Vitosha National Park

We didn't need to be at the airport until about 1100, so rather than waste the final few hours, we  decided to get up early, breakfast and leave as quickly as we could and drive to the nearby Vitosha National Park, some 20 mins away.

Except it was Monday morning rush hour and the traffic was rather heavy with lots of cars pushing in and out, but the satnav worked fine.  Unfortunately, as we were almost out of town, I was about to cross a 4 lane junction when the lights turned amber and I had to stop quickly (the lights go red very quickly after amber here and I didn't fancy being half way across with 4 lanes of traffic bearing down on us from right and left).  We heard a crunch - b*gger.  We got out but luckily the chap behind us had stopped literally within an inch of our bumper - unfortunately the bloke behind him had been driving too close and had failed to stop in time.  I think the damage was only minor and I pointed to the lights by way of apology but they just shrugged, so we drove off and left them to it.

I was more than a little shaken, as although I was perfectly correct to have stopped and driver 3 was obviously too close, I didn't like the fact that I had contributed to their accident.  But we had to continue and soon found ourselves in a quiet suburb and then up into the national park.  We stopped briefly at the Dragalevtsi Monastery (same design as before) nestling in the woods.

It was a glorious morning;  the sun was shining through the trees and reflecting the fabulous autumn colours.  

Unfortunately it had taken us so long to get there, we only had about 10 mins before we needed to turn around and head for the airport as we needed to fill up with petrol en route.

Once at the airport we went over Minty with a fine tooth comb, but could find no further knocks or scratches so we went to hand the keys in requesting that they inspect.  We were told no one would be available to check the car for at last an hour, which I explained was unacceptable and given a previous bad experience in Italy (not true) we would not leave without the car being inspected in our presence.  To my surprise the guy in the booth then came back down with me and looked for himself, agreed the car was perfect and phoned through to the booth where Ian was waiting and our deposit was immediately released.  Sometimes you just need to stand firm.

Much relieved, we headed for the lounge which was very quiet (only 1 other person, so I don't know how we managed to sit behind him!).  It was adequate but basic and self service - Ian found a bottle of champagne and opened it with uncustomary aplomb.  I then browsed the food on offer which wasn't terribly good but there were quite a few items in sealed containers (ie. transportable) so as our best friends Sue and David were due for dinner later in the week I thought it might be fun to create the starter course from items filched from Sofia Airport; including pâté, a lovely tomato/garlic paste and cheese.

Plus assorted nuts and dried bagels.  I managed to stuff quite a few bits into my case.

We got chatting to a lovely young couple when I moved our bags so they could sit down (luggage and coats do not need their own seats) - he was Bulgarian and she British Malaysian.  I'm not sure they really believed our primary reason for visiting Sofia (achieving BA Silver status) but it was a good talking point and we spent an enjoyable half hour exchanging travel tales until the flight was called.  (Note: She then sat with us in Business Class and he was down the back, although did visit once the food had been served!)

A couple of aerial shots to finish with.  

All in all a good time and it achieved our purpose, although there are probably more interesting/picturesque areas to visit - next time!