Bulgaria: Day 6

Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnavo:
Thracian Kings and Damascene Roses

This being Sunday, the day began with Eucharist in the hotel. The long drive was punctuated with three stops: two at the site of Thracian tombs from the pre-Christian era, and one in the Valley of the Roses, where Damascene roses are grown, harvested, and distilled into rose oil, flavouring perfumes and soaps, honey and liqueur. There was also a short photo stop at the mountain pass before descending to the medieval capital, Veliko Tarnavo.

Thracian Tombs

The first stop, near Starosel, was possibly a place for burial rites rather than the tomb of an individual. Like the amphitheatre in Plovdiv, it had fallen into disuse, been covered up with earth, and forgotten, only to be rediscovered quite recently.

The other burial place, the Kazanlak tomb, is a UN Heritage site, and so fragile that a replica was erected beside it for the large number of tourists to explore.

Valley of the Roses

Like the churches we visited, the distillery was decorated with colourful scenes on the walls and the ceiling, showing all the processes in the manufacture of the oil.

Our visit included samples of rose honey and rose liqueur, and we bought our lunch in the restaurant there. I chose tarantor, a soup of yoghourt and cucumber flavoured with walnuts and served cold, because I had read about it in the Bulgarian section of my Encyclopedia of European Cooking and was curious to try it. It was on the thin side, but would have been refreshing had the day been hotter.