We start our day by driving to the Epope of Pleven (or panorama) a war museum about the 1877 liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. In this ocasión the locals fought with Russia against the incumbent rulers.
The museum is remarkable in several ways, it took only eleven months to build, the artwork was all painted onsite, including a panoramic fresco which was completed in four months by nine Russian and two Bulgarian artists.
There are original Gatling guns, some of the first ever manufactured, which could not cross the mountain range to Sofia.
We drop back down to the town and take a walking tour around the central pedestrian axis, first the church of St Nicholas after which we break off from our group and then get to see the theatre, and a small park housing a former Russian resident, the railing all made from cannon barrels and bayonets.
Walking through a park with fountains, we catch up with our group at the mausoleum for the Great War, the foundations contain the war graves, the crypt has symbolic graves, plus an eternal flame in the shape of a medal.
Our return journey is uneventful as we pass though the farms and countryside, back home for lunchtime. We opt for chicken parmigiana.
Were are remaining berthed in Nikopol for the afternoon, so we decide to walk downstream again. The town is tiny and within a mile the road has run out and we’re on the rough. We continue for a while looking for the rock church but miss it, then backtrack and find it second time. Carved into the limestone is a tiny little chapel, getting up to it isn’t easy.
We aim to walk back along the coast but it’s quite tricky in places. There is a lot of poverty, rough living and dereliction, but everyone has a smile and hello for us.
Another identical boat arrived overnight, they look like twins moored precisely because customers need to walk through each other’s atrium to reach the correct one – not to difficult if only two but there can be more.
Dinner is once again in Aquavit, we make sure we bag a table early because tonight we sail around 19:00, so the outdoor section isn’t available, just the indoor section with only 14 covers.
Mushroom soup and Gravadlax followed by lamb shoulder, finished with apfelstrüdel, all excellent. We round off the evening sat in the rocking chairs at the prow of the boat, enjoying the sunset with our Austrian red wine.
We chat with a couple from Utah and eventually it’s time for bed, according to Zebedee.
