Blogs from Bulgaria, Europe

Tom made noises about a late night swim when we returned from dinner but I think it was more bluff than reality. We woke the next day and prepared ourselves before breakfast in the pool cafe from 8am. At 8am there was nothing happening in the pool cafe and in fact no one there. We waited another 10 minutes before I went looking for someone. Eventually I found the manager and they said we could order from the menu and it was not included in our room fee. We weren't happy. First we had waited around to 8am for breakfast, second it wasn't included in the room fee (althoughwe're sure we saw it advertised that way) and third, there went our lunch plans! We eventually left Hotel Afrodita (Hungry!) at 8:30am. We had 75kms to travel ... read more

It still amazes me the amount and variety of food my riding buddies can put away at a Buffet Breakfast. They would consume more than I do in a day (well, almost). We got away at an acceptable 8:15am with 75kms to travel to our next stop, Plovdiv. Not being a very big town it didn't take us too long to get out of town and begin our only real climb for the day. It was only in the vicinity of 70m and it was done and dusted after 45 minutes riding. From here on, it was all down hill with just a few undulations as it flattened out towards Plovdiv. The majority of the day was perfect. It was a cloudless sky, the temperature was warm without being too hot, the road surface was good, ... read more

With no real plans for today we decided on a walking tour of the city. A 10am start allowed us to have a lazy start to the day and still arrive outside the Palace of Justice with time to spare. Kris was our guide today. He is a native of Sofia who studied in Germany and then chose to come back to Sofia to live. Kris had a great knowledge of the city and to be honest by the end of the tour all of the fact and dates that get crammed into the two hours get muddled by the time it comes to writing the blog. Some interesting facts that I can remember. As I mentioned yesterday, Sofia is the 3rd oldest capital city in Europe behind Rome and Athens, it's original name being Surdica. ... read more

At dinner last night we decided that instead of travelling 25kms to Dimitrovgrad, we'd travel 50kms to Dragoman into Bulgaria, making the following day to Sofia much more manageable. It was also the fact we couldn't find any available accommodation in Dimitrovgrad which helped force this decision. We had breakfast at the hotel and left just after 8am. We had to ride the 25kms to Dimitrovgrad and then there were two climbs similar to yesterday to negotiate before coasting downhill into Dragamon. Well, part one of ride to Dimitrovgrad was plain sailing and easy riding. As we left town and started up the hill that are route was indicating, an old bloke sitting on his porch said the road we were on stopped just up ahead. We had a dilemma. We decided we'd ride along the ... read more

On Saturday we arrived in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. This added a new country to our tally. In the morning we joined the Panoramic Belgrade tour. This first took us to the Fortress which overlooks the Confluence of the Danube and the Sava rivers. Belgrade means white city and it derides its name from the Fortress which has a white tower. It has been there for centuries but the remains now are mainly from the 18th century. Most of it now is a public park.it has great views and a Military museum, also the zoo is located within the park. After exploring many aspects there we were driven around the city to see many of the sights of this now modern place. We went then to the large Orthodox church of St Sava. This is ... read more