For an overview of towns in the area, click: Haskovo District

Biser (meaning 'Pearl'): 'Sakar Hills Touring Park' campsite is just off the E80, between Lyubimets and Harmanli, past Biser railway halt on the way into the village. There is a small shop/café 5 minutes' walk away, on the other side of the bridge across the river. Stroll a little further past the school and another shop into the central square, where there is a bar/café, a barber and sometimes a few market stalls. Most of the villagers work on the land and on the far side, towards Cherna Mogila, is the gipsy quarter. Cattle and goats are still herded along the lanes, while donkey-carts are more common then cars or tractors around the nearby fields.

We found Biser church locked, but did visit the curious Nikolai Jenkins Home, a small mock-Tudor house set in a lovely flower garden. It was built in memory of Nikolai Vesselinov-Jenkins (1957-1985) by his mother, a doctor who came from Biser. After graduating from Leeds University in England, Nikolai studied the Greek Orthodox Saints Cyril and Methodius (brothers who converted the Slavs to Christianity in the 9thC). They translated the Bible into the language later known as Old Church Slavonic (or Old Bulgarian) and invented a Slavic alphabet based on Greek and Hebrew characters that, in its final Cyrillic form, is still in use as the alphabet for modern Russian, Bulgarian and a number of other Slavic languages. Nikolai Jenkins was the author of a book 'Saints Cyril and Methodius: the Bulgarian Mission', published after he was killed in a car crash. The memorial home in Biser is freely open from April to October, when the friendly woman caretaker is there. It houses an exhibition of frescoes and icons depicting the conversion of Bulgaria, as well as information (in English) about Nikolai and his work.

The local Saint Gargana is associated with Biser – a beautiful woman who rejected the Ottoman ruler in these parts in the 19thC and stood up for an independent Bulgaria. A monument by the railway crossing tells her story (in Bulgarian) and we heard it beautifully sung by a school caretaker! A path leads down from the monument to a fresh water spring, where Lord Byron reputedly stopped to drink on his way to Greece. It is still used by the villagers.

Bulgarska Polyana ('Bulgarian Field'): A very small and semi-derelict village in the Sakar Hills, between Harmanli and Topolovgrad, with one café/bar. Walking along a lane here, we passed a still (apparatus for distilling alcoholic liquor) in the process of making 'rakia' - a potent clear brandy. A fire burned slowly beneath it, the alcohol dripping into a bowl. 'Is it legal?' we later asked an expatriate friend. 'Well, the Mayor runs the still in our village' she replied!

Overall, this is a prime example of a village that will not survive. The movement of young people to the towns of Bulgaria and the countries of the EU, an ageing and dying population, the mechanisation of an undeveloped agriculture, the closure and abandonment of collective farms, the disappearance of schools, shops and other services and the collapse of village-based industry (all the result of 45 years of 'communist' misrule) make the end inevitable.

Dimitrovgrad: A large industrial town built in 1947 on the River Maritsa, about 15 km north of Haskovo. We visited the enormous Sunday Market there, which spreads over a huge area with an astonishing array of clothing, shoes, household goods, tools etc at incredibly low prices. Over the road is a separate Sunday Auto-Market, selling second-hand cars and every spare part and accessory imaginable. There was also a corner dealing in dogs and puppies, pets, pigeons and fowl!

For more information, visit: Dimitrovgrad

Harmanli ('Threshing mills'): Our favourite town, 10 km NW of Biser, founded by the Turks in the 16thC around a caravanserai for travellers on the road to Constantinople. It has a wide range of places to eat and drink, post office, banks, shops and a bazaar, with a busy Saturday market for local produce. The only historic sights are a stretch of wall from the Ottoman caravanserai, near the tall Hebros Hotel, and the old hump-backed Gurbav Bridge built in 1585. It now spans a dry diverted river bed, behind the police station, near the tennis club/restaurant.

For much more information, visit: Harmanli Town.

Haskovo: This city developed from the town of Marsa, founded here in 985 AD. It's the regional centre, 33 km west of Harmanli, and home of Bulgaria's largest cigarette factory (tobacco being an important local crop). The city centre is very pleasant, with pedestrian shopping areas, good restaurants, many hotels and some National Revival buildings. Parking is difficult, with organised paying car parks. 'Kaufland' hypermarket has its own free parking, though it's a long way from the centre.

For more information, click: Haskovo.

Hlyabovo ('Bread Village'): Another small village at about 1,300 ft in the Sakar Hills, between Harmanli and Topolovgrad. It has shops and several cafes, post office and petrol station, as well as a broom factory (using local twigs)! Home to good expatriate friends, we visited it often.

Kolarovo: A tiny village among the vineyards of the Sakar Hills, a couple of kilometres off the road from Harmanli to Topolovgrad. The modern church was founded by Stefka Groseva, mayor of this and other local villages, who saw the project through to completion. There is a huge new winery (its 'Castra Rubra' label named after the nearby Roman fort) serving vineyards stretching to the horizon. We understand that the winery is about to open to the public with conducted tours and sales of its famous Merlot wines.

A smaller winery on the main road at the Kolarovo turn-off, welcomes visitors to look round and buy wine.

Lyubimets: A small town 10 km east of Biser. It has a few shops and places to eat and drink, a fine central square, a post office with ATM, a hotel, a swimming pool and a small Sunday market. Lying on the fertile Thracian plain, fed by the Maritsa River, it's also the watermelon capital of Bulgaria, with a bustling wholesale market alongside the railway tracks.

A wide variety of food is available along the highway, at the 24-hour 'Bolarka' Snack Bar. Catering for truckers, it serves good pizzas, ham & eggs, chips and grills, complete with WiFi internet and an ATM cash machine.

From Lyubimets, a fine mountain road leads south into the Rhodopes and on towards the Greek border and the Turkish/Muslim towns described below.

Svilengrad: The busy border town on the Maritsa River is just 3 km from the Greek border crossing point at Novo Selo, leading to the Aegean coast at Alexandroupolis. Another road and a new motorway take 15 kilometres to reach the Turkish frontier at Kapitan Andreevo. From there, another motorway runs to Edirne and Istanbul. This is indeed the doorway to the East!

Svilengrad is a fine town with a good range of shops, several hotels, a modern daily market, banks and restaurants. The very best restaurant we found during the summer was the Lozata, near the Central Hotel.  Ottoman remains include Mustafa Pasha's 21-arched stone bridge over the Maritsa, built in 1529, a Hamam baths and caravanserai.

For more information, click: Svilengrad

Topolovgrad: A small town in the Sakar Hills, 50 km north of Svilengrad, quiet now that its immense cigarette factory has closed. It has a few shops and café/bars, 2 hotels, a restaurant with a small swimming pool, bank and post office.

Along with young expatriate New Zealanders, Erica and Aleesha, we visited the Holy Trinity Monastery, 10 km south-east of the town, still inhabited by Orthodox nuns. Charmed by Aleesha's fluent Bulgarian, the Mother Superior talked of her own life and kindly showed us round the gardens and the church: a sanctuary with the bones of 19th century Freedom Fighters. The Monastery is set in lovely woodlands, where a path leads from the stream steeply up to a cave – a popular pilgrimage place in summer.

For more information, click: Topolovgrad

The Rhodope Mountains straddle the Greek/Bulgarian border, an area steeped in Thracian mythology - home of the cult of Orpheus, once rich from gold and other mineral ores. Unlike the rest of Bulgaria, the population of this remote area of the south-eastern Rhodope are ethnic Turks and Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks). The communities work on the land, tending sheep and goats or growing tobacco. Minarets mark the villages, where the women wear thick Turkish woollens. Driving through the wonderful hills and forests that cloak the country to the south of the Arda River, we visited the following towns.

Ivailovgrad: Take the road south from Lyubimets through the hills, crossing the Arda River downstream of the country's longest hydro-electric dam (passport needed for the checkpoint). Ivailovgrad seemed a dreary little town, where we had difficulty finding a café – or even directions to the magnificent Roman Villa Armira just a couple of miles south, which was well worth the excursion.

For more information, click: Ivailovgrad

Kardzhali: One of the last towns to remain in Ottoman hands (finally falling to the Bulgarian army in 1912), it was founded by a 17thC Turkish general, Kurdzhi Ali. Its Historical Museum contains finds from Perperikon.

For more information, click: Kardzhali

Kroumovgrad: A small Muslim town to the west of Ivailovgrad, along the mountain road towards Momchilgrad. The new Hotel Via had a surprisingly good bar and bistro.

For more information, click: Kroumovgrad

Madzharovo: A mining village on the River Arda, settled by refugees from Aegean Thrace during the Greek civil war of 1945. The Madzharovo Nature Reserve is the site of a Vulture Centre, as the steep gorges of the Arda are a breeding ground of three kinds of vulture: Egyptian, Griffon and Black. Visit their website - Vultures in the Rhodopes - for more information.

Momchilgrad: A Muslim town, 15 km south of Kardzhali, where Turkish is still spoken. It was at the centre of the name-changing campaign in the mid-1980's, when about 40 protestors were killed.

Zlatograd ('Gold Town'): A town SW of Momchilgrad, very close to the Greek border, where gold was once extracted from the river. The older part of town is signed as an Ethnographic Museum, with restored traditional houses, café, church and folk museum to visit. Over coffee and cakes, we enjoyed talking with the school's English teacher, a graduate of Sofia University. She hoped that the new border crossing (almost finished), which will link the area with Komotini in Greece, will lead to improved prosperity and tourism. There is certainly scope for more crossing points between these two EU countries.

For more information, click: Zlatograd