Vidin Bulgaria

Yesterday we travelled through the second lock of the Iron Gates.

In the evening we had sky lounge dining with Cheryl & Allan.

This morning we docked in Vidin which is the first major Bulgarian town on the Danube.

Monument to the victims of Communism.

The Belogradchik Rocks, formed of multi coloured sandstone and limestone, are more than 200 million years old. Sun, wind and rain have eroded and transformed these outcrops into fantastic architectural shapes: castles and towers, bridges and columns.  In Belogradchik Gorge, with a little imagination, you can see the Sphinx and Adam and Eve petrified forever in this forested garden of Eden. One rock resembles a schoolgirl, another a nun – of whom scandalous tales are told!

Look at the chillies drying in the window.

The fortress Belogradchik (known as the citadel) was built by the Ottoman rulers in the early 1800s on the remains of a first century Roman fortress.

The Fortress Baba Vida, overlooking the Danube, took 4 centuries (10^th to 14^th) for the Bulgarians to rebuild from the ruined walls of the early Roman fortress. Almost impregnable to attack, today it’s the best preserved medieval stone fortress in Bulgaria.

Back on board after seeing the fortress and we had local school children perform traditional Bulgarian dances for us.