On in to Romania....

We returned to Nessebur in the evening via the old windmill and harbour before stopping to watch a children's music and dance competition which was supplemented by a dancing bear much to their delight. Held to promote Bulgarian/Ukrainian relations it was both heartening and poignant. We walked the streets on a very warm evening and looked at the illuminated ruins of various churches before stopping for a bowl of mussels at one of the numerous restaurants and returning to the shore front parking for a quiet night.

A couple of hours drive brought us to a huge area of open meadow surrounded by shady woodland where we tucked away out of the sun and later walked up a track in search of Kipilovo Castle which amounted to no more than a few ruined walls deep in the woodland. A metre long black snake added to the interest for one of us and back at the van we had a very peaceful night before heading off via a water point in a nearby village to Veliko Tarnovo where after a few blind alleys the sat nav gyided us to quiet parking beneath the impressive Assen Dynasty monument. We walked out to the extensive Tsarevets fortress complex stopping on the way for a much needed ice cold lemonade. The fort sits high above the meandering Yantra river and has at its highest point the Cathedral of the Holy Ascension which contains some striking modern murals. We walked along one of the oldest streets in the town which the sat nav had tried to send us down and we're glad we had ignored her guidance as it was narrow and had limited headroom. 

After cooling showers we walked across the pedestrian bridge to another part of town and found a good restaurant with friendly English speaking staff for a very decent meal. Our central park up was very peaceful and we moved on north to another tree edged meadow right on the banks of the Danube. Again we sought deep shade and sat enjoying watching the huge barges plying up and down, some guiding two or three other additional cargo carriers and many with the captain's car perched atop the crew quarters.

Tuesday saw us heading for the rock hewn churches of Ivanovo where one is accessible via a path through the valley and then up the side of the limestone gorge. Despite some collapses in the roof area there were some remarkable frescoes in both parts of the main church which the friendly guide was keen to point out. We noticed that the repurposed railway track used to strengthen the floor had been produced in Middlesbrough and was presumably originally in use somewhere on the Bulgarian railway system.

On a similar theme we hoped to visit the Bulgarian National Museum of Transport in Ruse but it was closed for the week so to console our (?) selves we dined well on the Crazy Fish floating restaurant which for now no longer cruises the Danube but offers a memorable dining experience from the sail shaded top deck with views of the active cruise vessels and merchant barges passing by.

To use up our Bulgarian currency we did a shop in Lidl but miscalculated the sub total so ended up paying by card, thus a top up of diesel hoovered up the last of the cash and before we knew it we were at a booth on the approach to the bridge over in to Romania. It turned out that this was nothing to do with border control any more, just the toll for the crossing. Extensive repairs on the other carriageway had reduced the road to a one way system and whilst we were lucky heading north the traffic in the other direction was subject to huge delays with drivers clearly suffering in the heat. We particularly felt for the HGV drivers as it would be adding hours to their day. At the first garage I stopped to buy the Romanian toll vignette, £15 for a month, and we drove on another half hour or so to a P4N where a bumpy track put us alongside woodland and a slow moving river. To our delight this contained thirty or so basking water buffalo which we were very much absorbed by. The river was a turgid mass of muck and manure so there was little temptation to join them but I was reminded of my time in India 40 years ago when I had ventured in to a much cleaner river with a similar herd.

Tucked away in the shade behind the van we played Scrabble and drank plenty of ice cold water before a salad tea and a warm night with not even a sheet required.

With Mandy's rebooked flight on Thursday from Bucharest looming we headed for the capital city but aware that it is a congestion nightmare circled out to the east and north before arriving rather abruptly at the Camper Hub, another P4N location just 10 minutes by bus from Otopeni airport and under half an hour from the centre to the south. Razvan operates a camper hire business from the location and had messaged me with the instructions to download a clever app that allowed guests to operate the electric gate remotely. The only shade was occupied by a UK plated van so we parked parallel to a line of hire vans that were being prepared to go out and plugged in to the 240v supply that was included in the €20/night fee.

An 800m walk on an unpleasantly busy road put us at the stop for the fast service  #100 bus in to the centre. I'd called at an ATM and taken out 300 RON (about £50) but the bus was just a tap and go fee of around 50p by bank card for any journey. The ten mile journey did indeed include heavy congestion but of course there were bus lanes so the air conditioned bendy bus soon had us down at University Square. Signs on the bus advertised a 24hr tourist pass for just £2.50 so we bought a pair as the sights of the capital are quite spread out. It is activated on first use so we also knew it would cover us out to the airport the following evening.

The city was seeing temperatures in the mid 30s so we stayed in the shade where possible, stopped regularly for cold drinks and walked through any of the misting pods available. The huge fountains in another square also kept things slightly cooler and at night are the setting for a sound and light performance. The second largest (after the Pentagon) public administrative building covers 82 acres of prime land in the city which was widely remodelled during the Soviet era and again by Ceausescu following the 1977 earthquake so contains a mix of ancient and modern buildings linked by tree lined avenues and boulevards. The beautiful Stavropoleus monastery and courtyard were a highlight easily overlooked by the few vest clad groups of Brits intent on a probably stag related drinking session.

 After a few hours we caught the bus back but stayed on right out to the airport so we could familiarise ourselves with the Departures area and then caught the next bus back to the van. It was very hot all night with little breeze and a few persistent mosquitos but we dozed off eventually only vaguely aware of the few overnight flights.

So yesterday was another unpleasant walk down for the bus in to town with the construction of an underground line out to the airport adding to the melee but we were soon in the centre and jumped off a few stops early to enjoy walking through one of the tranquil parks and emerging at the huge Arcul de Triumf from where we took the underground back to University Square and visited the Bucharest Municipal Museum. A shady restaurant with a powerful fan tempted us in for a final excellent meal but we both felt for a deluded drop out sitting barefoot in the sun and yelling out at passers by who we had seen in exactly the same place the day before. As always cities in particular seem to highlight the huge disparity in wealth across populations as moments earlier we had seen a senior official from the National Bank arrive in a sleek limousine with two armed policemen.

Back at the van we had more welcome cold showers, assisted two French couples who were failing to master the gate app and then caught the bus out to OTP airport where Mandy was soon scurrying off through security as I returned to base and watched her flight's departure on Flight Radar. It was sobering to see a total lack of flights over Iran and Iraq given the current conflict with Israel.

So I now have 6-8 weeks to get back to the UK and have decided on a whim to head slightly further east and check out Moldova. Both Romania and Bulgaria will feature on a future return trip so this quirky corner is worth including. Before leaving I changed the fuel filter with no issues this time, ran a load through the included washing machine and dealt with both the loo, grey water and a tank full of fresh before heading away. En route I stocked up at Lidl, pulled over for a huge convoi exceptionel in the form of an enormous wind turbine base and am now back on the banks of the Danube where a sorry tidemark of plastic bottles rather takes the edge off the view. However it is peaceful enough and and a very welcome ten degrees cooler so now this blog is up to date it is time to do some research regarding onward travel......

Pics Plus