Following the end of the ski season and having done the majority of the end of season cleans for our ski chalet cleaning business, we hopped in the car with all three dogs and drove the 12 hours right across France to Brittany in the far north west of France, where our new (well new to us) caravan was stored. After a couple of days tinkering with the caravan and catching up with friends, we set off on the journey back to the Alps to pack for the trip to Greece. Last year we had made the trip from France to Bulgaria in our mini-bus, using it as a small camper van. And having found a fabulous campsite on a quiet co

At the start of October we were still gardening in shorts and t-shirts, but when we left Bulgaria mid-Oct and drove over the Hemblas pass to the northern side of the country we hit snow! It was an easy cruise to the Romanian border and then the usual hassle to try and buy a vignette. The first service station we stopped at tried to charge us for being a large bus or lorry, not a mini-van (classed the same as a car) so we decided to push on to Bucharest and buy one the next day. We were aiming to stay at the only campsite near Bucharest, which was described as being on the north side, close to the airport. Well

From Greece we were on the home run back to our place in central Bulgaria. It is around a ten hour straight drive without stops. Usually we follow the motorway straight across northern Greece towards Turkey and then at Alexandropolis take the road along side the Turkish border to Svilengrad on the Bulgarian border. From there it is a 2 hour drive to our house. However, this time we decided to turn north at Thessoloniki and enter Bulgaria at the border crossing near Sandanski. Our original plan was to find a campsite in Greece somewhere close to the Bulgarian border but there were non listed in the guide bo

Early last summer (2010) I was contacted by a lady who had purchased an off plan apartment in Sozopol and was experiencing difficulties with the developer and was considering further court action. After looking through her contract and other documentation I advised her that it was probably not worth the hassle or expense of yet more litigation, as she had already been through one case and was wondering whether to appeal the decision. She had initially signed for the apartment back in 2007 and four years later still did not have the keys or notary deed. It was decided that she would make sure all the paperwork

Having managed to get hold of the woman from Anek ferries, who we were supposed to be crossing to Greece with, I was assured we would face no problems or additional charges for choosing to go on the Superfast ferry crossing at an earlier time. We were to simply turn up a couple of hours before departure time and present our original tickets at the Anek desk and we would be given a voucher for Superfast. So we set off Tuesday across Umbria and into Le Marche and towards Ancona. We had hoped to stay at one of the ASCI sites listed in the Camping Card book but after driving round and round and not being able to f

We hit the road fairly early the next day and got straight on the motorway to head down to Pisa for a whistle stop tour. We could see the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the distance and managed to pick up signs for it, along with navigation from the Sat Nav, find a nearby street to park in and then ran to the Campo die Miracoli square, where the Leaning Tower and the Duomo are, took a few photos and ran back again, hopped in the van and back out of Pisa - done and dusted in 20 minutes! From Pisa we headed inland and for the dramatically located village of Volterra. It is a scenic climb to the plateau where the village

From our campsite in Provence, we nipped straight onto the motorway and sped down towards Cannes and past Monaco and across the border into Italy. After 3 hours on the road we decided it was about time to stop for some lunch and let the dogs stretch their legs and go to the toilet. We turned off the toll road and headed down into Bordighera, a pleasant seaside resort, just into Italy. We were looking for a picnic area but ended up following the coast road into San Remo (there was not really any distinction between towns once you were on the coastal road) and onto what was described as an Aire, but was basically a

With the ski season over and the garden under control and veggies all planted, it was time to set off on our trip across Europe back to Bulgaria. We took the seats out of our minibus, used for airport transfers to Courchevel in the winter, put in a sofa bed, blackout blinds at the windows and set off the with 3 dogs for our first stop in Provence, South of France, to see the Verdon Gorge. The Verdon Gorge is also known as the Grand Canyon du Verdon and it didn't disappoint. We had pre-booked two nights camping at 'Le Bois de Sibourg' and did have a little trouble finding the place, as it was much further fr

With the current state of the property market worldwide more or less, but particularly in Bulgaria, there are many people desperate to sell. The definition of distressed property sales is the urgent sale of assets under negative conditions or a rapid, urgent sale of assets, often at a loss. Distressed sales usually occur when cash is needed to cover immediate needs or debts or when someone decides they cannot afford the property for one reason or another, for example they cannot afford the mortgage repayments  or the management charges. Or sometimes for personal reasons such as divorce, relocation etc. The

We were recently down visiting friends who live close to Chirpan and decided to pop along and see what was happening at the excavation of a Thracian burial mound in the area. We did not expect to be able to see much and were all ready to be told to 'go away' and have to make a quick exit. But to our surprise this was not the case. We stopped on the edge of the mound and could see they had already started excavating the mound in long, straight trenches. The sight foreman, a university student studying archaeology came over. He spoke some English and offered to show us what they had discovered so far. He explai