| MOTORING |
Palace – destroyed and rebuilt seven times since the 13th century. It looks down on the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, constructed in 1849 to provide the first permanent link between Buda and Pest. The next morning I rise early to visit the Szechenyi Baths at the northern end of the city park. Here you find Hungarian locals enjoying 15 indoor pools – and the unusual sight of men and women playing chess on floating boards for hours on end. It’s the perfect rest place before the final, ten-hour journey across Romania. And from here on in the roads are far more demanding. The Rolls has to negotiate horse-drawn carts and countless construction lorries, all vying for space on well-worn tarmac. The Wraith corners better than you might expect, it’s almost nimble. Then the steering tightens up at speed and the suspension irons out any rough stuff. Transylvania passes in a flash, I power on down the steep wooded valleys and make it to Bucharest by nightfall. The high-rise tower blocks of Communism are still crammed into the city centre, drab, soulless buildings only topped by the bizarre Palace of Parliament. Officially the world’s second largest administrative building (after the Pentagon), it was built in 1984 by former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. It’s been an exhilarating journey, sat in the most luxurious car on the road – well, Romanian roads for certain. Perhaps it’s no wonder that the average age of a Rolls-Royce owner has nosedived to 43 in recent years. There’s nothing old-fashioned about the appeal or performance of the Wraith.
s LUXURYLO ND O N.C O.UK s
THE CITY MAGAZINE | December 2016
95