Fortress and Canyon (Veliko Tarnovo ~ Bulgaria)

October 2019

Unlike our previous stop Shumen, Veliko Tarnovo is well and truly on the tourist trail. The plus side of being in a Tourist town us that we finally managed to get our Ukrainian Hryvnia converted into something we could spend and all of the restaurants had English menus.

The prime draw-card is the Tsarevets Fortress. This was the former seat of the medieval Tsars and contains the remains of more than 400 houses, 28 churches and a royal palace. Great sprawling place to wander around in.

Outside one of those churches on the edge of the fotress is a spot known as "Execution Rock" as those who were executed here were simply led to the edge and then pushed off.

On the high central point inside the fortress sits the Church of the Blessed Saviour which dates back to the 6th century but has undergone multi changes in the intervening years and the murals inside are the most modern I have ever seen. I found them quite striking but seems like they weren't to the taste of the Lonely Planet author.

Immediately below the fortress was an odd little theme park with minature monuments and famous buildings. Eventually translated the description on the side and worked out it was the "Mini Bulgaria" theme park - not a go cart racing training track as initially surmised

Managed to escape the tourist hustle and bustle the next day by heading out to the Emen Canyon for a nice, albeit vertigo inducing, walk to a small waterfall. Thankfully the track alignment has been tweaked over the last few years as really did not fancy trying my luck on some of the wooden bridges. The walk back was a tad brisker than the walk there as on the way back spotted on the ground what we were sure was bear poo!

In case you are looking for another bear poo photo you are out of luck. At the time I really did not think pausing to pull out my camera wold be a good idea.