Middle-aged flash packers

Plovdiv/Velingrad day 7

We were packed up and out by 9.30am in order to complete our exploration of Plovdiv. 

First stop, the singing fountain. Bulgaria is generous when it comes to providing public spaces. Everywhere, however humble, has a well maintained park and Plovdiv is no exception. Everywhere we walked, it seemed that we were no sooner out of a park, but back into one. 

The singing fountain looked more like a swimming pool. No stinting here. A trip advisor review by a very curmudgeonly British couple described it as”boring”. Well it looked pretty impressive to me even while it wasn’t in action. Unfortunately we didn’t see it in action as it was being cleaned – that was a bit disappointing tbh, but I’m sure it was anything but boring in action.

Next, the Red Army memorial. S was  in seventh heaven due to the variety of birds tweeting. Merlin the Bird App had a field day and we even got to see a nightingale.

Compared to the monuments we have seen on this trip, the Red Army one was a bit underwhelming (but not boring) but it was a nice walk and a great view of the city.

Finally the river. Nobody makes much of the rivers here but we wanted to see the Maritsa in all her glory. We headed for a pedestrian bridge which was very pedestrian indeed. I imagined something like the millennium bridge in London but this one was covered so you couldn’t see the river at all, but you could buy all manner of tat in the shops that lined the bridge. The Ponte Vecchio it ain’t . In Fact it was a bit boring.

Plovdiv done. It’s a very nice city indeed, definitely worth a visit.

Now onto Velingrad for the final third of our trip. This is the train bit. Our first stop in Velingrad was at the train station in the hope of speaking to someone who spoke English to help us sort out the tickets. No such luck, but there was a ticket machine that dispensed tickets in English. Hurrah. We bought return tickets to Bansko. Our intention is to ride the train that winds its way through the Balkan mountains from Velingrad to Bansko. We don’t particularly want to do Bansko to Velingrad as well as this would be 6 hours in total on an old Russian train, but we would need to organise a taxi for this and so far a reasonably priced one has not been found.

Anyway, that’s a problem for tomorrow.

We settled in to our old haunt The Kashmir hotel by donning our robes and heading on down to the spa.

Much, much busier than our previous visit but still plenty of room for everyone. Obviously word has got out and Bulgarians have got rich.

Dinner was as delicious as last time but it was a bit sad to see most people ignoring the dress code and looking very drab in jeans and tracksuits. Last time the ladies were in full dress up mode and even the men made an effort. 

Stuffed full, after a quick  walk(very cold tonight) it was time for bed in preparation for tomorrow.