Peles Castle, Sinaia & Onion Soup ~ A Plant Based Conundrum

Castles. I love them. Wherever I find myself in Europe there is always a castle nearby and you can count on me to want to hit up. But not in the “I want a White Knight and King’ kind of way. No, more in the way that the halls are so filled with history and the many lives and struggles that took place amongst the beauty and finery. Walking through the halls of a castle is like literally walking back in time even if you don’t know the history you can pretty much guess.

I wanted to it up Dracula’s castle first but since this was just a quick day trip, we opted to go to Sinaia to check out Peles Castle. It was gorgeous and let me tell you that much like Marionberg in Wurzburg, Germany, getting to Peles was an ordeal. Though unlike that gigantic fortress this one was kind of a hidden gem. I mean, not too hidden since it is a pretty famous landmark, but unlike almost every other castle I’ve visited in the past 5 or 6 years, this one doesn’t stand like a beacon on the mountain top.

Instead, you walk up this winding road after going through a really beautiful park, but then abruptly, you start to wind down in an entirely new direction. Quite the misdirect if you’re a King or Queen worried about invaders.

Once we got to the castle though, it was totally worth the walk! The weather was nice and sunny and with nothing more than a light sweater, I barely broke a sweat. But I may have heaved up a lung or two before we got to the gorgeousness!

After a long tour of the inside, which was gorgeous with the highlighting being the arms room, filled with swords, guns and the like from all over the world, reflecting just how intertwined this particular kingdom was with other parts of Europe. If you want to know the details…you’ll have to visit Peles Castle yourself!

With the tour complete, it was time for some refreshments!

A double shot of Jim Beam and a Bergenbier was the perfect thing to hold me over until lunch…

We had lunch at a hotel in town because internet research indicated they had vegan options on the menu.

*Eyeroll*

Anyone who has traveled or tried to eat out while vegan knows this trap well. As a blogger I totally understand SEO and metadata and tags and all that so I should have known, but I was in a beer and booze haze, feeling all good from an afternoon of history and castles and weapons, and I left my cynicism somewhere in the Bucegi Mountains. Because when they said ‘vegan’ they meant what most non-vegans think that vegans eat. Salad.

Yep, salad.

But there was a delicious onion soup that was–so they rosy cheeked waiter said–no butter or other animal products so I thought…why not.

The waiter was nice enough to take some whole grain bread and get the chef to crouton-ify it for us since the croutons that came with the soup were coated in Parm. The soup was just how I like it: hot, onion-y and delicious!

My husband always jokes that the national vegetable in Romania is meat and boy was he NOT joking. While he and I ate this soup to start with and we moved to this…

Roasted veg, braised red cabbage, potatoes & asparagus for us! Say ‘ce face’ to my Mother in Law, Maria!

…this is what the rest of the table got:

Pork covered in a cheesy cream sauce and mushrooms…covered with cheese. As you can see, they prioritize animal products over vegetables and grains so any hopes we had of even one vegan meal were quickly dashed. Once again, it was a side dish bonanza.

Aside from the meal which, for us, was mediocre at best, the day in Sinaia was amazing. Peles Castle was a treat and a great way to start out traveling in Romania.