Hotel Panoramic

There are rooms here, but it’s mainly a hospital. We were charged 160 leu even though the website lists 130. There was no hot water, and cleaners walked into our room at 8 am without knocking. We arrived at 4 pm and the receptionist was already leaving for the day, so arriving later could mean you can’t get in. We did manage to store our bikes somewhere inside.

Really good.

The staff were respectful, proper, and sweet-spoken, but I can’t recommend this place. The food was awful and tasteless, and the bathroom was filthy enough that I hated touching anything. There was only cold water. The rooms were full of dust, with ants, dusty and stained beds and sheets, and snot on the wall right by the head of the bed. I had to bring my own blanket and pillowcase from home. They charge a lot for such horrible conditions. The procedure room had an unbearable smell that made me nauseous and unable to breathe. The water in the sulfur baths was black, apparently reused by several patients without being changed. I worry you could catch fungus or some other illness there. There was no hygiene. Even if I knew I were dying and this was my only escape, I wouldn’t come back. If you have problems, stay away from this hospital as much as you can.

The receptionists at Hotel Panoramic were very friendly and spoke some English. We had booked a room by phone that afternoon and arrived around 5:00 p.m. after cycling from Bulgaria to Romania over the impressive bridge, the so-called "Merkel Bridge." We’d originally planned to take the signposted ferry from Vidin to Calafat around 3:30 p.m., but a friendly border guard at the port of Vidin told us the ferry had stopped running after the new bridge was built. So we rode across it via the highway. This was on our 2013 cycling trip along the Danube to the Black Sea. We crossed into Romania on September 20, 2013. Neither Bulgaria nor Romania observes daylight saving time, so I moved my watch ahead an hour to 6:00 PM. Our reports from then on reflect that change. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, grilled pork neck with fries and salad. The restaurant was decorated in white and red for a wedding the next day. The Wi-Fi was excellent, and we sent our daily reports from our room. Later, we walked through the city looking for an ATM, admired the cathedral from outside, and saw a wide pedestrian zone with monuments to heroes, presumably from the late communist era. That day we cycled 86 kilometers in 5 hours and 10 minutes, bringing our total to 2,411 kilometers. The overnight stay with breakfast at the 3-star hotel cost each of us 60 lei, about €14. Who was King Carol I? - Born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen… - Appointed Prince of Romania on May 22, 1866… - Crowned King of Romania on March 26, 1881… - Married Elisabeth of Wied (later Sissi II) in 1869… - Died on October 10, 1914 (childless)…