This is a European Roadtrip 2019 - While we are still in the EuropeanUnion.

 

Well I mean, having it deferred until October did us no harm because I was kind of thinking that wherever we went that they might hold it against us if we had left -- you know - maybe thinking that we had somehow jumped ship and left them in the lurch -- well , after 40 odd years we kind of are aren't we.

 

Anyway, thanks to Terresa, we don't have to worry on that score any more -- we are still more than fully paid up members- by the end of this month we will have newly elected UK EU representatives.

 

So after a fairly uneventful trip from Aegina, we crossed the fairly iconic bridge from Patra to the mainland.

I love this fish eye kind of shot of this bridge - great design.

                                                  The ancient bridge of Arta

        There are times when you could be forgiven for thinking you are in Oregon, although of course the trees would be much bigger.

This is Sivota, near to Igonamitsa in north Greece and along with Parga is definitely worth a visit----

-- As is this place - not cheap, but for a little treat worth a visit

 

 

So we always wondered what the driven trip back from the wonderful Greece would be like, but also decided that if we were going to consider it then we would go via Albania, Montenegro, Croatia , Slovenia and up into Austria before Northern Italy and France, before the Eurostar to the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

I mean ,l  have in my time done many European countries working , visiting , holidaying and football -- some with Lynda and some without but I have never done a proper plotted trip through 8 countries and some of them ex soviet block and some ex Yugoslavia , all adds to a bit of originality and uniqueness, plus the spice of uncertainty and some  excitement I am sure. After all some of the places we will pass through were hardly on Thompsons bucket list for cheap European holidays a few years back.

 

 

 

Croatia and especially Dubrovnik, has been in amongst my bucket list since my Mum went there back in the 1970's, and came back with tails of history and walled castles and cities by the Adriatic coast line -- all sounded a bit special to me , as i had started travelling abroad at that time including to Greece .

 

So having spent the past 3-4 weeks, readjusting to a pace of life , ever so slightly less frenetic than the previous 3 months in the land of the Microprocessor in Ireland, and having taken care of the needy Maintenance of our " Seaside House" Kardia in Aegina , we left yesterday morning at the crack of sparrows -- although it may have been Starlings or Swallows - ( why does Amazons jump into my head ) -- via ferryboat, for pireaus / Athens , and then for the drive up to Epirus region, North Greece, before hitting the first border crossing this morning -- Sunday the 12th May.

 

 

 

Now, having gone over the items that we needed to cross the border from Greece around 4 times -- the Risk Manager in me coming out I guess, when it came to showing all the papers and in particular those for the Car, how bad was it to have that moment of panic when I could not workout what was the registration document for proof of ownership - but thankfully the Customs guy found it amongst the pile of papers that I came at him with.

 

Ok, so now we are in Albania and while the first few kilometres were pretty bland we found many spectacular views and some that were just a bit inconvenient.

 

 

 

 

 

Our main early problem had little to do with anything other than me not sorting out the sat nav properly. I mean it isn't rocket science but there is me downloading updates for Europe, not realising that A) Europe on Garmin Express , does not include Greece - You get Italy and Greece on a separate download but also B) that there isn't one for Albania and Montenegro either. Thank God that when all this technology came in that we didn't burn the maps. And I do have the added advantage of a truly experienced navigating veteran of many a road trip in Mrs A.

 

What they don't explain in any of the manuals is how when you see on the map a town that you need to go through, that you don't actually want to go down into the town because there is no way out and actually that road to the right with no sign on is the one you should have taken so we learnt the hard way.

 

They also try to trick people by turning signs to point the wrong way -- maybe they want to avoid tourists - so it took a little while to find Lezhe, where the hotel Liss is situated in the centre of town-- but after an 8 hour drive , we made it .

 

We did say that if we did the trip that we would very much try to meet up with our friend Mario, an Albanian that we had the pleasure to become friends with when he came to work in Aegina in around 2010.

 

He took us out of town to a restaurant called Mriza I Zanavo, which is an amazing place that is very traditional , cooks mostly local dishes and was a restaurant that Rick Stein did on one of his travels through the Balkans to Istanbul. Great choice Rick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  It was a meze of cheeses, preservatives and pork kebabs, and game bird specialities.

 

The owners were amazing and we now have jars of specialities that we are adding to the car , as a gift to us.

 

Got to try to see if we can get this wine anywhere as it was superb - great recommendation Mario.

 
Below is security -- or main course - depending on your point of view.

 

Lots of interesting buildings and cant do a trip without some churches.

 

 Lots of these bee hives around so |Lynda bought 2 jars of local honey -- they had an actual spinning of the honey from the hives in the restaurant-- and it tastes delicious.

 

We went down into Vlore which is one that has no exit , so if you need to move on avoid going down into it

 

And lastly for now -- we need to find out what this building was -- I think it may have been the government building for Enver Hoxha the dictator for over 40 years -- as it is on the outskirts of Tirana, but we will see.

 

A great start to the trip and we are surviving so far.