Amadeus loved having his own little bed in the hallway last night and only woke once as a result!

Amazing given it’s been upwards of 5 times a night, minimum, this trip. This combined with a really good shower (by European standards) had me feeling extremely equipped for a big day out exploring the lovely Velika Tarnovo.

It was the coolest day of the trip thus far, with a top of 20, very little sun and very few other tourists to contend with. This was predominantly due to it being a Monday-  so like Sundays – nearly everything is closed.

There’s beautiful views from any given point around the old town.

We made our way up to the Tvaraset Fortress expecting to encounter big tour groups but had the place practically to ourselves.

The church within the walls is full of hideous murals.

Gio spotted “Little Bulgaria” in the distance from the Fortress walls and decided he was happy to add the extra steps into his day to fit it into our itinerary (he clocked up close to 17k today!). Little Bulgaria is much the same as Cockington Green in Canberra but as we have visited 70% of the sites that the models are fashioned after in the past week – we really enjoyed seeing them again in miniature form.  I won’t bore you by sharing  pictures of them here though.

Gio and Noelle were thrilled with the trains of course!

Absolutely loved spotting these locals ladies catching up for a gab at 2pm on a Monday afternoon with a litre of beer each and a bag of dried pretzels in the park.

Church of the Nativity of the BVM.

Noelle practicing her “broadway lampost lean”.

Gorgeous cardigans and sweaters.

I’m not much of a shopper but was disappointed that this store was closed today!

Despite the ground we covered it seemed like a very lazy day. We have just realized we are well into the second half of our trip and not feeling at all ready to make the journey back home. The kids are traveling so well. So far no one has been homesick which is remarkable!