Welcome to Belgium, country number 55

We had an interesting day yesterday!

The sun doesn't come up until about 7:45am, but as soon as it was light enough we set off to see a nearby castle. It's used as an event center and restaurant now, and unfortunately it was too early and we couldn't go inside.

Back on the road, and into Netherlands

On the road early, and on a Sunday morning there was no traffic at all. Very pleasant driving through the Germany countryside.

We made a breakfast stop at a forest parking lot for walkers, then we went for a walk ourselves.

Reunited with our motorhome Max!

When we left you on the previous blog post, we were sitting at the boarding gate for our early morning flight from Tirana, Albania to Dortmund, Germany.

They were telling us that our flight would be ten minutes late leaving, and twenty minutes late arriving. Not a big deal, since we had lots of time. Or so I thought!

Well Albania, it's been great!

What a fantastic time we had here in Albania and Kosovo. The first two weeks touring Albania with Helen and Tony, and the last two and a half weeks on and off with David and Mirsie.

But it's time to move on, and we're excited to be heading back to Germany and picking up our motorhome Max for an extended tour.

This time, we were successful!

We had made a rough plan to hike up the mountain opposite Lake Shkodra. I had a clear view of it out our bedroom window while I was sitting on the bed writing yesterday's blog post. I could see the antenna towers at the top.

Ruth and I had made a half hearted effort to get up there when we were here a year ago, but when we got to the first ridge it was really windy and actually a bit chilly so we had turned around without reaching the top. This time, we were successful.

The gorgeous village of Theth in the Albanian Alps

Ruth and I had spent a week in the village of Bogë at the end of May last year. At the time, we had driven part of the road towards Theth but parts were still under construction. Plus there was still a lot of snow up there!

Well the road is now finished, so yesterday we took Mirsie and David for a drive up into the mountains.

Back in Albania

We left Prizren at about 10:00am and made our way through the maze of inner city one way streets. What a circus. Finally got out to the main highway where there was very little traffic.

Not long after, we were at the border of Kosovo and Albania. 

High above Prizren

We published out October expense report earlier today. You can read it here.

Yet another gorgeous day yesterday. We've been so lucky with the weather. Ruth was mentioning that when we came through Montenegro last year around this time it was pouring with rain. 

Yesterday we climbed up to the Fortress that overlooks the city of Prizren.

October expenses. We kind of blew the budget!

We started the month in England, and ended it in Kosovo with a bunch of time in Albania in between. It was a great month!

But the expenses came in a fair bit higher than planned. We spent more than expected on both meals out and accommodation. But then after all, we were on holiday for the first two weeks of the month!

We spent a total of $2,872 CAD ($2,115 USD) during October.

We keep our expectations low so that we're not disappointed!

On Sunday, we drove from Pristina to Prizren. Not a long distance, so we asked our new host if we could get early check in, and that was no problem. An easy hour and a half drive, and we arrived in Prizren about 11:30am.

We're pretty low maintenance when it comes to accommodation. And you have to be when you don't want to spend a lot of money. 

It doesn't take much for things to get out of control

We decided to do a little day trip up to northern Kosovo.

I'm sure most of you know about the war between Kosovo and Serbia. The conflict has been ongoing for centuries, and even now is only stable because of the NATO peacekeeping forces that are in the area. There have been recent problems at the border regarding license plates, which sounds trivial... but it doesn't take much for things to get out of control.

I found a deal on Cellular data geared towards travelers in Europe

One of the things that we have to deal with as nomads is trying to get online in whatever country we're visiting. It's not so difficult when we're staying in rental accommodation because they usually have decent WiFi included. Not always though, and we've learned that even if the WiFi is working, it's not always working very well.

It's especially important when you do work online. So I always make sure that we have a secondary source, such as a good cellular data connection. 

Driving in Pristina. Every man for himself!

We've been really lucky with the weather here in Kosovo. Highs of around 20C (68F) with lots of blue sky and sunshine. 

But we better enjoy it while we've got it because it certainly won't be that warm when we get back to Max on November 5th! The long term forecast for that area in Germany is calling for highs around 10C (50F) and lows around 4C (39F).

We have no intention of settling down! And, new registration for Max.

It occurred to us the other day that we missed our nomadiversary! It was 15 years ago on October 15, 2007 that we took off in our motorhome Sherman for what was planned to be a two year adventure. You can read our very first blog post here... We're cookin' with gas now

Well two years went by and we didn't want to stop. So we just found ways to make it work. And here we are now into our 16th year!

The restaurant bears of Albania

Overall, a kind of a depressing story, but at least it has a happy ending.

It used to be a "thing" for several restaurants in Albania to keep bears as caged pets and to use them as a tourist attraction. The bears were always in ridiculously small cages, and not well looked after. 

Until the practice was outlawed in 2010. But even then, it took a couple of years for enforcement to take place, and then of course what to do with the bears?