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 pleasant surprise. Karlovo is located at the base of the Stara Planina Mountains, so close that an hour’s walk from downtown would find you scaling a steep mountainside. Indeed, there is a street that is being pedestrianized that leads straight ...
Gordon: We spent a pleasant night at a hotel in the Shipka Pass. Located at an altitude of 1200 metres, it was cooler than the temperatures we have become accustomed to, with a high of about 24 degrees and a low of 13. The air was very clear, so landmarks tens of kilometres away could be plainly seen. As usual, the economics of the hotel ...
Ruth: I must be getting stronger because after climbing 1050 meters to the top of the Shipka Pass I found the strength to climb up 1000 more steps to see the panoramic view from the top of the Shipka war memorial.
Ruth: Tonight is our third night in the medieval Bulgarian capital of Târnovo. Here we have been spending our days doing two of my favourite things: exploring the sights and eating tasty food. The Turks, Greeks and others in the Balkans argue about the origins of many of the favourite dishes served in the region, but regardless of who cooked them first the Bulgarians certainly ...
Ruth: It is all coming back to me now. It’s been two years since we visited Bulgaria for the first time. Since then many of the broken sidewalks have been replaced but otherwise it is the place I remember. Crossing the bridge over the Danube I immediately remembered that the majority of buildings here sport a tired sand colour. I’m not sure whether this is ...
Ruth: We entered Bulgaria on the 1st of August at Ruse. While we were crossing the bridge over the Danube the weather seemed to change as the forecast had promised it would. Right after crossing the border we bumped into Martin, an Austrian cyclist that we had met the day before and planned to meet in Ruse for dinner. We spent a lovely evening with ...
Gordon: From Brasov we climbed over the Carpathians one last time before descending to Sinaia. It should have been a spectacular ride, with the Bucegi range rising above the touristed mountain towns, but for us it was a world of water, with heavy rain falling relentlessly and flowing and pooling on the road. After a while we abandoned any effort to avoid puddles or torrents ...
Ruth: Ok, I have tried to be goodnatured about the weather in Romania this July, but after two days of complete soakings I am fed up. Yesterday morning our ride out of Sinaia was lovely, with the sun even making an appearance, but at noon we were caught in a huge thunderstorm. We tried to wait it out in a bus shelter; counting the seconds ...
Ruth: I was thinking that our blogs this trip lacked a certain Je n’est sais quoi, with our descriptions and pictures of countless churches. When I looked back over the last few posts I realized that they also lacked pictures. I have no idea what happens between our composing and posting but sometimes we seem to lose most of not all of our content. Arrrrg!We are ...
Gordon: Our guidebook described the area in eastern Transylvania, in the foothills of the Carpathians, as “Székely Land”. The Székely are a Hungarian group that have been in this area since at least the 13th century. The word “Székely” comes from the Hungarian for “frontier guard”.I expected to notice some traces of a different culture, but coming down into Székely Land was like entering another ...