the road to lake balea, the transfăgărășan highway, yeah that

You know you've started your Romanian roadtrip and have left Bucharest behind when you have to drive around horse carts.

The Top Gear guys drove the road to Lake Balea last spring–in a Masarati, a Austin Martin and a Ferrari. We weren't really sure what to expect–maybe we should have watched the show before the drive?

But it started off pretty.

And then got stunning.

Then we started climbing up and seeing snow. Kind of a lot of snow.

Then it got ridiculous.

Since I've been home and watched the show, I know now that the Top Gear guys describe this road as the "best race track turns in the world, knitted together."

The road went up and up and up, a million hairpin turns, to an elevation of 6000 feet, then we came to what looked like end of the road. I'd heard the pass can be closed when it snows, but I didn't expect it to be closed in October. We drove hours of switchbacks and can't get to the lake?

As we approched what we thought was the end of the road, next to a WC with the best view in the world, we saw a tunnel.

You come out of the tunnel, (the longest in Romania) pass the lake by mistake, have to TURN AROUND on this road where there is absolutely no turning around, then go back up an even steeper road to the tiny alpine lake, almost completely frozen. The hotel couldn't be any more on the lake, in fact, we were a little afraid of it falling in.

They build an ice hotel in December, so I can't wait to go back.

In the night our water bottles in the car froze, so I was glad I'd stuffed the dog into a suitcase and smuggled her up to our room. She has no idea she's thrown up three times on what the Top Gear guys call the "best driving road in the world."