It rained quite heavily overnight on Tuesday, March 26th in Pozar and we were slightly worried about getting stuck as we were camped on grass. Luckily, we had moved Dora forward in her pitch the evening before so that her front tyres were on a mix of grass and gravel. She behaved beautifully in the morning so we easily drove off the pitch and even found a tap to fill our water tank nearby before stopping on the way out for breakfast by the river. Low cloud had filled the valley which created quite an eerie scene. We decided to double back on ourselves and drive down to Vergina to see the Royal Tombs, assuming they would be open this time! On the way through we went through even more fields of cherry trees.

The tombs were actually quite impressive. They had been excavated in the 1970s and had been found in tact rather than been robbed like so many others over the centuries. Phillip II, Alexander the Great’s father, was a force to be reckoned with as he was a consummate diplomat as well as an inspiring general who managed to expand Macedonia. His tomb reflected his achievements with gold, silver and suits of armour buried with him. His grandson, Alexander III, Alexander’s son was also buried here in similar fashion. The burial mound has been dug out and made into an amazing exhibition. Well worth a visit. Interestingly, this part of Greece is still called Macedonia and the Greeks refuse to call the country to the north of them, North Macedonia as they feel their heritage has been usurped so only call it by its capital’s name, Skopje.

We then headed towards Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city as it had good reviews. The traffic was horrendous and we couldn’t find anywhere to park so we gave up and headed towards the Greek/Bulgarian border. Bulgaria joins Schengen on April 1st so there is currently no easy flow of people across its borders. The queue of trucks waiting to go through went on for miles. Luckily, the car lane was not as bad and we were through in less than an hour. It also means that days spent in Bulgaria and Serbia don’t count towards our Schengen 90/180 days.

With our passports stamped we headed towards the wine region around Melnik for our overnight stop. The village of Melnik is in a lovely setting of sandstone rock formations and we found a car park (P4N#251024) on the edge of the village. We decided to treat ourselves and eat out (something we hadn’t done since Modena, Italy well over a week ago). We found a lovely little taverna called Bistro Melnik that served Bulgarian specialities like Sach (a meat stew) and also the local wine. All very pleasant and not expensive at all.

After a peaceful night’s rest we continued towards the capital, Sofia but first stopped off at a local winery, Villa Melnik, to buy some Bulgarian wine and then drove to the Rila Monastery way up in the mountains.

There was hardly anyone on the road up to the monastery but the car park was full of coaches and cars. Clearly, a tourist destination in its own right. The architecture and frescoes were quite amazing making the detour up there worth it.

Onto Sofia where we had high hopes of an interesting 36 hours. We had booked a secure campervan park just outside the centre (P4N#291195) and glad we did as I’m not sure we would have been happy to leave Dora unattended whilst we did some sightseeing. We went into the city that evening via the nearby Metro to get our bearings and have something to eat. There was an army band playing in the main square to celebrate 20 years of Bulgaria being part of NATO. A delightful interlude before dinner. We had chosen a restaurant, called Manastirska Magernitsa that specialised in Bulgarian recipes from the 131 active monasteries across the country. That’s a heck of a lot of monks in a population of under 7 million people. The rabbit in white wine and vegetable omelette were both delicious but our choice of wine was not! Back to the van by 22.30 to find that the local kids had started a fire in waste ground next to the campervan park. We were worried that the fire could quickly spread but the fire brigade were there a few minutes later and put the fire out so we could all sleep soundly!

As the Orthodox Easter isn’t until early May, everything in Sofia is operating normally despite it being Good Friday for those of us using the Gregorian calendar for our religious feasts. In fact, Bulgaria invented the Cyrillic alphabet. We had an excellent walking tour from Free Sofia Tours. Two hours of fascinating background to Bulgaria and Sofia. The city is built layer upon layer from the Thracians, Romans and Slavs/Bulgarians through to the communist era and today. It made us appreciate the place better as it does feel like an old communist city that still finding its feet. It has been hot and sunny today so lunch with cold beer was called for before some more touring on foot. By 17.00 we were knackered so made our way back to Dora via the metro. A quiet evening in before making our way to the Serbian border. It’s likely that we will have very little connectivity whilst in Serbia as it’s not part of the EU travel zone.

Miles driven since last post: 344

Miles driven this trip: 2,571

Tolls: €14 (including vignette for Bulgaria)