Arrival at Otopeni international airport (10 km from Bucharest)
Transfer by car to the hotel in Bucharest
Check in

Short Bucharest Tour:(everything in a walking distance)

Palatul Parlamentului (Casa Poporului) (1984-1989) is the most impressive administrative construction in Europe, and includes hundreds of offices, tens of saloons for receptions or scientifically, cultural, socio-political meetings. It has 265.000 sq meters on the inside and is the 2^nd in the world, after the Pentagon, in Washington.

Stavropoleos Church-(1724-1730) was built with hard work by the Greek priest Ioanichie. It has many beautiful ornaments and is very impressive through its exterior paintings and wonderful decorations.

Cismigiu Garden is one of Bucharest's erstwhile parks is still enchanting visitors with its beauty. Cismigiu is the capital's oldest public garden. Its unique charm has won the hearts of the inhabitants of Bucharest who have strolled along its paths throughout the years.
Around 1830, General Pavel Kiseleff, ordered Baron Borroczyn to dry up the pool and make a public garden. This project was completed later, during the reign of Gheorghe Bibescu, by the Viennese landscape architect Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer. The talented and hard-working youth fairly fought a battle with Cismigiu's swamps, subduing these and managing to transform this unsightly place into a veritable jewel.
Meyer used the pool, transforming it into a beautiful lake, with full canalization to allow for easy drainage and cleaning, and installing an artesian well in its midst. In winter, to the great delight of the people of Bucharest, the lake becomes a huge ice rink. It was this same man who carved out the paths, using every elevation for a more beautiful view of the whole. There are over 30 000 indigenous trees, some very rare ones. Artificial grottoes, floral carpets, and bridges were created, and benches were installed.

Dinner (your first confrontation with the real taste of traditional Romanian cuisine)
End of day 1

Breakfast

Visit: Palatul si Biserica Curtea Veche (Old Court Palace & Church)

Historic Bucharest grew up around the Old Court, first built on this site in the second part of the 15^th century by Vlad Tepes. It was considerably extended during the 16^th century, by Mircea Ciobanul (Mircea the Shepherd), and again a century later, this time at the hand of Constantin Brancoveanu, who added a splendid royal palace, decorated with marble and icons. The palace however was destroyed by a series of fires in the 19^th-century, and neglected by foreign invaders.
By the 20^th century almost the entire palace had been lost. Much of what remains today was uncovered during archaeological digs that took place from 1967-72, when the palace ruins were opened as a museum. There are fragments of the original 15^th century walls, as well as remnants of the royal palace throne room, in which most of the relics found on the site are exhibited.
Next door to the palace is the Old Court Church, the oldest in Bucharest, dating from 1545. It was enlarged in 1715, during the reign of Stefan Cantacuzino, and the frescoes inside, painted by maestros Constantin Lecca and Misu Papa, were added in 1847.

Manuc’s Inn was built by the great merchant Manuc-Bei in the first decade of the 19^th century. Nowadays is one of the most important historical and architectural monuments in the Capital.

Patriarhia (Patriarchal Cathedral)
Set atop one of the city's few hills, known as Mitropoliei, the Patriarchal Cathedral has been the centerpiece of the Romanian Orthodox faith since the 17^th century. Built to a design based on the Curtea de Arges, near Pitesti, it has undergone a number of face lifts, but the overwhelming majority of the cathedral's structure is the original, built between 1654 and 1658. The outstanding bell-tower at the entrance was built in 1698, and restored in 1958. Next to the church - and closed to the public - is the Patriarchal Palace, residence of Patriarch Daniel, supreme leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church. It was built in 1708.

After lunch we will visit The Peasant Museum / The Village Museum

Muzeul Taranului Roman (Peasant Museum) In most people's opinion, the Peasant Museum is the best museum in Bucharest, and one of the best in the country. Housed in a wonderful red brick building designed by Nicolae Ghica-Budesti, dating from 1912, the museum offers well laid out and presented exhibits which tell you all you need to know about the diverse and fascinating history of life around the country over the past four centuries. There are exhibitions covering all aspects of Romanian peasant life, from hand painted Easter eggs to terracotta pottery, from colorful religious icons to traditional clothing. Replicas of much of what is on display can be bought in the excellent museum shop.

Muzeul Satului (The Village Museum), lying in a specific Romanian setting, on the Herastrau lake shore in Bucharest, is one of the biggest and the oldest outdoors museum in Europe. Its exhibits genuine monuments including houses, pens, churches, water and wind mills, cloth mills, of great historic and artistic value - acquaint the visitors in two hours with the specific of the Romanian village. The objects inside the households - carpets, pottery, rugs, icons, furniture - point to the originality of the folk creation, the sensibility and care for the beauty of the rural people.

The Cotroceni Palace is a part of the Cotroceni National Museum which is a specialized institution focused upon reflecting the history of the Medieval and Modern Cotroceni, upon the evolution and transformations that came up in time. The Cotroceni palace, church and monastery reflect a three-century history that interweaves political, military, diplomatic, religious and cultural aspects, directly with the general evolution of Romanian society.

Antim Monastery ( Manastirea Antim )
The splendid Antim Monastery, with its elegant dome and gold finish was constructed between 1708 and 1715 on the orders of polymath Antim Ivireanul, patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Wallachia at the time.
Antim originally intended the monastery to be a refuge for fallen women, and refugees, as well as a place of learning. The bell tower through which we enter the monastery was added in 1857. The monastery church is particularly worth admiring, for its sumptuous icons featuring scenes from the Nativity and Revelations, painted in 1812 by Pere Alexandrescu. The sculptures on the wooden double doors of the church were executed by Antim himself.

Dinner
End of day 2