On Lake Ohrid

We had a nice breakfast of porridge oats, seeds and fruit as well as some olives, padron peppers and cucumber. The breakfast room was on the top floor with stunning views of the lake and town.

We walked the 10-15 minutes along the prom to meet the guide and then take a very relaxed 1.5 hour boat trip almost the length of the Lake Ohrid. En route we went by what had been Tito’s summer mansion, now for government officials. The boat was quite busy with families as schools are closed for elections. The guide expects a move to the right “as the country is ready for a change”.

Further along the lake we stopped at a jetty at a large hotel and took on a large group of elderly Brits. One chap who sat by us said there were 41 on a large bus with I think Titan tour company. He did not sound impressed.

From the boat we also saw a reconstruction of a pre-historic wooden village built on stilts on the site where the original had been discovered by divers.

We disembarked at a UNESCO site, the Monastery of St Naum, about half a kilometre from the Albania border. Peacocks (and hens) have the run of the place and there were warning signs about the danger to children. Apparently St Naum performed many miracles and used a bear behind a plough to teach it a lesson. Most of the buildings are a hotel now but the 13th century small chapel with interesting frescoes is still used.

We saw the place the springs gave out onto the lake and walked over a bridge to have a nice lunch of an enormous salad, a slice of filo pie and some fried aubergines to share. Mr C had a beer and I had a very nice crisp dry white wine. We enjoyed the company of Glaswegian Steve who did social work with young people in care. If I say by comparison Shuggie Bain had it easy you can imagine what kind of issues he dealt with. When I checked the bill I discovered we had been overcharged by £12. We were a few minutes late to the bus while it was satisfactorily sorted out.

Our minibus met us at the monastery car park then drove us up the mountain to around 1600m for a view back over the lake which now was in dramatic cloud. We continued over the col to drop down to Lake Prespa which in surrounded by Albania, north Macedonia and Greece. We stopped for a walk down to the lake at a large restaurant sitting on its own overlooking the lake. After a walk we had a delicious coffee before boarding the bus for the 1 hour drive back to Ohrid, arriving at 5pm.

I’m sorry I’m not getting round to responding to your kind comments on my blips or even comment on yours but we are kept busy!