Piatra Neamț is a proper Moldavian town of around a hundred thousand people sitting in a bowl of forested hills, and it makes a very good place to start a ride into the Eastern Carpathians. The Bistrița river runs just to the south, the Ceahlău massif stands on the western horizon, and on a clear morning the whole thing looks like a model of itself. Fuel, supermarkets, cash machines and big breakfasts are all easy here, so do whatever errands you have before you go.
The old centre has more history than most visitors expect. Stephen the Great, the fifteenth-century prince of Moldavia who fought off Ottoman armies for decades and founded dozens of churches, built a princely court here, and a tower from that period still stands near the main square, together with a church of his that has survived for centuries. The town's museums also hold material from the Cucuteni culture, a Neolithic people who painted beautiful spiral-patterned pottery in this region some six thousand years ago. If you have an hour, the pottery is worth seeing before you head out.
The ride begins by climbing out along the river, past the huge artificial Bicaz lake, which was created in the middle of the last century by a concrete dam and now fills a long mountain valley with a green-grey sheet of water. The road follows its shore for many kilometres with lots of gentle bends, small villages, roadside stalls selling honey and smoked cheese, and views over to forested slopes. Traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, with lorries mixed in, so patience and a steady pace work better than hurrying.
The scenery gets dramatic as you push on toward Bicaz Gorge, where the valley narrows and limestone walls start to close in. Romanian roads can be rough, with potholes after winter and the occasional unsigned speed trap near villages, so keep an eye on the surface and the speed limits, which are strictly enforced. A few dogs wander around and horse carts still use the shoulder. The reward is a ride that feels wild but never remote, with a village every few kilometres for coffee and a slice of papanasi, a fried doughnut served with sour cream and jam.