Adorable moment Prince Charles is given a huge hug on Romania tour
The Prince of Wales got a public hug not once but twice on a walk about in Romania's capital city today.
He is visiting Bucharest as part of his three-country tour of Europe.
The Prince was being shown restoration work in a city where most of the old buildings were torn down by the former Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu.
The son of one of the volunteers, Valentin Blacker, hugged the Prince both when he arrived in the Old Town and when he left.
The 11-year-old has met the Prince before. He comes here regularly, often on private visits.
Prince Charles is known to be a huge fan of rural Romanian life and is the patron of a number of charities here.
Most of the original buildings in Bucharest and other Romanian cities were demolished on the orders of Ceaușescu who ruled here until the revolution in 1989.
The city is dominated by post-war communist-style buildings with little character.
Valentin's father William Blacker is an author who has lived in Romania for many years and volunteers for a charity called 'Monument Ambulance'.
The Prince and his ancestral link to Count Dracula
Prince Charles has stood in front of a statue of Vlad The Impaler - a distant ancestral relative who inspired the novelist behind Count Dracula
Vlad III was a 15th century Transylvanian ruler who was famous for his habit of dipping his bread in the blood of his victims.
During a visit to the Old Town in Bucharest, the Prince admired a statue to Vlad the Impaler - although to my untrained eye, it was difficult to see any obvious likeness.
Prince Charles is related to Vlad through his great-grandmother Queen Mary of Teck - who was the consort to King George V.
At the start of this tour, the Prince joked that his relationship to Vlad the Impaler "has given me at least a small stake" in Romania.
Thousands of tourists each year visit the castle in the Romanian region of Transylvania where Vlad III lived.
Prince Charles is his great grandson 16 times removed.