Another day another climb. Different today though. Normally we have been doing a lot of up and down. Today there was just one up and one down. A short day but with spectacular views of the coast. Sharita, one of our tour leaders had the room next to me last night and as we were going to our rooms she commented on the great view we had from our rooms of the climb. She was right, from my window you could easily see sections of the road. The climb was a little over 3,000 feet which is not so bad but it was continuous without and break in the climb. No relief on the way up. But, great views of the coast all the way up.
Albania has not been that different than Greece so fay except that maybe the plumbing in the rooms is a bit better. There are more animals on the roads though. Cows, sheep, goats, dogs, donkeys, in particular donkeys. They are everywhere. Another difference is that Albanian drivers love the horns on their vehicles. There seem to be three categories of honking. First, these are narrow roads and a lot of drivers honk to let you know they are behind you. Second, there is honking to say hi with a big wave, and third there is honking to say get off the road, bicycles do not belong in Albania. We experience some of all three each day. I guess it is ok but when a multi-ton truck hits there horn and you are riding lost in thought it can certainly shake you up. One other thing we are seeing now is bunkers along the road and in the hills. I don’t know which war they were for but they are a regular sight along our route.
We are staying at another beach hotel. It is not yet tourist season and although it must be soon since everyone is busy getting things set up, right now most of the hotels are relatively empty and the beaches only have a handful of people on them. It is a beautiful coastline so I suspect Summer is very busy.
