Day trip to Bachkovo Monastery (Bulgaria)

About 40 minutes south of Plovdiv, and 20 minutes beyond Asenovgrad, is Bachkovo Monastery. Apparently the site dates back to the late 11th century, which is pretty incredible. The setting is beautiful, in the foothills (?) of the Rhodope Mountains. I was visiting in mid November on an overcast day and the trees across the hills were a beautiful mix of green, red, and orange.

Showed up with my Citroen C3 (a nice ride I enjoyed quite a bit). Guy walked up and gave me the hand signal for how many BGN I owed for parking. Think it was 3 or 5. Handed it over and started to take stock of the area. The access road leading up to the monaster is lined with stalls featuring local artesanía (honey, pottery, some woodworking products, various souvenirs, etc.

Our life in Mexico involves frequent visits to small towns for their festivals featuring artesanía Mexicana, so this whole layout was very much up my alley. Seeing stalls and stalls of things I'd like to bring home made me question my plan to pack light this trip.

Up at the actual monastery and viewing the scenery in all directions it's easy to see how you could find some peace in this place.