We got up late. I skipped the fitness room (did 40 minutes yesterday in the unimpressive dungeon room) and we had an overpriced breakfast (Fr10 per person) before finally setting out at 10:00. Taking the ’scenic route’ to the end of one tram track we decided to walk the ’short distance’ going left to the museum of Bulgarian history finding the road/footpaths difficult to walk along. The museum was on the far right side of a wide, busy road. Rubbish location and public transportation to it. The return involved a 15 minute wait and then we got off a trolley a bit too early and needed to take 2 more trams to get back via the central station. Kind of tiring but what the heck it was the last day of the trip.

The National History Museum does the same as the Ruse Museum, only on a larger scale. Prehistory, Bronze, Romans, Byzantines, Bulgars, Ottomans. Then independence with Russian help in 1877-78. Disappointment at not getting all their land back. Then the disasters of the Balkan wars and the two world wars. They brushed over unsavoury details about the Fascist 30s and how Tsar Boris really died in 1943. At the end there was a nice display of costumes through the ages with paper cut-out figures and hand-made textiles. The building itself had some impressive, massive grand halls.

We hiked it to the airport by metro taking about 25 minutes, leaving the center around 2:30 for a 5:50pm flight. So convenient! The Sofia airport was really modern and attractive and not too big. We had a nice snack knowing that there would be no snack service on Ryan Air. And speaking of Ryan Air. The seats were not plush! But the flight went well, on time and all that.

We arrived in Bergamo, Italy in good time and took a bus to the city to take a train to Monza and then to Lugano. At Monza the platform was full of Formula One enthusiasts and lots of them. In the end we got back to Lugano after 11pm, happy and exhausted. We didn’t even start unpacking right away which was telling. It felt good to be back in Switzerland! And home!