Madara, Abanasi and Veliko Tarnovo

On Monday, September 2nd, we got on the bus again and headed inland, eventually arriving at Madara.  Wikipedia describes the Madara Horseman as follows:

"The Madara Rider or Madara Horseman (Bulgarian: Мадарски конник, Madarski konnik) is an early medieval large rock relief carved on the Madara Plateau east of Shumen in northeastern Bulgaria, near the village of Madara. The monument is dated in the very late 7th, or more often very early 8th century, during the reign of Bulgar Khan Tervel. In 1979 became enlisted on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

"The relief depicts a majestic horseman 23 m (75 ft) above ground level in an almost vertical 100 m (328 ft)-high cliff. It is of almost natural size. The horseman, facing right, is thrusting a spear into a lion lying at his horse's feet, and on the left a dog is running after the horseman. The carving of the horseman's halo and garments, as well as the bird in front of the horseman's face, are barely recognizable due to the erosion and bad condition of the monument."

We visited the Horseman, as well as surrounding caves and ruins.

Then we drove to the village of Arbanasi, where we had lunch on our own (Mary Joy and I at the Hotel Sevastokrator, on a covered porch overlooking the city of Veliko Tarnovo).

Then we did a tour of a deconsecrated church, with a local guide, after which we walked through the village to the Konstantsaliev House Museum, another Bulgarian Revival merchant's house.

Then we drove into Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of Bulgaria for 200 years, from when it regained its independence from the Byzantines in the late 12th century until it was conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th century.

After we checked into the Hotel Gurko--the best hotel on the whole tour--we had a group dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Afterwards, Mary Joy went to bed, while I joined Stefan and some others for a walk up to the Cathedral, a relatively modern building with a terrace from which we could see the lights of the old city on the Tsarevets and Trapezitsa Hills.