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- - Mike &
Groverlee's - - |
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Getting ready for the tour inside Pele's Castle... there was a $10 fee to photograph inside the castle. Michael paid and was our only photographer. He did a marvelous job in that the lighting was not the best and we were sometimes in the way. Here is Michael putting the slippers over his shoes. This we all did to protect the beautiful parquet floors that were original to the museum. It was decided that each room would have a design from a different place in the world: an Italian Ballroom, an Arabic room, a French room, etc, There was so much beautiful wood...each room a different kind: walnut, oak, mahogany etc and all carved exquisitely! The gilded wallpaper and fixtures, the armor from everyplace in the world (one complete with stuffed horse)' and the hundreds of stained windows were mind boggling!
The room at the top of the stairs from the entry,,,
... and this is the ceiling of this room.
The Armor Room, complete with a stuffed horse in armament.
More armament used during the past.
Honors awarded to Carlo during his lifetime. The stained glass windows throughout the castle were breathtaking.
This was known as the "Bird's Eye Maple Room".
These were the
stairs that connected Carlo's upstairs rooms to
the library. We spent an hour at the castle but
never went upstairs to the more private rooms.
My favorite room...the Music Room was so amazing! The stained glass windows were glorious, as were the beautiful paintings on the walls.
Italian Ballroom, with Murano glass and Italian Marble and a whole lot more...too much for my taste.
Dining Room... "Dinner is served!"
French Room
Even a Turkish Room. The ceiling and all the walls were covered with priceless woven carpets that took hundreds of years to weave.
The couches looked soft....the only ones that did.
It is quite a wonder that this castle was saved through the communist period, but the Romanians played a trick on the leader saying that there was some strange bacteria in all the wood that tended to make people sick. He was always afraid of disease and also pretty dumb and fell for it. It is a good thing too or he would have used and abused it and it would have cost them a fortune to fix. The place is not only beautiful, it had many features not known in the 1880's when it was being finished. Besides having central heat, it had a built in vacuum system and a temperature gauge in each room to keep it at the perfect temperature to protect the wood and furnishings, The grounds also were very beautiful. There were 30 bathrooms in the castle but of course visitors, make that female visitors, waited in long lines!!! Finally we took over the men's bathroom that had more stalls than ours.. and also urinals. I think they are taking this male privilege too far!!
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