This seems to be the classic place for people to pose. Every time I've been here, I've gotten at least one shot of somone in front of this urn!
This is the part of the complex where Marie actually stayed. She allegedly built the minaret to honor a Turkish lover.
After the hordes of Romanian tourists (all grumbling about the state of the Palace grounds (which I thought looked pretty good!)
and about the fact that some of the buildings were being used as guest houses (which was their original purpose, after all.), the quiet at Aladzha was pretty nice.
I declined to climb the tower up the cliff again (Been there, done that - several times), so I sat and drank nice cold mineral water in the shade while my friend slogged to the top to see the frescos. Glad I didn't bother, because since I was last here, the frescoes have basically vanished due to weathering. At least I have my memories and photos from earlier trips!
Back on the road to Shumen next. We saw the pametnik, the fortess, the university (Hi Genny!)
and spent the night in a nice little hotel with an excellent restaurant.
In the morning we headed out bright and early for Veliki Preslav, because it would be a long drive back to Blagoevgrad after seeing one last museum. After a long drive through town to the Archaeological Reserve and several bouts of asking directions, ("Excuse me officer - do you know the way to the museum?")we found the place and the museum complex was great! I'm only sorry it was too hot and time was too short to spend an entire day hiking the site. We were the only visitors in a place that was set up for large groups, so it was echoingly empty, but lovely.
The Preslav Treasure more than lived up to its reputation and the curator was eager to open the safe room (Really - two massive doors, four keys and two combination locks!) and show us the display. Couldn't take photos, of course.
After that, it was just the long drive home via the Sofia highway and the E79!
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