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Published: September 14th 2023
We had a great time in Plovdiv and our apartment their was great. We left Plovdiv at 8am heading for Dimitrovgrad some 75kms away. Today we were basically on main roads all day. While there was a constant stream of traffic going past, it was consistent. It meant a couple of things. First we weren't able to just amble along chatting amongst oursleves stopping as we wished at the drop of a hat to take a photo and second it meant that we rode in close formation for the whole of the day. This made the ride quicker, but definitely not quite as relaxed as normal.
The scenery changed a bit during the day. We saw a lot of open fields that are starting to brown up a bit. A big contrast from the lush green pasture and crops were seeing earlier. We had stretches where there was wide flat land either side of us and mountains way, way off in the distance and then the hills started to close in on us again.
We only had a small amount of climbing today at 259m, and none of it was steep, rather, small intervals of small inclines both up
and down so it really was a relaxed constant speed ride today. We did struggle with MAPS.ME again. At one stage all 3 of us had a different route produced by the App to go to the same destination. Very frustrating, I'll be deleting the App as soon as we're done here but for now we have to use something.
Our accommodation today is at Hotel Afrodita. We have two adjoining rooms on ground level with balconies which open up onto a large pool. After having some lunch and relaxing a little we all went for a swim to cool off and then a lay on a banana lounge and possibly a bit of a doze. We are a few kilometers out of the town so we rode the bikes in. Dimitrovgrad was built by the Russians after the war as a Socialist City. A main feature is a central "spine" or common area on which either side was built apartment buildings. Everyone got the same apartment regardless of their role in society.
We were planning on staying two nights at our next stop, Svilengrad, but were only able to book one, so we'll take our rest day
the following day in Edirne. This means tomorrow will be our last night in Bulgaria before heading into first Greece and then Turkey on Saturday.
Today saw Jeff get to the accumulated 4000km mark as well, what an effort - no small feat by any standards.
Distance travelled today: 75kms
Distance travelled so far: 4,101kms
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