Month: July 2019

Wednesday, 24th July 2019

Well we are not allowed to leave, Jozo and Gerry are not yet finished with reminiscing and Adriana wants to show us more of her beloved city, Graz!

We slept well and as this apartment is in a 130 year old building the walls are thick and hence quite cool indoors while it’s like a furnace outdoors during the day. So our nights are very pleasant without even having air conditioning in the apartment.

Breakfast was very Austrian, rolls, and the real original croissant and home made jams….. and coffee.

After breakfast Adriana planned a walk around the Old Town – it’s great that everything is within walking distance from the apartment and although we left early, it was already quite hot even though we chose to walk most of the time on the shady side of the street.

Our first stop was at the Opera House, a beautiful structure but as Adriana explained, it was built during the Austro Hungary Empire in 1899 and it seemed that at that time, there was only one model, the neo -baroque style as the same type of opera house can be found in Budapest and Vienna…….

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We continued our walk to the Dom (Cathedral) and the Mausoleum, however as there is some Reno action work going on in the Cathedral, it was not open. We did go into the Mausoleum and were astonished with the grandeur…….

Emperor Ferdinand II held his court in Graz and in 1614, he commissioned his Italian court painter and architect to erect a Mausoleum next to the St Catherine’s Church, however by the time he died, the Mausoleum was only half complete……

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On our walk around we also came to an old square – The Graz Town Crown – the monumental buildings ensemble around the Graz Castle and known as the Town Crown. An interesting feature here was the double spiral staircase erected in 1499/1500.

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Our next stop was the Landeszeughaus, the Styria Armoury which stretches from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Styria was a very turbulent region in Austria and was continuously afflicted with armed raids and military conflicts with Hungarian rebels and the Ottoman Empire. However on our way, I noticed a sign leading to the Glockenspiel and as it was nearly 11 am, we made our way to the pretty square and sat down for a coffee while waiting for the two figurines to come out and dance up in the table – of course the figurines depict a young maiden and a lad dressed in local costume, the lad having a beer in his hand while the girl a tea towel – the reason for this that in the old days, women were not allowed to drink in public….. it was really a pretty site and quite a number of tourists gathered for this show…..

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Finally we reached the Armoury and I must say there was a lot to see. We took the elevator to the fourth floor and made our way down through the big rooms filled with historic armouries – there are some 32,000 pieces ranging from swords, pistols, complete armouries to protect horses and various guns.

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By the time we were finished with our tour, we were ready to walk back home for lunch. Jozo had prepared a really tasty goulash and mixed salad. After lunch it was siesta time as later on towards the evening we would be visiting a park before going off for dinner.

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In total we walked well over 7km which is quite some distance when it was such hot weather, so in the evening we took the tram to Lechwald – here we strolled around the pond filled with ducks and at the end enjoyed a glass of wine on the terrace of a lively restaurant before catching the tram again to go to the restaurant, Gasthaus Klamminger, close to Jozo and Adriana’s apartment and having all sorts of mushrooms as it’s speciality – we had battered egg sponge mushrooms on a bed of mixed salad. At first I thought it was not enough as we were ravenous – so ravenous that I forgot to take some pictures…….. well we ended our dinner with home made schnapps and that I did take a picture.

Tomorrow we will be continuing our homeward bound journey – some 600km into Germany, halfway to home…….

Monday, 22nd July 2019

This will be a short blog today as we spent most of the day in the car travelling from Nis in Serbia to Velica Gorica in Croatia – some 645 km which originally should have taken us some 6 hours.

We had a good night’s rest and woke up again to a beautiful view of the square below – it’s Monday morning and now instead of only tourists walking leisurely around, I actually saw people going to work……

After a great breakfast at our hotel, we were ready to go – 10.30 we were in the car driving through a not too busy Nis and were quickly on the motorway towards Belgrade. And this is when Gerry clocked the 250,000 km stand on the Range Rover! Fingers crossed the grand old lady will bring us safely home…….

The scenery along the motorway was of arable land filled with corn, sunflower, and fruit trees that could have been peaches or nectarines.

After driving some 2 hours we stopped for coffee and to fill the car. The fuel pump attendant made us aware that there was something loose under the front of the bumper so we parked the Range Rover on the grass so that Gerry could see and fix the problem – and his only tool to fix the loose cover was a wooden stirring stick for the coffee….. and we were on our way again!

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Serbia is also a very fertile country and not at all densely populated till we reached the outskirts of Belgrade – the road network has improved drastically according to Gerry who has done this trip quite often many years ago and in those days he had to drive through the city itself. Now we just could take a sidelong glance at this huge city along the confluence of the rivers Danube and Sava with a population of well over 1.23 million.

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At around 2.30 pm we arrived at the state border with Croatia and this time we only had two queues of several cars while the lorries queue was some 3km long……… 10 minutes later we were driving in Croatia and had some 276 km to our destination.

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On the way we decided to stop and have some lunch – and yes you may guess it, the fast food which is local is Cevapcici and that’s what we ordered with a fresh mixed salad – all this at a local restaurant just off the motorway.

While we were sitting enjoying lunch, we saw constantly people with huge empty plastic jerrycans walking past and then later walking back again filled with water. So I decided to investigate – these people were cycling down from the neighbourhood and filling up their jerrycans with water coming from a spring which was further along on the restaurants premises. Apparently the restaurant owner discovered this spring on his land and built a fountain for it where people could get their water. As I understood from one of the locals, this water was very healthy so convinced by the many people filling their jerrycans, I decided to fill a few water bottles too! Judging by the luscious garden, this water must be really good!

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When we finished our lunch, we bought some peaches, nectarines and shelled walnuts at a fruit seller just outside the restaurant and they smelt ever so sweet – as we had a late lunch, I don’t think we would be having any dinner when we arrive at our hotel in Velika Gorica so the fruit and walnuts would make a healthy snack in the evening.

Within one and a half hours we arrived at hotel – Hotel Time – just on the outskirts of Zagreb. Modern trendy hotel but hardly any guests when we arrived at 6.30 pm……..well we planned to hang around the hotel and after settling in our room and getting onto our social media, we went down to the hotel’s bar to enjoy a cocktail on the terrace. Our relax moments were cut short as the sand flies starting biting so we had to go back indoors. But we did witness a beautiful sunset sky…….

We had an early night – tomorrow we do t have a long drive to Graz – some 2.5 hours where we are meeting with Gerry’s old Croatian friend, Jozo and his wife. They have invited us to stay over with them so I guess there will be a lot of reminiscing about the old days……

Saturday 20th July and Sunday 21st July, 2019

Another sunny beach day today! We had planned to meet George and Athena at 10.30 on the hotel beach front – actually George told us yesterday evening that as he would be walking the dog early in the morning, he would pass by and “reserve” our sun beds and parasols – second row from the shore line as the first row is always occupied by families with little kids…..

When we had finished breakfast, we got changed for the beach and went down and did find our “reserved” seats……. had to laugh about this as I remember the days when my children were small and when holidaying in Tenerife, I would send them down to reserve our seats as otherwise all the German tourists would have taken all the best seats and only appear later in the morning…….

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Both George and Athena are sportive swimmers and while we were paddling around enjoying the sea, they took it in turns to swim breast stroke long stretches for about an hour!

We were invited for lunch again at the same restaurant we went last night so round about 2 pm , we left the beach and walked to the restaurant – our table was laid under the green foliage of olive trees and it was really refreshing.

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George went back to their home to pick up their dog, Vivi, a mongrel white Labrador and ever so cute. She is like a child to them and actually they do treat her that way!

Again we enjoyed a lovely meal of Greek salad, tzatziki, taramsalata, eggplant salad, grilled octopus and then grilled fish which was translated into English as Godfish……… we couldn’t recognize it but it was ever so tasty!

After lunch we went back to the beach to have our siesta there while George, Athena and Vivi went back to their own summer home – we would be meeting them again this evening at their home for snacks and drinks.

We fell asleep on the beach and was only woken up by little kids who decided to have a quarrel about their sand castle which they built right next to my sun bed. Anyway it was time to have another swim…… by 7pm we went up to our room to shower and get ready to visit with the Samoutis.

The evening was delightful and Athena had prepared quite a few Greek snacks which we enjoyed outdoors. Their son Theo spent some time with us before leaving with his friends. Gerry’s friendship with these people goes a long way and I could see their genuine care for him and extending their hospitality to me too.

By midnight we had to say our goodbyes, as tomorrow we have to have an early start – driving through Northern Macedonia and into Serbia where we would be staying overnight in Nis – a town south of Belgrade.

Sunday morning we were up on time – it’s going to be a long travel day… after breakfast we were ready and packed and no to do was to pick up the olive oil which we had ordered at the restaurant yesterday afternoon.

By 9.30 am we were on our way – first to pick up the olive oil and then started driving. Our program for today was to reach Nis in Serbia – that was estimated by TomTom at 460km taking some 4.40 hrs. We had been warned that the border crossing would take quite some time however being a Sunday, we would not have the lorries and so have a smooth border crossing.

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At 11.15 we stopped at the last fuel station in Greece and filled up the car with diesel and had a coffee and till then we had had a very smooth drive ….. till we were 2 km from the border to North Macedonia and we got into a traffic jam!!

It took us 2 hrs and 10 minutes till we finally crossed into Northern Macedonia and just over the border, there were many casinos which apparently lots of Greeks are visiting – you must be quite addicted to gambling if you would want to forfeit 2 hours of waiting at the border……

Back on the road which was good but again very empty but also the countryside we went through was empty if villages….. hardly any houses or farms till we crossed to Serbia at 15.15 . However here at the border we waited some 45 minutes to get through and all the while there were Roma gypsy beggars coming along the cars begging for money. A very sad sight…….

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My thoughts went back to the days some 5 years ago when there was a big influx of refugees along these borders as they made their way to Northern Europe. It must have been terrible – we only saw those scenes on TV!

The motorway in Serbia is excellent and very new – some parts out TomTom navigation system could not recognize the road and kept telling us to turn left (into a ravine) or right (into a mountainside).

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Well we reached Nis by 18.15 and although I had read a bit about this third largest city of Serbia, I missed reading that it is the birthplace of Constantine the Great!

Via Booking.com I had booked us into the Best Western, however we were upgraded at no cost to us to the Ambassador which is more luxurious and our room on the 7th floor gave us a picturesque view of the square.

Besides all the luxury amenities in this hotel, I had the best Wi-Fi connection ever – hence we remained in the lobby and treated ourselves to a cocktail while I updated my blogs of the last few days. When we finally went up to our room, it was only to take in the view and leave our overnight luggage and then we were outdoors again.

The city is lively with loads of people strolling around on a Sunday evening. We made our way to the fortress and took a look around but I was dismayed that such a historical site is covered in graffiti and kids clamber over Byzantine ruins as though they were climbing in a playground construction……. we took in the sites and then strolled down to “Tinkers” Street where late 18th century houses and shops were constructed to house smiths, cobblers and other manual labour shops. Now it’s all bars, cafes and restaurants and we ended up at the far end and had a simple Serbian meal of Cevaps and salad.

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By the time we returned to the hotel we were both dead tired and we appreciated a good bed and pillow…….

Friday,19th July 2019

Today we had had a leisure day – woke up about 9.00 am and had breakfast in the hotel. Hotel Mavridis is a family run hotel right on the beach hence we had breakfast listening to the waves rand rippling on the sandy beach, while the sun beds and sun shades were being set right to welcome the first guests.

This morning I wasn’t in the mood to spend the day on the beach but rather go on a sightseeing drive in the neighbourhood. We are at the most northern part of Chalkidiki – a region known for its three jutting peninsulas – Nea Plagia is situated some 20 km before the bridge that attaches the peninsula of Kassandra to the mainland. The other two peninsulas are Sithonia in the middle and Athos most east.
We drove for a while along the coastline but then we went off on a local road and arrived to what seemed like a canal. On one side – on the Aegean Sea, there was a small shipyard for yachts and fishing boats while on the other side, also the Aegean Sea, where we finally stopped, there was a pretty little marina with fishing boats and pleasure boats.

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We then crossed the bridge to get the view of the mainland from the peninsula side and enjoyed watching boats go by……

By then it was time to have some refreshment and as we walked along the beach, we stopped at Mykonos Sea Side cafe and restaurant – very pretty and trendy and here we enjoyed a refreshing glass of fresh orange juice and cold water.

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Here we also saw how life was before the bridge was built and how a ferry was used to cross the little sea canal.

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After our little expedition, it was time to return to Nea Plagia and go for a swim……. the water was beautiful, calm, clean and refreshing. We spent a few hours swimming and relaxing under the sun shade, watching the different hawkers passing by and attracting people to buy their wares: plastic pegs, chains, necklaces, dresses, sneakers and doughnuts and boiled fresh corn on the cob – that last one is what I succumbed to – I had to get one as I just love fresh corn on the cob and here it’s presented salted…….. mmmmm…….. delicious!

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Later in the afternoon we went up to our room to shower and relax – our internet connection doesn’t work too well and I was somewhat frustrated that I could not add my pictures to my blog ……..
This evening we were invited by Gerry’s good friend George to go out for a meal together with his wife Athena. We met George at the hotel and he was genuinely pleased to meet up with Gerry again after five years.his wife joined us somewhat later and we made our way to a restaurant just a couple of hundred meters away from the hotel. We were invited to a simple but ever so delicious seafood and fish meal accompanied by a fine local Sauvignon blanc wine. The company and food were great this evening!

By the time we got back to our hotel it was gone 12.30 and we agreed to meet up with George and Athena tomorrow morning on the beach for a good swim and relax time before lunch.

Wednesday, 3rd July, 2019

After a good night’s rest, we woke up in a sunny cool room – from our balcony I could see that the lady of the manor, Chrisoulia, had laid a number of tables ready for breakfast, below in the shady patio.
Of course Gerry had to have his first smoke of the day on our terrace while I got ready. It’s such a good feeling that we are remaining in Galaxidi for another night…….

Yesterday evening, both Maria and Gordon gave us some good information about Galaxidi’s history and what we should do this morning before we met them in the afternoon at the beach club – a visit to the Nautical museum was on top of our list.

Anyway, we first went downstairs for our breakfast – the charming Chrisoulia served us first fresh fruit and fresh orange juice and got our coffee ready. She then brought us an array of home made jams and chutneys to accompany her home made cheese and vegetable pie and her sweet lemon curd pie and various bread slices and rolls. As this was not enough, Chrisoulia asked us if we would like Greek yoghurt with honey and any types of eggs. We did want the yoghurt but we declined the eggs – there was so much food on our table.

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Well after breakfast we remained a while downstairs on the patio having a conversation with Chrisoulia – she runs Mira Mare practically on her own – she prepares breakfast and gets the rooms cleaned and ready for her new guests.

Once upstairs again, we got ourselves ready to go walking around but only after I had finished updating my blog with yesterday’s activities. I’m glad we really do have a very good Wi-Fi in place – uploading pictures and publishing yesterday’s blog was as easy as pie…….

Our walk about took us along the port where beautiful sailing boats were moored and getting ready to go out sailing, while the fishing boats were back again after their early morning fishing trips. We followed the signs leading to the Nautical Museum and again we had to walk uphill away from the port.

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The temperature was slowly increasing and as we got away from the port, we just got hotter and hotter…….. we tried walking in the shade but there not many trees to provide this so we were really glad to get to the air conditioned museum. This was a very interesting museum as Galaxidi has a nautical background for many centuries. Of course the theme of the museum is close to Gerry’s heart – everything that has to do with ships, tools and sails interest him tremendously, so it took us quite a while to go through the museum.

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When we were outdoors again, we made our way to the second harbour – without knowing it, we walked past Maria’s house as we went past the church and then slowly down the steep hill to the second bay. It was interesting to see how most houses have been renovated and all of them having a wooden balcony on the first floor to catch the breeze.

When we reached the bay, we took a break and sat for a while in the shade admiring the tranquil view.

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Before we walked along the shore line, we took a break on the wall and then were ready to find out more about this peaceful nautical village of Galaxidi. It was interesting to note that some of the houses were actually built on the the old stone fortifications which date back to many centuries ago when Galaxidi was a seafaring town and had to defend itself from the many invaders starting with the Bulgarians, followed by the Norman invasions in the early 11th Century; the Crusaders and then came under the Ottoman Rule where the town flourished due to maritime trade. Building sailing ships was key to Galaxidi and it seems nowadays most people living in this town had something to do with the nautical life even though Galaxidi never moved from sailing ships to motorized vessels.

However what has remained in Galaxidi to remind us of its nautical history, is that every house has a name and number on a tile depicted with a sailing ship ………

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Once we were back in the port, we found loads of cafes and restaurants and by this time it was getting quite busy. We decided to stop for a drink and Gerry suggested we have ouzo accompanied by typical Greek snacks. That was just right as although we had a great breakfast, we were feeling a bit pecking but not enough to have a proper lunch.

Anyway sitting at this cafe, drinking ouzo, and watching the tranquility in front of us, I was transported to the time (like nearly a half century ago!!) when I was living in Crete – Agios Nicolaos – I now have fallen in love with Galaxidi!!! This town brought back many happy memories of my adventure in Crete together with my good friends Jude and Iain……..

After a short siesta, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the local beach club just down the road from Mira Mare and where we met up with Maria and Gordon as well as her friend Magda. We had a lovely time swimming and chatting and made plans that we visit Maria and Gordon that evening at their home followed by dinner.

In the evening we strolled up the hill where Gordon met us at the church and showed us the way to Villa Baby – Maria’s parental home which she has renovated over the years – such a lovely place!

Of course we had to take some pictures and fix this lovely catch up after nearly 7 years when we were working together ABNAMRO

And another picture of Gerry and me!

After enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony together with some snacks prepared by Maria’s daughter (was it Eva or Faye?), we left for the restaurant where we met up once again with Magda. The girls also dropped by to say hello -and good bye – we had our last delicious Greek meal in Galaxidi ! Besides having different dishes, the turbot that Gerry ordered was just fantastic – Magda did the honours of serving it – pity I had had sardines as I just couldn’t eat so much……

It was a lovely evening with friends who have become dear to us! Hopefully we will meet again soon!

Tomorrow we will be driving down to Saronida x our final destination and the end of our road trip…….

Tuesday 2nd July, 2019

This morning we woke up on time as this was going to be a travel day. We are getting closer to our destination – Saronida – but first to drive over 400km to Galaxidi on the northern side of the Gulf of Corinth where we are meeting an old ABNAMRO colleague and friend, Maria Logiopoulou.

Breakfast was again served on the rooftop terrace and it was a pleasure sitting in the shade watching swimmers, sunbathers and boats all active down on the beach. After breakfast we collected our stuff from our room and got ourselves ready to hit the road again. We said our goodbyes and chatted about our route with the owner’s son who had reception desk duty. He surprised us with a little gift to take with us – mountain tea and dried oregano . He so admired our travelling spirit and he said he would follow us on my blog. We had a lovely time at the Royal Saranda Hotel as we were made to feel at home here. Even the restaurant owner from next door came to say good bye and wished us a safe journey – my communication with him was in Italian since yesterday evening…….

So according to our TomTom in the car, we were leaving Sarandë round 10.30 and arriving in Galaxidi at 16.30 – I was shocked as that meant we would be driving for 6 hours but obviously I forgot that theaters is an hour difference with Greek time.

The road in Albania was easy going with hardly any traffic – lucky for us we left the mountains behind us or rather we were travelling alongside the mountains curving our way around the agricultural fertile plains.

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Within 45 minutes we reached the Albanian-Greek border where we stopped for coffee and planned our route further to Galaxidi. We picked up the motorway at Igoumenitsa which is a harbour town and quite busy.

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As soon as we were on the road again, we had a fantastic motorway all to ourselves. No traffic, no maniac car drivers and no heavy lorries – but the toll fees were quite hefty – in total we paid over €15,00 for the whole trip down to the point where we left the motorway to drive further to Galaxidi. No wonder Greece has a great deficit – these roads were built by German and Italian companies but there is hardly any toll income from these motorways as they are not optimized! Our motorway ended just outside Patras where we got a very good view of the bridge crossing the Gulf of Corinth.

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Driving on the secondary road, we had both coastline and some mountain road and I must say it was all very scenic. We decidedto make a quick pit stop at Nafpaktos, a historical strategic naval station controlling access to the Gulf of Corinth. This town with huge bastions changed hands many times during the Crusades and the Ottoman- Venetian wars.

We went for a short stroll along the inner harbour where beautiful sailing boats were moored and decide to have a coffee for me and ice cream for Gerry at the local cafe.

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When we were back on the road we only had to drive for 45 minutes along the coastline and once again we had very delightful scenery . Once in Galaxidi contacted my friend Maria and we made plans to meet that same evening and go for dinner .

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Galaxidi is another fascinating nautical village and in its grand days built some 100 sea faring ships. We will have to find out more about its history when we visit the museum.

We are staying at a really lovely privately run hotel – Mira Mare x it’s delightful! And we do actually see the sea from our balcony

And we ended our evening with getting to know Maria’s family – her lovely daughter’s, Eva and Faye and her charming husband Gordon x we will be seeing them again tomorrow!

Monday, 1st. July, 2019

I was woken up early this morning as we had left the curtains open and as dawn was breaking, I heard quite some activity down on the beach. I went out on our balcony and saw quite a few local senior citizens making their way to the beach for their early morning swim! As the sun rose behind the mountains, our side of the beach changed its colour to a golden shade. Soon the elderly community on the beach had changed their gear and were in the sea for their swim and chat………

Also just across on the right side of the beach, there is a small port and there are ferry boats and hydrofoils (Flying Dolphins) to cross over to Corfu which just lies outside the bay of Sarandë. These ferries start early morning and continue all day and are both for foot passengers as well as cars.

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It’s a good thing we are spending 2 nights here in Sarandë. The hotel where we are staying is called the Royal Sarandë Hotel run by an Albanian family who live in London and come down by car in May and stay on till October. Their son and daughter also help run the hotel during their school vacations, managing the reception desk as well as breakfast.

After having coffee on our balcony, we went upstairs to the hotel’s roof terrace where a full breakfast was being served – such a delight to enjoy breakfast while admire the view from up here. Today we were going to do some sightseeing first and then close off the day by relaxing on the beach and having a swim

Our plan for today was to visit the “Blue Eye” – a natural wonder some half an hour away from Saranda and then onto Gjirokaster, an Ottoman historical town with Ali Pasha’s castle sitting on top of the hill towering over the grey slated town.

The Blue Eye – in Albanian, Sryi I Kalter, is a water spring and a natural phenomenon which has become a popular tourist attraction. The clear icy blue water of the river bubbles out of a depth of more than 50 meters – although divers have gone down to a depth of 50 meters, it is not known exactly how deep this spring karst hole is as divers have been pushed upwards when trying to go down deeper………. this spring is the source of the River Bistricë which flows 25 km further into the Ionian Sea near Sarandë. Although swimming is forbidden due to the swift current there were quite a few young people dared to get into the freezing water to have a swim. Well we only dipped our feet for a while……..

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It was great sitting for a while in the shade of the huge sycamore trees while enjoying a coffee and a glass of icy cold spring water, however after some time we did get back into the car to continue our drive to Gjirokaster – another hour in the car winding through the mountainous roads till we reached our destination.

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We must have been quite crazy as we started our walk around in the middle of the day when the sun is most hot – I felt the sun burning my legs as I stood still to take some pictures. Anyway our first stop was at the tourist office where I bought a marked up map. Our main visit was to wander around this old Ottoman town – UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city appears in historical records dating back to 1336 and was known by its Greek name: Argyokastro when it was part of the Byzantine Empire. However it fell under Ottoman rule in 1417 and remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1913 when it was incorporated into the newly formed Albania.

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The climb up to the castle was exhausting. – but well worth it and we spent quite some time exploring the site. The view was overwhelming!

I had also read that during the last dictator’s rule (Hoxha) there were tunnels dug under the castle to house his bunkers and this was so secretive that they were only discovered later in the 1990’s. It was too hot to go deep down under the castle so we just take it for granted that these tunnels do exist.

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By the time we arrived back at our hotel, we had enough energy to get changed and go for a swim. The sea water was rather refreshing, sometimes cold but good to have a swim alternated with lying on the pebbly beach to feel the warm sun rays. We stayed till the sun disappeared behind the buildings on the west side – this is the first time we did not see a proper sunset ……

Back in our room, time to shower and go out for a meal – too tired to go looking around so we decided to have dinner at the restaurant next door to the hotel – and it was delicious -Gerry had his steak and I had linguine con frutti di mare and a salad to share – of course Gerry had to have his vanilla ice cream as his dessert!

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I could hardly keep myself awake while Gerry ate his ice cream so you can imagine how happy I was to just walk a few steps to our hotel and crash into bed…….

To,orrow it’s going to be a long, long day driving – Sarandë to Galaxidi a distance of more than 400km.