- The King will sleep in a simple wooden bed and drink hand-pressed apple juice
- Camilla will not accompany him, preferring to remain in her Wiltshire home
After the pomp and ceremony of his Coronation, it’s little wonder King Charles yearns for the simple life.
He intends to slip off in a few weeks to his home deep in rural Transylvania, the Daily Mail can reveal.
But Camilla will not accompany him, preferring to remain in her more modern Wiltshire home. Although she is very happy for her hard-working, 74-year-old husband to enjoy some uniquely traditional ‘r and r’.
The King will sleep in a simple wooden bed, drink hand-pressed apple juice – and maybe even judge the local lawn-mowing competition, as he has done on previous visits.
It may come as a surprise that the British sovereign, who is actually distantly related to Vlad the Impaler, is incredibly passionate about Romania.
He loves the country so much that he secretly bought a run-down former farmhouse in Zalanpatak, close to the Carpathian Mountains, several years ago with the help of local landowner Count Kalnoky, his great friend (and another distant relative of Vlad, said to be the inspiration for Dracula).
The pair – who share a passion for preserving the rich heritage of the region – now co-own three properties in the area, which are rented out to tourists.
Nestled among the hills and meadows of the Zalan Valley, Charles’s simple Romanian hideaway is surrounded by some of the most beautiful and biodiverse wildflower meadows in the region.
The hills above the property are roamed by wolves and bears, and in the forests flourish one of Europe’s rarest and most spectacular orchids, the lady’s slipper.
Farmers still use horses and carts and cultivate their land with hoes and scythes, as if the industrial revolution has yet to reach their boundaries.
In the early years of his visits, Charles and his security team slept in pull-out wooden truckle beds and used outside toilets.
The property has now been restored with authentic textiles and antiques from the region as well as indoor toilets.
But it still retains a simple, Transylvanian authenticity, with heating provided by wood-burning ceramic tile stoves and tap water sourced from springs.
Guests are greeted with local brandy and pastries but there is no wifi, TV or radio – although the drawing room now boasts a ‘small hifi player with CDs’. But there are plenty of books, nature guides and binoculars to borrow – and even a wood-fired hot-tub. The King, it is understood, likes to spend his days hiking in the hills, making the most of the pure, fresh air, before sitting down to enjoy a good book on his own in the evenings.
There was some doubt as to whether he would be able to make his annual visit now that he is King, but the Mail understands he is due to arrive early next month and will stay for up to a week.
It is understood that he is likely to have a meeting with the country’s president, Klaus Iohannis, while he is there.
One source described the village as ‘the land that time forgot’.
‘There are no private secretaries accompanying him and very little in the way of staff generally, in fact,’ they explained. ‘There’s certainly no valet or chef that travel over with him. The local produce and cooks are too wonderful.’
The property – now billed as The King’s Residence – is rented out at a reasonable £143 per person per night for an all-inclusive stay including activities and tours… which is far from a king’s ransom.
n Six in ten of us watched the Coronation on TV and 11 per cent went to a street party, pollsters have found.
There was an age split among viewers, with 82 per cent of over-70s tuning in but only 39 per cent of those aged 16 to 29.
And despite a host of dishes created for the occasion, including Coronation quiche and Coronation aubergine, only one in 25 of us made one, Office for National Statistics data showed.
Besides vampires, Transylvania always puts out the welcome mat for ghouls.
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I’d say there’s a damned (and I mean damned!) good reason this “royal” dude has a fascination for Transylvania…but does he drink blood at every meal? And I wonder how many times he’s watched the movie “Hostel 2” with its Elizabeth Bathory-type character bathing in blood? Hmmmmm….