Day 2: Bricks in Bulgaria

Black Sea Navigation: BULGARIA: [Nesebar] [Varna] ROMANIA: [Constanţa]
TURKEY: [Sinop] [Bodrum] [Istanbul: Basilica Cistern] [Istanbul: Topkapi] [Istanbul: Haigha Sophia]
GREECE: [Limnos] [Meteora] [Thira] [Athens: Acropolis and Plaka] [Acropolis Museum Highlights]

Our first port of call was Nesebar (aka Nessebar aka Nesebur), Bulgaria.   OK, let's just call it Несебър for simplicity. 

Approaching the shoreline

Always with the boat traffic!!!

We took a tender to the port.

Is the port tender here? 

We weren't sure there'd be a lot to see here, so we spent a fair amount of time on St. John's unsanctified church, right by the customs/immigration terminal.

Unfortunately, the tourists have gotten at this one.

Life takes root among the ruins.

An arch!  Definitely not pre-Roman.  

As we wended our way through the streets of the town, we found a lot of places that sell locally made pottery.  My companions picked out some useful and attractive items.  One might have wondered if they were acting too quickly.  After all, this was just the first day -- might there be better items elsewhere?  (Answer: In retrospect, this turned out to be the best place we saw on the entire trip for local crafts! They were wise to act when they did.)

A quaint alleyway

St. Sophia's Church

We looked at (and occasionally entered) a number of old churches.  There were quite a few for such a small town (limited in size by its placement on a peninsula which apparently was formerly an island).

St. Sophia's Church

We went into St Paraskevi Church:

The exhibition arranged in the church is under the title “Surviving murals from lost Nessebar churches”. For the very first time, murals from the lost St George “the Elder” church, destroyed in 1958, are exhibited to the public. The church was built in 1704 in the south-eastern part of Old Nessebar. Most of the retrieved mural paintings were taken to the National Archaeological Institute in Sofia, and only a small part remained in Nessebar. These surviving murals dating to the beginning of the 18th century, along with some wall painting from St Clement church, are the theme of the exhibition.

St. Michael, perhaps?

"The torment of Saint George in prison, St. George 'The Elder' Church, 1704"

Hints of the original decorations survive
(possibly restored) near the front door.

Capital or pedestal?

Ice creams are displayed in elaborate scoop piles

 We went to the archeological museum as well.  I seem to remember a few large stone anchors, some gold jewelry, and a basement exhibit of IKONS.

Oh no!  We're marooned!!!

Black Sea Navigation: BULGARIA: [Nesebar] [Varna] ROMANIA: [Constanţa]
TURKEY: [Sinop] [Bodrum] [Istanbul: Basilica Cistern] [Istanbul: Topkapi] [Istanbul: Haigha Sophia]
GREECE: [Limnos] [Meteora] [Thira] [Athens: Acropolis and Plaka] [Acropolis Museum Highlights]