'An Inspector Calls'. Gavin pops into a local Cadastre office to see how it is running. He was very impressed. Such a special occasion merits the wearing of a suit. Well done, Gavin...











The rooms full of archives will hopefully one day be replaced by a couple of folders on a computer.











Here you can see the belfry of the monastery atop the mountain from which it is hewn. Look beneath the belfry and to the left and you will see a slit in the rock which is another cave. the rocks all around this area are riddled with such caves, many of which were 'home' to monks.

In the front door...

...and out the back. Mind your step, now. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see Tatiana following the tradition of placing a coin in a crack of the wall, and making a wish. I think she must have been wishing that a fence would suddenly appear behind her... Guess who took the photo, teetering on the edge of the rock at the far end? Health and Safety?

A solitary monk checks the candles inside the monastery.

Gavin tries out a 'fishing chair' on the journey. And yes, he really did walk along that rickety old bridge.

Bedrooms, Flintstone style. I expect the 15th century monks were so exhausted after carving out this place with their bare hands that they didn't care where they slept.

You need to be a shortie to stand up here. Maybe the monks were permanently stooped after carving out the monastery on hands and knees. Peggy here with Sjoerd Vogelzang, the Dutch guy who took us out yesterday (and whose company paid for the winery tour on Friday).

An old lady, one of many seen on our journey. Often they are sat around in twos and threes having a natter.

Just in case anybody cares or wonders where the blog went, we have been experiencing some serious problems with uploading photos from the camera to the computer. It all started after we upgraded our Norton anti-virus software. Lesson learnt. After a total of 4 hours' online support (2.5 yesterday and 1.5 today) we now have photos, though not via HP photosmart as before. Ah well. I am now heartily sick of cameras and photos, but will upload a few pics just for you in spite of that. Some show Gavin 'at work' in one of the local cadastre offices and the others are from a day trip on Sunday to a place called Orheiul Vechi where we went into a tiny monastery literally carved into a hill. We went in one side of the hill and out the other. All I can say is those monks must have had a few blisters...not to mention bedsores, when you see the pictures of the Flintstone-style 'bedrooms'. Enjoy. This afternoon I will redeem the rest of my day by going out and taking more pictures. After that I might throw my camera away...