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Day 12

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The number of museum and exhibitions in Vienna is overwhelming. And so it the number of tourists. With so little time here, we had to make choices. We decided to go to the Austrian Museum of Applied and Modern Art (MAK) in the morning. It turned out to be a great choice – a fantastic museum with a good mix of exhibits from their permanent collection of 18th-19th century design, arts and crafts, including some great art nouveau items, and several very contemporary exhibitions as part of the 2017 Vienna Biennale. The way the exhibitions/objects were installed was very innovative and most impressive, e.g. the art nouveau chairs were first presented as shadows from behind a screen and a beautiful collection of Persian rugs was suspended on thin wires as a reference to silk threads produced by silk worms. The Biennale exhibitions were also extremely interesting and thought-provoking. One was called “Hello Robot. Design Between Human and Machine”, and included fascinating examples of modern ...
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Day 11

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After breakfast we took a narrated city tour on a hop-on-hop-off bus. It had two separate routes covering different parts of the city. The second tour we took, we got off at Schönbrunn Palace, which is a former imperial summer residence. The 1,441-room baroque palace is an architectural wonder, and a huge tourist attraction. We decided not to visit the palace because its size overwhelmed us so just walked around the beautiful gardens and admired it from the outside. Our next stop was the two Belvedere palaces, the upper and the lower palace, which were built in the early eighteenth century. There they house the largest collection of Klimt works. We saw their permanent collection with the room of Klimt most famous painting jammed with people. The famous painting “The Kiss” is so popular that they actually put a copy of it in a separate room so people can take pictures of themselves with the painting there -- there is even a sign that says “copy for selfies”. We also saw a special ex...
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Day 10

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After breakfast and a walk along the beach (not very nice) we left the wonderful Palace hotel for the airport. The airport is nice. After a short flight we arrived at Vienna around 6 pm. Quite a contrast from Albania. Our 5 star hotel (Sans Souci) is nice. After some raki we set out to explore. We walked through Hofburg to St. Stephan’s cathedral and many shopping streets. We ended up in Augustiner Keller, a restaurant near the Albertina museum for a traditional meal of wiener schnitzel and fantastic apple strudel. We can check this off the list now. Then walked back to the hotel for a nightcap.
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Day 9

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Left the hotel and took a circuitous route to Apollonia. It is an amazing archeological site covering 100 acres. Originally a Greek city from 400 BCE then a large Roman city from 300 AD. At its peak, it had about 50,000 inhabitants, and Julius Cesar visited it. The major excavation was done by a French archaeologist from 1924 to 1936. The Albanian govt. is not funding additional excavations and only 1% has been unearthed. The number of artifacts in the museum numbers in the thousands. We then drove to a national park which is a wetland preserve. It is famous for its large number of Dalmatian pelicans and its ferocious mosquitoes. Many places for outdoor lunch but we insisted on sitting indoors. Bo found it memorable for her lunch selection of eel, which is a local specialty. The eels were small and grilled whole. After cutting off the heal and tails, you just eat the meat around the spine. Very tasty (Al didn’t think so and had a pizza). From there we drove to Durres, our fina...
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Day 8

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We left in the morning and drove to Himare. Then to old Himare up a steep hill. We walked up to th ruins of the castle and church, and great views of the coast. Then back on the coastal road going north with more up and down serpentines and spectacular views. Julian suggested we take short detour to a monastery with fantastic views so we drove a one-lane road to a small parking area with a bunch of cars, We thought they were there for the monastery, but a parking woman said they were there for a great beach down below. We then walked for about 15 min in hot sun to a very picturesque monastery, but it was closed and the whole area was locked so we couldn’t even see the view. Then we continued on the same picturesque road to Dhermi beach where we stopped right by the beach for a short coffee break. Dhermi is a lovely village spread over a hillside with the old historic part at the top and the new, beachy part at the bottom. It’s past the beach season so most of the restaurants and cafes ...
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Day 7

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After breakfast at our hotel, which consisted of a large bowl of delicious yogurt, bread, butter and homemade jam, and the best coffee we’ve had in Albania so far, we embarked on the way to visit Butrind, about 15 minutes south of Ksamil. Butrind is a very interesting archaeological site dating back to the 4th century BC when it was established as an important port and town. It thrived during the Greek and Roman times, the medieval times and then it became abandoned and forgotten. It was rediscovered in the 1920s, then forgotten again, and finally an Albanian archaeologist started excavations in 1956. Right now about 30% is uncovered, including some very interesting and well preserved structures like the Greek amphitheater, the agora, the temple, etc. We joined a group with an English speaking guide so we got a very good tour. From Butrind we drove to Qeparo, our next destination. The drive is spectacular – a very winding serpentine road up and down the mountains with the Ionian see on...
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Day 6

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We left Gjirokastra in the morning. We had to cross mountainous passes and got to Blue Eye which is a water spring and natural phenomenon. The water from the deep spring appears very blue and the surrounding water is green. From there we went to an old monastery ruins. Then on to our hotel destination in the village of Ksamil (hotel Arturi – not recommended) which is right on the beach. We walked to the town center and found a place (Guvat) for lunch with a beautiful view of the coast and a string of little islands between the Albanian mainland and Corfu. The food was great. As we were walking along the beach promenade, we were appalled by the state of this beautiful place – unfinished construction sites(100s of large hotels 50 – 80% complete, garbage dumped by the side, lampposts lying on the walkway because of shoddy construction… Such a shame. Back at our beach we got into lounge chairs to read. The wind was howling, the waves large, and the sun brutal. We found shade but cou...
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