Romania: Prince to cycle across country for charity

Prince Nicholas, pictured with his grandfather, King Michael

Prince Nicholas of Romania is to cycle over 1,000km (621 miles) across the whole of his grandfather's former kingdom to raise money for children's issues, it's been reported.

The 29-year-old prince, who is third in line to the Romanian throne, will be riding from Transylvania in the north of the country to the Black Sea port of Constanta, the Balkan Insight news website reports. The alumnus of Shiplake College in Oxfordshire, who now lives in Romania, will be leaving the border town of Sighetu Marmatiei on 23 April, and hopes to reach his destination some 11 days later. The fluent English speaker told the Agerpres news agency that he thought that 1,000 was "a bit much", but "I am doing this to raise money for an association that focuses on education and children."

The Romanian throne has been unoccupied since King Michael, now 94-years-old, fled the country in 1947 after the communist takeover. While the elderly king has returned to his country since the fall of Ceausescu in 1989, there appears to be little appetite for a restoration of the crown despite the emerging popularity of the royal family. Prince Nicholas is third in line to the throne, behind his aunt and his mother.

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