retiredmartin

May 2024. Berat. Albania.

The first afternoon of our Albanian trip took us to Berat (pop. 30,000 and falling), a town seemingly existing on German tourists arriving on the excellent coastal road in cars and coaches parked at the entrance to the castle walls, then heading straight to the restaurant with the best view.

I almost felt guilty to have made Mrs RM walk the steep cobbled streets to the top, but Berat is in my Top 10 of Places You Wouldn’t Want to Drive (less still reverse down).

A surprising number of youthful tourists, particularly young couples, so perhaps rural (as opposed to beachy) Albania’s time has come, though I didn’t see many takers for the carpets,

or for the steepest stretch of the climb to Holy Trinity Orthodox Church.

Time for a beer here, our first bottled Elbar of the trip, in the company of lizards (top).

I reckon it probably tastes better in a sunny, scented, beer garden with a view like this;

than it would in a Wetherspoons back home.

I made Mrs RM do the walk to the viewpoint.

Berat is all about those views from the castle to the river. The famous “Thousand windows” in the rock at the bottom didn’t make quite such an impression.

Perhaps we should popped back to see them at sunset,

but Mrs RM had done her 20,000 steps, all uphill, and just wanted an early night #OLD.

But not before sharing a £1.75 can (!) of Elbar by the Old Bridge,

and then sending me out to the Co-op for a packet of crisps. In Albania, as in Sheffield.