Ruth:  We are staying in an apartment on the quiet, less touristy end of Skopelos island overlooking the Port of Loutraki.  It is just below the old and largely unspoiled town of Glossa. We have already extended our stay from three to five days, and... Read More

Ruth:  Squeezed into the 1960's urban sprawl of Thessaloniki is a wealth of Byzantine churches and monasteries. No less that 6 of them are Unesco listed, dating from the 4th to the 14th centuries. That some of the mosaics and frescos survived fires, earthquakes and... Read More

Ruth: Although our original plan was to head to the Black Sea, our love of Greece and the turquoise waters of the Agean made our line across the continent turn a hard right in Romania. Thessaloniki seemed like a good goal, with all of its... Read More

Gordon:  The 86 km ride from Blagoevgrad to Melnik was fast, pretty and varied.  We passed through another canyon (popular for whitewater rafting) and a number of traditional villages before climbing into the hills that surround Melnik.  Our tripometer turned over 4,500 km during the... Read More

ISeptember 26, 2016Ruth: After leaving Sofia we followed the Iskar River into the stunning Rila Mountains. I should mention that before making it to the city limits my beloved Pocket Earth navigation app took us on a road into a very impoverished neighbourhood. We waited... Read More

Gordon:  It took us two days to cycle from Vratsa to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.  We came via a beautiful secondary road up the Ishkar gorge.  At times it was reminiscent of cycling in B.C.: excellent road surfacing, light traffic, and a mountainous, treed... Read More