(written by Nancy) Pretty quiet last night in our fancy hotel until about 5:00am when one of the young guys in the room below us decided to go out on his balcony and sing a song after a big night out.  Thankfully his friends pulled him back in pretty quickly and he shut up so … Continue reading 10,000 miles of cycle touring – Bansko to Sandanski- (91/16,118k, 580m)

(written by Dave) We set an early alarm with hopes for sunshine and for the first time since we’ve entered Bulgaria, we were greeted by beautiful blue skies - fantastic.  We had a quick brekkie in the room and were riding by 7:30.  It was cold, my cyclo computer showing as low as 8 degrees … Continue reading A nice ride in the Bulgarian mountains to Bansko (85/16,027k, 1070m)

(written by Nancy) I woke up a couple of times last night and could hear the rain coming down.  At 7am this morning it was still raining so we went back to sleep.  Well, Dave did anyway, judging by the snoring from his side of the bed.  When he finally woke up at 8:30 we … Continue reading Dodging showers – Pazardzhik to Velingrad (45/15,942k, 660m)

(written by Nancy) Well, we woke up to the depressing sound of dripping this morning – dang.  We packed up a bit, ate some breakfast but still the rain came down.  So, we decided to hang about until checkout time of 10:30 and set our sights on the next town about 40k or so away.  … Continue reading The rain falls mainly in Bulgaria – Plovdiv to Pazardzhik (37/15,897k, 45m)

(written by Dave) It rained much of the day today, a nice day to be off the bikes.  Tomorrow’s forecast is not much better but we’ll deal with that when tomorrow comes.  Today we barely did anything worth reporting.  I guess that’s how it goes on a rainy day in Bulgaria. Nancy mentioned in yesterday’s … Continue reading Wet day in Plovdiv

(written by Nancy) Well, Dave did manage to get Chinese takeaway for dinner last night in this little town in Bulgaria and it was actually pretty good!  We haven’t had rice for ages and that and the spicy chicken (not very spicy) hit the spot.  Completely different to the food we have been eating for … Continue reading Bulgaria getting better – Haskovo to Plovdiv (79/15,860k, 340m)

(written by Dave) You can probably tell by the title of the post that Nancy felt ok this morning and we broke free of the Svilengrad border town vortex.  As noted yesterday, Svilengrad was not an exciting town and I feared having to stay there one more day.  I made over a dozen trips up … Continue reading Nice ride in the Bulgarian countryside to Haskovo (67/15,780k, 325m)

(written by Dave) We had hoped to leave Svilengrad this morning but issues with something Nancy ate had caused us to have other plans.  After a very un-restful night, we decided to stay another day here and let Nancy’s “Bali belly” have a day to work itself out.  We shared much of the same food … Continue reading Down day in Svilengrad

(written by Nancy) Well, we made it through 4 border checkpoints today and into Bulgaria!  We left the hotel after a good breakfast (toast even!) and headed out of town toward Greece.  The Greek border was only about 8k from Edirne and we checked out of Turkey with a quick stamp in our passports.  We … Continue reading Three countries in one day – Edirne Turkey to Svilengrad Bulgaria (50/15,713k, 225m)