“Look,” says Simona, my guide on a free walking tour of Timisoara. She has pulled us into a courtyard behind the Romanian city’s only Lutheran church, in a city studded with religious buildings. “These hydrangeas are so beautiful.
Look at their different colours.” Expecting a peep inside the edifice, which serves about 400 Lutherans in a city with a population of just over 300,000 ( Romania ’s fourth-largest city, by population), I was slightly flummoxed. But I would learn that colour and simple pleasures are partly what make Timisoara – a recent European Capital of Culture – such a delightful destination.
Read Next The 'boring' capital city that's becoming harder to ignore According to Mario Csipai, president of the Alternative Tourism Foundation and founder of Timisoara’s free walking tours, tour bookings have risen by more than 50 per cent since Timisoara held this title. It is also relatively inexpensive. The favourable exchange rate helps: £1 is equivalent to 5.
90 Romanian leu. Indeed, Timisoara was ranked as the world’s most affordable city break in research by the luggage storage network Bounce. Holiday expenses such as hotel rooms, meals and transport were included in the cost index, which put Timisoara far above Vienna.
The Romanian city, sometimes referred to as “Little Vienna” or the “Vienna of the East”, certainly has some similarities to Austria’s capital – as I found during a recent visit. Sitting at an outside table at the Lloyd.