Last day

Freedom!

Our flight wasn't until the evening so we had a day to ourselves to see things in Sofia. So what did we do? After a lie in, and a big breakfast, of course we went to see the archaeology, the frescos, the church, the mosque, the synagogue, the cathedral and ended up back in the archaeological museum! In case we hadn't see enough already!

Just outside our hotel was a tiny church with frescos. You can only get in by knocking on the door and a sour faced guardian with a huge bunch of keys let's you in and locks the door behind you. The church is then up a small spiral staircase, and then is maybe the size of our sitting room. Built in the 11th century, its frescos date from the 16th. Its remarkable, but the frescos really need a good clean as they now are so dark they are difficult to make out. No photography allowed- and the guardian stays close by to make sure you don't sneak some pics!

The modern city of Sofia is built over the roman city of Serdica. Everywhere around Sofia are the remains of the roman city, and every time they want to put up a modern building or extend the metro system, more appears. Bulgaria was part of the ottoman empire for centuries, and there are still many Muslims living there. Just along from our hotel was the main mosque. Built in 1576, it is pleasantly plain and peaceful in contrast to the orthodox churches.

And just along from that is the synagogue built in 1909 in a really nice moorish style. Most of Sofia's Jews left after the war, and went to the new state of Israel, so its now rather big for the size of the population, but still in regular use.

After the Muslim and Jewish centres we walked down to the Catholic cathedral. A very pleasant airy modern church, it was built in the 1960s (the previous one was accidentally bombed in the second world war) and is clean, neat and serene! Also full of wonderfully colourful 60s stained glass windows.

So after lunch back to the museum to catch up on things we missed first time round.

All in all a very interesting and rewarding trip. Exhausting though!Read more