Guus Bosman

We are in Velingrad now, a resort-town about two hours from Sofia.

Milan and Nadia brought us here by car yesterday, which was a very beautiful trip through the Rodopi mountains. There was a lot of snow in the mountains, but we still haven't seen it snowing in Bulgaria.

We are staying in Hotel Dvoretsa, which means hotel "The Palace" in English. It's a really nice place, with a swimmingpool, sauna, massage... very good. The city of Velingrad is known for its mineral water, and the water in the swimming pool is also mineral water. It doesn't have any chlorine therefore, which is pleasant. The water smells a little bit smokey.

We are having a wonderful time together, really a holiday. Below is a picture of the entrance of the hotel; notice Santa Claus climbing up the balcony (Djado Mrash in Bulgarian).

On the picture below Sasha standing in front of the outside pool. It's too cold now to swim there, but there are also jacuzzi's outside(again with mineral water), that I'll definitely try.

I'm writing this in an internet "sala", in the center of Velingrad. It doesn't have a very quick internet connection, but the guy working here is very friendly and let me use my digital camera to download pictures from it.