North to the Danube

We started with a long drive, as always, north to the roman city of nicopolis ad istrum, through vast fields of sunflowers and maize. The sunflower fields covered the hills as far as the eye could see. The plants were a shorter variety than ours, with smaller heads and grown for the oil. They were dry and mostly brown, ready to harvest. I think the maize was not sweet corn, but also grown for corn oil.

The city of nicopolis was founded by trajan in 102 ad, and survived until it was sacked by the goths in 6th century. It was huge - the biggest city in the province, and thankfully still unprettyfied! Excavations continue and will do so for quite some time to come.

From there north again to a huge roman military camp and fortress at novae. Founded in the 1st century, it was there to protect the northern border of the empire from the dacians, who lived in modern Romania. The fortress itself was for military men only, but a huge civilian city built up around it. In the 6th century, after the empire had become Christian , a big bishops residence and basilica was built next to the Fort, but soon after it was overrun by the "barbarians" and abandoned. A great setting though, and we had lunch by the danube!

Inscription on a stone column at nicopolis:

"Drink and live without care, until you have the daylight and listen; once your soul departs , you will be deprived of these things".

The weather has been a bit disappointing. Though 30c every day and warm enough to eat out at night, it has been mostly cloudy each day with patches of sunshine. Yesterday was sunny all afternoon but today returned to cloud. This afternoon whilst we were out in a field looking round Novae we heard thunder and then it started to rain - hard. Luckily there was a plastic roof covering some of the ruins so we were able to shelter for a few minutes until it stopped. Sunny again by the time we got back to the hotel.Read more