A weekend trip to the southern seacoast and ruins in Albania

As the New York Times and USA Today have written, Albania is the new hot spot for travel. Typically they are highlighting the western coastline on the Ionian Sea. The barren mountains cascading down to the shore are impressive. The two lane road to take you over the mountain is not for the faint of heart.

Does the driver look like he is having fun yet?

We headed to the small village of Dhermi. Not much is open until mid July. The summer season is six weeks long! Yes, short season given that the weather is fabulous here for six months. Today, March 14th is a national Albanian holiday called "Summer Day"! Go figure.
We stayed at a brand new hotel, Splendor. Complete with a pool, spa and lovely quick walk, through an old olive grove to this wonderful cove.

www.hotelsplendor.al        355696086069 cell

email: info@hotelsplendor.al

Had to put in this one day old black lamb with mama

Had to include the blue plastic bag in the lower left hand corner...the worst thing to enter Albania!

I'm no geologist but this hardened bunch of rocks is everywhere

Walk to the beach through the olive grove from the hotel. With Peter is Glen Wright, a friend from Kiev.

Nice end to the day!

On Sunday we ventured back up north toward Tirana but stopped outside the city of Fier. Everyone makes the play on words that "I live in Fier!".

As a side bar, for those living in Albania, you might want to take a diversion on the highway between Fier and Lushnja to the tiny town of Ardenica. On top of the hill you will find an 18th century Orthodox Monastery and the Church of St. Mary. There are very good frescoes and an ornate pulpit.

This set of photos shows the ruins of Apollonia that we visited, just outside Fier.
Founded by the Greeks in 588 BC, this was center for Greco-Roman learning. Julius Ceasar and Emperor Augustus visited this city.
 It is relatively untouched. There is much excavation to be done but still amazing to see this city that has remnants of civilization that date back to 12,000 BC. Imagine items from the iron age. Here are a few items from the museum...

7th Century BC

3rd Century BC

3rd Century AD

These are 1st Century BC. You captured your tears for the dead and buried the vessel with the deceased person.

13th Century Monastery and the Shen Meri Church

This city was on the water and items like these pillars came over from Western Europe as adornment 

Apollonia was strategically located over looking a wide fertile plain for growing crops. There was a wide river through the agricultural fields, set back from the sea as protection but a river wide enough to allow large vessels to access the city. Finally there was a bustling trade route at their back door to Turkey and Asia.

Plenty of work to be done to uncover the wealth of remains under the earth

This is Peter with the Mayor of Fier. He is one of the 15 mayors that are part of Peter's project.

This Roman gravestone lists the wife and husband married for many years and then it says that they were so in love that they never had an argument!

Unbelievable 4 hour fish lunch with Fier government officials in our own little room. Every time the large plate of grilled fish was running low, another full plate arrived. This restaurant is at the end of the road to the beach from Apollonia.

Just playing the good Albanian wife for all those men!

This was another wonderful weekend of beauty, comfort, antiquity and friendship!