Bucharest Bike Tour - City of Contrasts

We start the tour in one of the most loved parks of Bucharest – Herastrau.

It is by far the best place to be in the sometimes hot afternoons of Bucharest. Here we’ll just take advantage of the shade and the breeze as we’re on bikes:)

From the park we have a short look at the Village Museum and head to the House of Free Press formerly known as The House of the Spark (one of the main Communist Journals). After analyzing how Romanian Society changed through the power of media to create and impose models we’ll bike south to The very “Parisian” Arch of Triumph.

A relaxing ride on the green Kiseleff “Embassy Road” will lead us in the vicinity of Eternal snoring source – the Palace of the Government in Victory Square. By far more interesting are the 2 nearby museums which we’ll discuss – The Peasant Museum (click here for virtual tour) and the Geology Museum.

Crossing Victory Square we’ll head towards Romana Sq. and right after we grab some local pies we stop in front of our pride – The Atheneum where the Philharmonic performs. It is an extremely loved, which could seem quite odd given the lack of popularity of classical music today. After we get out of this dilemma we plunge in an deeper one – 1989 Revolution against the Communist Regime which concluded (perhaps a bit cynical) in a very costly change of a Political Party name – more than 1200 people lost their lives in mainly 2 weeks.

We leave the Revolution Square and after we pass the oldest public garden of the city (Cismigiu Park) we stop for a chat in the “shadow” of a White Elephant – The Palace of the Parliament formerly House of the People. To feel it’s size we’ll bike in front of it to understand also what it meant for the people we are going to have a look behind the facades and discover a more than 300 years old Monastery – perfect setting for a discussion about church – state relation in the past times.

Close to the end we’ll have the biggest “challenge” of the day – go up the hill (in Bucharest every 15 mtrs gain of altitude is considered a hill) on the top of which we’ll find the currently Heroes Monument in Carol Park.

Downhill to the finish and after about 4h and 20km of biking, talking and especially smiling you can say you took the time to fall in love with Bucharest.