One Man Travelling...

What a difference a year makes. This time last year I was visiting Ruse and made welcome by Димитър Димитров and his family at the Lombardi Family Hotel. Not only did I get to explore this city sitting on the edge of Bulgaria with the icy Danube marking the border but I also had a fantastic Christmas dinner in the midst of his friends and family. I wrote briefly about my visit in my post on my departure from this same city heading north to Romania at the start of my train journey across Europe.  Pyce (Ruse)... Winter and Summer  I still have much to write about and many photos for you to see both of this and other locations in Bulgaria. Returning to Varna and a cold icy January I had many more experiences of local life. My friends and neighbours in Neofit Rilski street, from Jordan, Proprietor of "Candles" Restaurant at the top to the girls in Te-Art Studio, who cut my hair and encouraged me to pop in for coffee so that they could practice their English, opposite. But m...

It is the morning of the 17th December 2017 and I am making my second journey from Madrid to France, the last by road in 2013, this time continuing my adventure by train from the Black Sea to the North Sea. My train leaves from Madrid Atocha ,one of the main railway stations in the capital. To get there my hosts for the past couple of months, Gonzales and Maria, drive me the kilometre or so to the local station where I board the local commuter much beloved of my journeys around Madrid. This drops me at Atocha where a change of area and of platform will be required. At first I thought that I was in the wrong place and entering the departure platform for the airport but no, it my train to France. I pass through airport like security where my ticket, baggage and person are checked. I seem to remember that this is a standard procedure on the high speed trains as I had to undergo the same checks when travelling from Segovia to Madrid a few years ago. As I am in the Schengen area my passp...