Black Forest to the Black Sea - It's Thursday, - and Friday - it must be Bulgaria.

These last few nights have been a bit late so I'm going to cram 2 days into one...hope that's ok.  I'm now in Ruse, Bulgaria ... and just as an aside listening to the Women's Rugby World Cup Final on line. ... and the result! I got here earlier than I planned as the Communist Regime's Concentration Camp Memorial on Belene Island requires an ID check to visit as it is still  an active Civil Prison. The check takes 2 days so that put paid to that idea.

The ride south from  Băile Herculane in Romania to the Bulgarian border not too spectacular, except perhaps for a view of the massive Iron Gate Dam, or Hydroelectric Power Station as it should be called.

Again another joint venture between 2 bordering countries Romania and the then Yugoslavia. I did visit the Dam's museum but it was very dry ... not sounding very enthusiastic today am I.

I am always interested in 20th Century war memorials, they seem more relevant than those of centuries ago but again in countries like these in the Balkans they can be a source of constant rankle. This one in Romania was to their fallen in both WW1 and WW2 ... 

... but that covers neutrality, support to the Axis Powers, then the Allied Powers and a land grab from Hungary.

The border crossing to Bulgaria was a game of two halves! First you ride over an wonderful, modern bridge, then you hit cobbled roads. And I don't mean streets and market squares but cobbles for miles, bad for the bike and my fillings.

There had been a lot of recent wildfires in this area but good to see the river still there.

Now looking from Bulgaria over to Romania,

I stayed over night on Thursday 26th in Oryahavo and just outside my B & B was another memorial I wandered up to. I could of course only recognise what I though were names and then dates of birth and death. Whilst I expected to see 1918 and 1940 ish I noticed that there were a lot of men who died in 1923.

I say men because you can see the statue is of a "civilian". On reading up I find it is also in memory of the Communists who rose up against the government  briefly from 23rd September to 29th September during which time they captured Oryahavo ...exactly 102 years ago!

Had a beer overlooking the Danube and all was good ....

Today Saturday 27th, was a much more interesting and colourful day. It started with a walk up to the memorial again and a morning river check...

 ..... a ride past a village spring ...

                                                                                      

... and some great views of the river.

There was still a lot of dreary Soviet style architecture around though even though Bulgaria was never part of USSR.

I began to see more of the rural scenes I had expected, shepherds wandering with their flocks of sheep and goats ..horses and cart ... even a farmer using a horse drawn single furrow plough ... but never feel comfortable stopping to photograph people. 

I'd also heard about the feral dogs both here and in Romania and I certainly saw them. It's well known that they are not my favourite animals and so I was not impressed when they chased me ... they were not fierce though really and if I stopped they ran away, almost as if they'd never thought through the plan of what they would do if the ever actually caught a motorbike!

Wasn't the same for the horse and carts though the dogs did really go for them and I think I have a rough translation of what the drivers shouted at them.

I rode along one road where there were a lot of people with horse and carts collecting wood and I did in fact stop and speak to one couple who were remarkably friendly. I could only photograph the horse and cart if the woman was in the picture though ... seems fair.

And what a lovely picture to end the day on ......

                Good night.