Ruth:  We are both surprised that there are still so few foreign tourists in Romania and Bulgaria, especially if you venture a kilometre from the [...]

Gordon:  We spent three days cycling from Velingrad to Sofia.  The first day was a pleasant surprise, with a 20 km descent through an attractive [...]

Gordon:  After a little internet research I am able to pose the rhetorical question: in what way can I be distinguished from George Patton, Carrie [...]

Gordon:  This morning we climbed 300 metres above Dospat and then spent most of the remainder of the day on an undulating plateau at around [...]

Ruth: We have spent the last three nights in towns within about 10 kms of each other, but each is located up a different valley [...]

Gordon:  Ruth thinks that today’s blog should be titled “The Best Ride Ever” because neither of us can recall a more beautiful single day of [...]

Gordon:  Today we climbed almost 900 metres to pass the ski resorts of Chepelare and Pamporovo, before coasting down to the traditional village of Shiroka [...]

Gordon:  Years ago I was looking at a map of this part of the world and I was struck by the Rhodope mountains.  Here was [...]

Ruth: Plovdiv won the competition for the European Capital of Culture for 2019 and as a result much activity is in process fixing sidewalks and [...]

Gordon:  To break up the ride from Kazanlak to Plovdiv we spent a night in the town of Karlovo.  This turned out to be a [...]