May 16 2024 Veliko Tarnovo - Arbanasi

Veliko Tarnovo - Arbanasi  Bulgari 

May 16 2024

Today was a really long day of touring.  Yesterday evening the ship had left it's berth in Romania and crossed the river to Bulgaria.  This morning we woke up in a completely different country. Looking out of our window all we could see was the side of the wharf we were tied up to.  So after breakfast I headed up stairs to look around and take a few pictures.  There wasn't a lot to see but a large expanse of river to the one side and trees to the other.  However I did get to watch another large river cruise ship come up river and dock along side of our ship.  The ship had bow and stern thrusters and it just turned sideways in the river and  matching its speed to the current just floated up to our ship ever so gently.

By 9:00 we were on the tour bus off to see our first stop was about an hour and half down the road.  We passed through a lot of small villages where we saw several very large stork nests.  On one nest was one of the storks tending the new hatchling. Storks are considered very lucky and for a village to have a nesting pair of storks exceptionally good fortune.  

The first stop was in Arbanasi and was the Church of the Nativity which was constructed in the early 1600's when the Ottomans were ruling Bulgari.  They kept Christian church construction to an absolute minimum and imposed very strict rules on how large and how tall  the church could be.  As such it was not a very impressive structure from the out side.  However inside it was totally covered with frescos depicting stories from the bible.  Unfortunately NO PHOTOS.  So you have to take my word on how beautifully decorated it was.    

At lunch we were treated to some traditions folk dancers who performed a number of different folk dances. They were accompanied by a traditional three piece band consisting of a drummer, a flute and a set of bag pipes.  The performance was very entertaining and several people from the tour got up and danced with the performers.

After lunch we drove down to the city of Veliko Tarnovo which is a hill side town.  There is a huge castle there which was built in the 1100's to protect the villagers from the Turks, Ottoman's and just about everyone else who was invading Bulgari over the next several hundred years.  Not that it helped as poor Bulgari has been invaded and  subjugated numerous times. 

We had an hour of free time so I was able to wander down one of the streets and have a rest with one of the locals before we were back on the bus back to the ship. 

We got back to the ship at 5:30 pm just in time for supper.

What a day.

Terry