A decison on route to the Volvo World Match-Play Championship to spend two days in Sofia, and the capital of Bulgaria, turned into a visit full of surprise and spendour.

Sofia is the largest city in Bulgaria with the nearby Vistosha Mountains dominating the skyline. The history of the city spans some 2,400 years with more than 95% of the inhabitants ethnic Bulgarians, and making this city of some 1.3m people not only the 15th largest in the Eurpean Union but the most ethnically homogenous city in Bulgaria.

What is surprising the numerous items of interest.  There is some fantastic buildings, old churches and even a stunning reminder of the time when Bulgaria was under Communist rule from 1944 to 1989.

If fact, after WW2 the Communist control led to the architectural line being substantially altered with Stalinist Gothic public buildings emerging and that is clearly apparent wandering the many streets of the city.

But then after the abolition of Communism in 1989, Sofia has witnessed the construction of whole business districts and neighbourhoods, as well as modern skryscraper-like glass-fronted office buildings.

However what is noticeable for tourists is the cheapness of goods and services.   A taxi ride from Sofia Airport is less than 20 Bulgarian Levi – 8 UK Pound while a decent evening meal with trimmings and a few glasses of local Bulgarian beer will cost you around 50 Levi – 20 Pound.

And there’s bargins galore when it comes to clothing and footware, and all less than a £100 return flight from London.

Here is the first selection of photographs from our arrival into Sofia.

*Click to open photographs and click again to enlarge.