 1100 rooms and we would get to explore about 5% of it.

Security checks at the door complete with passport checks, we entered into a vast front entry area with a grand staircase, red carpeted and all. The palace had been ordered built by Nicolae Ceausecu, the president of Communist Romania at the time. 

The palace houses the two chambers of the parliament of Romania. We began with climbing that grand staircase and crossing through a huge room where important ceremonies took place--think one of the largest ballrooms you've ever seen. 

On the other side, we were directed to enter an impressive conference room and followed that up with a visit to an even more impressive conference room where a summit took place in 2008.

As we admired chandeliers and columns of marble and other detailed work, we were told that all of the interior decor was made in Romania and when the crystal chandeliers that Ceausecu wanted which were only made in Italy, he commanded a factory be built in Romania to make them.

Eventually, we moved back through the large "ballroom" to the other side of the area we were allowed to explore. Here was the large room that resembled in some ways our House of Representatives and Senate in DC, only the Romanian parliament meets in a much more ornate facility. The overhead dome or skylight was immense, We sat in the visitor's balcony and stared in awe.

Their parliament was sectioned differently as well since they actually have four political parties that make up the government--not necessarily equal in size. While our eyes beheld the grandeur, we heard some of the more recent politics which kind of reminded us of home. I guess every country has their challenges.

By the time we had explored the area where we were allowed, it was time to reboard the bus and wind our way back through the city to the hotel. We had already checked out and our luggage we discovered by checking our airtags was in our room on the riverboat awaiting our arrival.

A lunch break in the Old Town on our own and then we had a three hour drive to the town where the SS Beatrice was docked. The Danube River level was down at the original port where we were to board and the ship now awaited us a bit further up the river. The good news was that there should not be any other itinerary changes as it appeared the river levels would be okay for our trip north.

Our evening was a bit rushed with getting our safety briefing and excursion briefing and then trying to shower and dress for dinner quickly but all was accomplished and while we ate dinner, our ship pushed off and made a short trip up the river only to make a U-turn and dock just across the river. Now we were no longer in Romania but across the river in Bulgaria, ready to spend the night and begin our exploration of Bulgaria.

[This was written but not posted a few days ago. We ended up catching whatever someone brought aboard and generously spread around to many others. All the nasty cold and flu symptoms. Lots of "Do Not Disturb" on doors. Feeling much better after a day of sleep and some drugs.]