They made an unlikely group as they set off on a spring day on the five-hour trek through the verdant hills of Transylvania: striding ahead were the future King Charles III and an urbane Hungarian count named Tibor Kalnoky. The pair had become friends during Charles’s many visits to Romania.
Behind them came a horse and cart bearing the security detail for Charles, then Prince of Wales, and a picnic.
Their destination was a derelict house in Zalanpatak, a tiny village of just 90 people at the end of a dirt road, which Charles has since made his home. It is where he will enjoy a few days of rural bliss when he returns to Romania next month for his second trip abroad as King.
