Tuesday 27 August – River Cruise (Rousse and Monasteries)

Today there would be two choices: an all-day tour or a half-day tour. We chose the half-day tour two days before, even though there was a wait list. Last night we were advised that all people who had put down for the wait list were accommodated. Phew, the thought of being in a bus for 10 hours was not my idea of fun!

We commenced with a walking tour of the ’round’ square in Rousse. The guide showed us some of the sights including a building that the communists had built that was meant to look like a ship. From ground level it didn’t. She showed a picture taken by drone later and you could see the resemblance to a ship there. Even though it was 9:30am, it was starting to heat up.

The guide explained that the average yearly income for the area of Rousse was 4000 EURO per year. Apartments in Rousse were selling for approximately 1500 EUR per square metre. She did mention that they typically hand the buildings down through the generations as most people can’t afford it. The average income across all of Bulgaria was 6000 Euro per year.

Next stop – a rock church. This church was built into the rocks. The path up wasn’t as bad as they said. You went up a rough bitumen path about 400 metres, then some steps (about 100 metres) and then a gentle incline again of about 400 metres. It was fascinating to see the church up here. Inside they had a number of frescoes that were hundreds of years old. You could walk out on the terrace, which was now made stronger through having some railway tracks used to keep it joined to the main church inside. The guide took us through a number of the frescoes. She also pointed out some of the graffiti – that dated back to about 1750. She said it was the oldest graffiti that she had come across.

Off the main part of the church was another room, down 5 steps. The roof here had come apart a little – there was a huge boulder on the floor and the part of the roof where it had come from. Following this visit, we went down the quickest way – about 250 steps.

We then made our way onto a monastery that had a chapel built high up into the rock, named after the Saint who lived, and preached there.

We then made our way back to the boat, for lunch and a rest. There was nothing planned for the afternoon so we could just do as we pleased – either on board the boat or in town. We chose the boat and also chose to skip lunch in the dining room and instead get room service. The butler (who looks after the two large suites) brought us our lunch. It was lovely – even if they did forget the ham on the ham and cheese sandwich.

Tonight was our final night on board the boat. We had reserved 3 tables of 2 at the ‘private’ dining section where they could only seat 20 people. It was a lovely way to end the night, and cruising. The next day we would be departing for Bucharest.