Day 4 - May 1, 2025 -Ruse, Bulgaria

By Ellen Outten ellen outten May 01, 2025

Our day started on the bus at 8:30 am for a tour of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria as well as Arbanasi, Bulgaria. This is our ship docked this morning at Ruse, Bulgaria.

The pedestrian shops of Ruse Bulgaria on the way through town.

The countryside is mostly agricultural farmland along with small villages. The country is part of the EU ( European Union) and supplies other countries with wheat, grape seed oil, and sunflowers. We saw sheep and horses as well as some cattle, but primarily it's agricultural.

All the yellow fields are grape seed or canola which is made into oil and now also bio-diesel fuels.

Our bus driver slowed to allow us to take a picture of a stork nest on a telephone pole which was right along the road.

You can only see a head, but it's huge.

We traveled about an hour and a half to our first stop, a rest stop for a coffee and some local pastries and then on to Arbanasi.

I think this place holds Renaissance faires, weddings and parties. It's all kind of a fake rest area of sorts.

Wayne's not in the picture, just sayin' if you aren't sure.

King Wayne was inside on his throne! Sitting as usual.

Our first stop was in the medieval town of Arbanasi.

This church, built in 1597 is the Church of the Nativity. It doesn't look like much, but during the Ottoman (Turkish) empire reign, they opposed the Eastern Orthodox Church, favoring Muslim and mosques instead. So churches had to be non-descript outside. Only the small cross tells you it's a church. But inside, it's totally different.

Inside there's a nave (men's section), a narthex (women's section), a chapel "St. John the Baptist" with a vestibule, united by an L-shaped gallery from the north and west. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I grabbed a few from the Internet. The frescos on the walls were amazing.

They frescos haven't been cleared since the mid 70'sbut are still sharp, bright and clear. Perhaps because much of the church is underground and protected from sunlight.

Outside the church

The front of the church.

Outside there were replicas of the interior frescos for sale.

We walked around the town stopping at the local museum, Museum "Konstantsaliev house" and then to a small winery for a taste of something akin to kerosene.

Forward to lunch.

Our restaurant for lunch. I was glad to use their toilet, as the museum only had a squat toilet that I was able to avoid. No description is necessary, I hope. Squatting is involved. Sorry, no pictures!

Lunch was a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes and a cheese, similar to feta, but not as sharp. The cheese was very good. After that, we had a vegetable soup and then a thick chicken stew which was pretty good. Dessert was a yogurt dessert with some nuts on top.

Here too they had some music and local folk dancing during lunch.

From there we were driven to the bigger town of Veliko Tarnovo. We made a stop at the fortress and then had some free time to stroll their pedestrian craftsman shops. Wayne and I stopped for a drink and watched the world go by.