It is Sunday morning and we had now been in Bulgaria for a week. Each day had been an education on Bulgaria: its ancient and recent historical treasures, its art & architecture, traditional culture, food and even modes of transportation. We had seen sites spanning many historical eras: the 20th-century remnants of the Communist era, Koprivshtitsa’s 19th-century Bulgarian National Revival architecture, the Ottomans’ 14th century mosque and 1st century Roman engineering in Plovdiv. Today’s scheduled jaunt would take us to sites from the early Medieval or Middle Ages period, roughly the 5th to 15th centuries. Our Euromeet host, John, had arranged a day trip to two significant sites built in this time frame: Asen’s Fortress and Bachkovo Monastery. We had a very light breakfast at the hotel before taking a taxi over to ou
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