Vidin Bulgaria

Coolest tour today! We rode the buses to Belograshick to visit the red-colored Rock formations there.

On the drive, we passed several stork nests and I got one of the most amazing shots. Turns out I was the only one on the bus that captured this. Perfect timing and I can't even take real credit for it. My camera just happened to be in the right cycle for the shot.

The rocks were formed by millennia of weathering, river erosion and freezing. They reminded Ernie of Ayers Rock in the outback of Australia. I was more reminded of Garden of the Gods in Colorado. This was our first glimpse of the rocks from the bus.

When we got into town, there was a festival going on and we had a little time to listen to the performers.

So it wasn't the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but these ladies sang their hearts out. Here's a shot of our friend John, from Australia, in his most frequent pose of the whole trip (from Amsterdam to here.)

We finally get to the rocks and find out there is a path to the top with a view of the entire valley. Of course we all had to go. Ernie decided to not go to the top and I continued on with the rest of the hearty bunch. When I got to the top, I stood at the edge,of the Rock looking down for Ernie and a Kodak moment. I was talked to Sylvia (another Aussie) about not seeing Ernie and suddenly I heard him calling my name. Turns out he decided to make the climb and was a few rocks below me. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Ernie was doing the happy dance because he thought he made it to the top. When he went through the arch, he saw the rest of the steps. Poor guy, he was so distraught!

This is where we lost Ernie. He saw more stairs, steep ones, and all he could say was "Merida."

The view from the stairs.

 

 

 

 

Julie and Sylvia celebrating the climb!

Notice how tight he's hanging on to the railing?

Dan and Gail from Vancouver. Dan was as bad as John with the camera.

This is what our tour guides called Communist Revival or Lenin Baroque.

This was the largest Jewish synagogue in Vidin but has not been used in many years and is going to ruins. What a shame!

More Communist Revival.

So I failed to mention that there was a passenger that boarded in Amsterdam the wound up having walking pneumonia. Don't know if that was what spread through the ship but folks were dropping like flies. Felt like a bad head cold but then went to the throat and upper chest. I have never heard so much coughing in one place. Fortunately Ernie and I made it through the first leg of the tour with no health problem. Well, we counted our chickens too soon. During the second leg, the Viking Scourge (as most of us were calling it) hit us. I made it through pretty well since I can take decongestants and had a bunch with me. Since Ernie can't take them, he kept getting worse. He finally talked with our concierge and made arrangements to go to the doctor and get some medicine. Our guide went as an intrepreter and she took Ernie and two folks to the Emergency Room at the Hospital in Vidin. Ernie said that she cautioned them not to be concern with the look of the hospital, that the care they would receive would be very good. He said that she took them to the section that the local folks go to and insisted they be treated. The folks at the hospital wanted the to go to the paying section and she proceeded to argue with them that these folks shouldn't have to pay they were entitled to health care from the state. It seems that they continued to argue and yell at each other as she continued saying they didn't have time to wait in the other section, that their ship would be leaving soon and they needed treatment now! Once the hospital folks realized that she would not be denied, they caved and treated them.

We had a farmers market tasting tour planned that afternoon so I went with the group and figured Ernie would be back at the ship when I returned. Imagine my surprise when I saw the guide and she said Ernie was waiting at the market for the tour. He was give prescriptions that would be delivered to the ship prior to our sailing. Turns out that he didn't have to pay anything for the doctor visit, paid only €13 for 4 prescriptions and the taxi cost was,split between the three patients. So the whole thing cost Ernie €16. Pretty good and he is well on the road to recovery.

Guess I have to stop at this point because my Ipad is running out of juice. I'll catch up with everything tomorrow and hopefully call stay current after that.

Night all!

 

 

 

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