Bulgaria

Overnight stops (in date order): Sofia (x4); 20 km south of Veliko Tarnavo (x3); 10 km north of Varna; Obzor (x2); Lozenets

For the first time on the trip, we were required to take a COVID test before we could enter Bulgaria.  Having done that, our biggest challenge at the frontier was not convincing the border police that we were sufficiently healthy to enter their country, it was trying to understand how the Bulgarian road toll system for large vehicles operated!

Once we had worked it out, we headed straight for the capital, Sofia; where we spent four days.

There was a large police presence in central Sofia because of anti-Government demonstrations.

Despite that, for a tourist, Sofia is a relaxed city.  Many of its public buildings were constructed in the decades after the expulsion of the Ottoman Turks in 1878;

Including the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral,

the ‘Russian Church’

and the Sofia Synagogue – the largest in southern Europe.

The city’s history goes back much further. 

In the centre of Sofia, Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of the Roman city of Serdica.  The ancient city is most famous as the venue for the Council of Serdica in 343 AD which was called by the Emperor Constantine to settle the argument within the early church about the nature of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. The Council failed because the protagonists refused to talk with one another!

There has been a church on the site of the Church of St Sophia since that time – and Roman temples before then.  The current building dates back to the sixth century.

Going back yet another thousand years or so, the Archaelogical Museum displays remarkable objects from the time when what is now Bulgaria was ruled by the Thracians or the Macedonians.

200 km east of Sofia, Veliko Tarnavo was the capital of the Bulgarian empire in the middle ages – before the Ottoman Turks invaded in the 14^th Century.

Whilst visiting Veliko Tarnavo, we camped within a few hundred metres of the Kapinovo Monastery.

Heading further east, through mile after mile of farmland at harvest-time,

we had our first glimpse of the Black Sea just north of Varna.

As we travelled south, we stayed at a number of Black Sea resorts that were closing for the season;

spending a few hours in Nesebar, an ancient town set on a peninsula,

en-route for Turkey.