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.
This morning on our way to Moustheni where we are tonight we stopped to tour The Cave of Alistrati. I think it is the most beautiful cave I have ever seen The stalactites and stalagmites and other formation made the cave magical.
Tonight we are staying at a lovely little boutique hotel called called Nysa.
For dinner we went to a local pizza place.
For desert we ordered the small version of a treat that sounded really good on the menu.
Today we went out exploring in the town of Drama. It was a perfect cool sunny day.We started at the Santirvan museum. The museum building was originally an Ottoman mosque built in the 16th century. Currently they have an excellent exhibition of toys through time, on loan from the Museum Benaki in Athens. A wonderful woman gave us a private tour in English. She made an exhibit that would have been interesting into a fascinating museum exhibit.
Next we went to a very well done museum in an old tobacco warehouse. We were told it’s the largest camera museum in Europe.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon with lots of people out enjoying the day. Drama is built around multiple springs. We enjoyed strolling through the parks built around the crystal clear water.
For dinner we went to a sandwich restaurant called Kalamia. We each had fries sandwiches made with gyro meat. Oh my were they good!
To read the next blog post of the trip click here.
We had two lovely nights in Kato Poroia. Each night we had a great dinner at a restaurant in the village. And each meal with two main dishes, a shared Greek salad and ouzo cost us about $35.
This morning after breakfast at the hotel we drove about two hours south east to the town of Drama.
Along the way we stopped at a bakery for coffee and treats
We had another great meal tonight in Drama at a restaurant in town. The meal was great. I especially liked the fresh fried anchovies.
This morning before leaving the Hotel Arte SPA & Park we took advantage of the Spa one more time.
From Velingrad we headed south towards Greece and the Mediterranean. The drive was only about 140 miles but the route through the mountains took almost 4 hours.
Tonight we are staying in the little town of Kato Poroia not far from the Greek – Bulgarian border. There is only one other room occupied in our hotel.
For dinner we went down into the village and ate at a little restaurant called The Kiosk – To Κιόδκι. I think we were his only customers tonight. We had a great meal.
To read our next blog post click here.
This morning after breakfast we drove into the Lidl store in Velingrad and bought six big bottles of water.
Velingrad is located in one of the largest geothermal regions in Bulgaria. There are more than 90 mineral water springs in and around Velingrad. When we got back to the hotel we took advantage of the spa facilities.
After we got back to the room Duke went down and had his hammam massage. He said it was good.
We had another great buffet dinner.
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