Day 13 Bulgaria Plovdiv

Today we start our drive to Plodiv the second largest town in Bulgaria and the oldest known continuously inhabited city with history dating back over 8,000 years. It was settled as early as the 6th millennium BC.
On the way we stopped at the Wonderful Bridges, Bachkovo Monastery and Asen Fortress.
The drive to Wonderful Bridges was hair-raising and an exciting experience. We drove through snow, ice and it even snowed on our way out. There were very many tight hairpin bends with no side barriers on the road, with steep drops.
We have been trying to make snow angels three times and have finally succeeded at Wonderful Bridges.
The bridges are natural formations of rock but we were unable to get to the viewpoint as we were ankle deep in snow, and the climb got too steep. Snow was so deep we could not find the promised steps. We hauled ourselves high enough to catch a glimpse of the bridges.
Bachkovo Monastery is a monastery established in 1043AD. It is a well-preserved monastery with devout locals queuing to venerate a picture of Mother Mary. We noticed only locals came to visit the monastery as we the only ones taking photos.
Asen Fortress still had inscriptions on the walls and when you get to the top you have a bird's eye view of all around you. A very strategic Fortress.
Getting into the accommodation at Plovdiv was as difficult as breaking into a bank. Not only were the doors locked, and keys in locked boxes, the parking had barriers with locks on them. Find the actual apartment building, locate the keys by the front door, unlock the carpark, locate the back door to get the bags, then find the apartment. Fortunately there were step by step instructions on airbnb with photos of each step.
Once in we unpacked and put the laundry on, we set out looking for dinner. After 2 weeks of Bulgarian food we found Japanese ramen for a change.
We have created a new meal. Lunner is when one has lunch and dinner in one meal. Like brunch but later in the day. It saves time, saves money and is calorie conservative.Læs mere