We posted our November expenses last night. Our cheapest month of the year so far!
The rain finally stopped after lunch and we were pretty quick to get out and get some exercise before it got dark. We decided to walk down to the city and see how much the river had risen due to the last three days of fairly hard rain.
And from there up to Berat Castle. We had been up to the castle when we were here in March, but wanted to go back just for the hike up.
We actually had some blue sky for a short time!
Quite a lot more snow on the mountain.
Yep, the water is definitely higher.
This was 3 days ago.
This was yesterday!
We took the path up the left side of castle hill. It's fairly steep at times! If you drive up to the main entrance, you have to pay to enter the castle grounds. But if you use either of the two hiking paths, it is totally free to enter.
Heading higher.
Scenery along the way.
See the church in the center of the photo?
It's having the roof repaired.
Taking a break.
Berat.
Heading higher.
This is what Ruth was looking at.
Almost at the top.
At the top is an 18th century monastery.
Imagine how pretty it must have once been with the pool and fountain.
There is talk of restoring this building. Hopefully they don't wait much longer.
Nobody around near the end of the day.
Most of the buildings at the top are at least 400 years old.
And some date to the 12th century.
Exploring.
View from castle hill.
By the time we got back to Max, we had done 8.7 kms (5.4 miles).
While we were out, we received a message from the dentist. He sent a file containing the two 3D videos of Ruth's teeth. Pretty high tech stuff. In the first part, you can see how the front lower teeth are a bit crooked. If you watch to the end, it even shows the detail of the teeth being straightened over the next five months!
The second video shows her upper teeth. They are really very nice, but he pointed out that one is slightly twisted. You can barely see it, but once you notice it, it's obviously slightly twisted. He says they are going to fix that one as well. No extra cost!
He didn't mention when the aligners will be ready, but we expect to hear from him again on Thursday.
We have woken up to blue sky and sunshine this morning, and it is now supposed to be nice right through until tomorrow night! What a refreshing change to see the sun again!
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And in Canada...
Just feel sorry for all those people in the past that lugged all those stones up to build those amazing structures! Probably did it faster than would have been done today because they didn't have to worry about building permits. ;c)
ReplyDeleteI would bet that a lot of those stones came from the top of that mountain/hill when they leveled it off to build the castle to begin with. Having said that I still feel sorry for them because breaking up the rock and leveling out the area somewhat would still have been backbreaking work, and it would all have been done band. Lol, nope they wouldn't have had to wait for building permits, if they did they might still not have it all finished! :-P
DeleteThe monastery building looks more modern than 18th century.
ReplyDeleteThe brick/stone walls of the first floor are original but have probably been restored, however the second floor was demolished and rebuilt as an imitation of a Berat house in more recent history. Despite all that it is considered a cultural landmark.
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