My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
To make it easier for you to follow our 2026 Spring European trip from the beginning I’ve linked the blog posts in order.
You can go to the first blog post of our trip by clicking on this link.
At the end of each blog post after that, there is a link to the next day’s blog post.
Today we left Greece and headed north back into Bulgaria. The drive ended up being about four and a half hours. For much of the drive we were within view of the Turkish border. At one point as we crossed a road going east into Turkey we passed a very long line of semi trucks on the shoulder of the toll road. The line was about seven miles long. I think they were all waiting to get into Turkey.
Tonight we are at a rural hotel, EcoCenter RumiKa. It is quite basic but very clean and comfortable. I don’t think there are any restaurants around here. When we checked in, the one staff person we have seen showed us the dinner menu. She spoke no English but we managed to show her what we wanted by pointing.
On Saturday we drove into the center of Alexandroupoli and went exploring..
Finding a parking place was a bit of a challenge but eventually we found one. We walked quite a ways down the waterfront then stopped for a snack. We had baked feta with peppers and fresh hot pita. It was yummy.
Tomorrow we return to Bulgaria. If you would like to read that post it’s here.
Today we drove further east along the Greek coast. This is the last town we will be staying in in Greece. We are about 30 miles from the Turkey / Greece border.
We went into the center of town to look around a bit and have afternoon coffee.
We had a great dinner at our hotel.
To see my next blog post click here.
This morning we went out exploring. We stopped first at the Monastery of Saint Nicholas. It’s a beautiful little church in the middle of a lake.
We also stopped along the road to look at a big flock of Greater Flamingos..
Next we drove a bit further down the road to the Archaeological Museum of Abdera . The actual archaeological site wasn’t open today but the museum was fascinating. The ancient city of Abdera was founded in 654 BC.
When we got back to our hotel we went for a walk along the coast of the village.
Tomorrow we move further east to Alexandroupoli. If you’d like to see the blog post click here.
Today was the first grey day we have had on this trip. Our drive along the cost to Fanari where we are tonight was beautiful. We’ve been doing a lot of taking things slow and easy, so I haven’t been posting every day.
This morning the owner of Nysa Boutique hotel where we stayed the last two nights served us a wonderful breakfast then saw us off.
We took back roads following the coast east and explored as we went.
In Fanari we are staying at Nero Seascape Suites. We walked to a restaurant on the coast overlooking the Aegean for dinner. The grilled seafood we had was delicious.
To read our next blog post from Fanai click here.
Marion's Blog 