We had our longest day ahead, punctuated first by a couple of scenic viewpoints …
… and an unscheduled stop especially for those who had packed a swimsuit!
A medieval Ottoman bridge led to the Bënjës Thermal Baths and several of the group swam in the sulphur rich geothermal waters.
Just as the bathers were finishing, the rain refused to hold off any longer and kept us company for the rest of the day, which was made longer by a long stretch of road under repair. We finally arrived in Korcë at sunset. It was a shock to get out of the warm bus into the drizzle, but we checked at our hotel …
… and then walked down to see the bazaar. A restored traditional inn built round a courtyard with a cosy restaurant beckoned and a group of us had a great dinner in the warm!
In the morning we had a quick look round before breakfast …
… and we were particularly struck by the modern the Orthodox Resurrection Cathedral, built in 1995. The chanted responses of the service rang round the church as we looked at the murals, and the smell of incense heightened the atmosphere.
Next was nearby Voskopoje once a center of economic, cultural and artistic development and one of largest commercial towns in the Balkans. Today it’s a sleepy village and Saimir located the priest who opened up St Nicholas Church for us, where the C18th cloister murals were undergoing restoration following damage during the Communist era …
… but the saints inside were in better shape.
The C17th Monastery of St John was also undergoing repair …
… and the murals here were painted differently to any others we saw.
A couple of hours later we reached the shore of Lake Ohrid, one of Europe’s oldest and deepest lakes which straddles the border between Albania and North Macedonia. We stopped at Pogradec to stretch our legs …
… then on to Lin where we wandered round the village …
… and had lunch overlooking the water.
In the afternoon we returned to Tirana with a final stop in Elbasan, but the Ethnological Museum and church were closed so we went inside the old city walls …
… and visited the King Mosque which is one of the oldest active mosques in Albania.
Once back in Tirana, we returned to Hotel Theatro for the final night and there was a flurry of thank yous and goodbyes as we retrieved our luggage from the bus. We seemed to disperse very quickly for a group who had been together for just over a week, but many had an early start in the morning.
Others had mentioned The Hemingway Bar behind the hotel so we started our evening here, with mean daiquiris …
… then ate at Tymi … again … bumping into others who had the same idea. We all ended with one for the road at Hemingways and we are pleased we’d been part of such an interesting bunch of people.
Off Travelling Together 