At Caras-Severin along the stream we were able to visit a series of mills. Nearly every one of them situated some hundred meters from each other. We descended into the valley via steep steps to these little, very nice, buildings. We were acompanied by a very lovely girl who brought the key with her to open the gates of heaven. On one of the mills a list was displayed, with names and times that people from the village could come to grind their corn. These are actually the timeslots at wich time they can be assured that the mill is reserved for them.
Mind you in this part of the region the weather can be rough, and in the past certain mills got flooded, and almost everything with the exeption of the stones and the wheel flooded away downstream.
Certain mills get there water from high up in the mountains, flooding into the valleys. At other spots huge dams are constructed in the riverbeds. These dams are build with large cut trees placed one above the other, looking like a fence. In that way they can store the water up to heights of three or four meters. A shoot leads the water towards the wheels. One of these flooded mills is now under construction. Nearly everything of the building is new. Every mill has a plate attached stating that European money is used to preseve these mills.
Some of these mills date back to the nineteen eighties. None of the buildings is really old compared to the mills we are used to visit.
We started at the top and make our way downwards. The second mill is interesting as we can see the inner side of the stones. Strangely they have a curved shape on the inside.
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Almost no dressing, only a few straight light curves is what we manage to see.
Again the shoe is beautifully curved out of a piece of wood. It looks as it is done in the same way as Dutch wooden shoes are carved out of logs.
Midday, and we have not touched our lunchbags we brought with us from the hotel. Instead we were invited to taste some local food, consisting for instance of fried cheese, of which everybody thought at first that it looked very much like chickenwings. A lot of salt went into it, but I have to admit it tasted good. They also baked polenta, a local kind of food, you can eat instead of bread. Made of local corn mixed with maize when grinded at the local mill.
Of course they added some liquor. Although it looked like a light sponge cake, it was a real filler for the stomach.
The room where we sat looked a little spartan, reminding of Soviet times. As usual we were greeted with a warm welcome. It looks like Romanians take their time when sitting at the table.
In the afternoon we visited some more mills in an adjacant valley.
