Author: Tim

Thursday, January 16 – Harrow on the Hill

I’m heading into the Capital today to attend another West End play. Like Barcelona, I booked this a few weeks ago because of its popularity, and the fact that the production is ending in a few days.

(Booking shows at full price goes against my cheapness leaning, I know, but I do make exceptions! Typically I’ll look for same-day discounted tickets – see website reference further on in this Entry.)

Of course, I did some walking around in advance of the show. Here are a couple views…

The play takes place in the Noel Coward Theatre, located near Trafalgar Square.

Okay, enough with the suspense! The play I’m attending is Dr. Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan. It is based on the film directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Peter Sellers starred in the film; playing three different roles. Well, Coogan tops that by one! Pretty impressive, considering it is much easier to portray multiple characters in a movie than it is in live theater! They cleverly used a stand-in for him at times, with the substitute actor’s back to the audience. But still, there were many quick wardrobe changes for Steve! A fun show!

Travel Note: Here are a couple websites I use for West End (last minute) theater tickets and seating advice…

TKTS London

theatremonkey

I have a feeling I might have recommended these sites previously; if so, I apologize!

Friday, January 17 – Harrow on the Hill

My plan is to go off the beaten path today. Let’s do this!

I’m starting out in East London, visiting a museum that peaked my interest.

My journey takes me to the Bethnal Green tube station. At the exit to the station is this memorial, entitled Stairway To Heaven. It is in remembrance of a tragedy that occurred here in 1943. In fact, it was the worst London civilian disaster of World War II, yet no bombs were involved. 173 were killed – 84 women, 62 children and 27 men, and over 90 were injured. Basically, this involved a panicked crowd attempting to descend a dangerous stairway in the dark. Please use the link above to read more about this sad story.

(I was disappointed that the base of the memorial was enclosed by a fence. Not sure why; it didn’t look like there was any work taking place.)

This is the Young V&A Museum. That’s right, it’s a children’s museum. What can I say, I’ve pretty much never grown up (as I’m sure most of you who know me will attest!)!

There are some amazing things on display…

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised to see this iconic Japanese print on display in the “Where are you going to go?” area of the museum.

Pretty cool museum, am I right?

My next stop led me back towards Central London, neat The Tower of London.

St Dunstan in the East was a church that is located in an inconspicuous alleyway halfway between London Bridge and the Tower of London. It was largely destroyed in World War II, and the ruins are now a public garden.

My next stop took me further west, near St. Paul’s Cathedral…

In 1900, the park became the location for George Frederic Watts’s Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, a dedication to ordinary people who died while saving the lives of others and who might otherwise be forgotten.

My final destination is a short walk away…

The history of the Charterhouse begins in 1348 with the Black Death. The site was a burial ground. In 1545 it was transformed into one of the great courtyard houses of Tudor London. Then in 1611 the property was converted to a school for the young and an almshouse for the old. The almshouse remains in occupation today, while the school was re-located in 1872 to Godalming, Surrey.

Here are a couple exterior views of the grounds…

Sidenote: You may have noticed that I’m including more links in the Journal this year. I hope you find them useful!

Sunday, January 12 – Harrow on the Hill

I braved the cold however and ventured out for a walk and to run some errands…

Tuesday, January 14 – Harrow on the Hill

A beautiful day is forecast, with high temperatures in the upper 40s. I think a walking tour is in order!

My area of focus is Hampstead Heath, to the north of the city. The walk starts at the Archway tube station in Highgate.

The Gatehouse pub in old Highgate village. The Bishop of London once owned a park here, and the pub stands on the site of one of the three gates that led into the park.

I am now entering Hampstead Heath, a park covering 790 acres. (for comparison, Central Park in New York City is similar in size at 843 acres)

A view from the Heath back to Highgate. That’s St. Micheal’s on the right. On the left is Witanhurst. At over 90,000 square feet, it is the second largest private residence in London, after Buckingham Palace.

Kenwood House (ca. 17th century) was a private residence as late as 1927; it is now a public museum.

For those of you that are fans of the film Notting Hill, these photos may look familiar. For a refresher, take a look at this clip of the movie within a movie.

It was a perfect day to visit the museum; barely any visitors. Even the curators were commenting on how quiet it was! And the best part? It was free!

I’m now departing the Heath and heading into the village of Hampstead…

This was a fun day! A lot of walking (29k steps), and a little muddy on the Heath! (I was provided with disposable shoe covers when I toured Kenwood House)

Thursday, January 9 – Harrow on the Hill

Only one night of jeg-lag-interuppted sleep? Maybe (hopefully!)? I got in a full 8 hours last night, straight through. Whoo hoo! And I ended up spending another lazy two hours doing some reading before I was finally motivated to get up and do something! Come on, I’m on vacation (sort of). Give me a break!

I attended a Harrow School event this evening with Mary & Tony. It was a conversation with Sir Gregory Doran in The Ryan Theatre. Sir Gregory is the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, amongst his many other accomplishments.

It was a fun event. Sir Gregory had interesting stories to tell, and there were some good audience questions, mainly from Harrow School students.

Subsequent to the talk, Sir Gregory was available for a signing of his book, and Mary ended up buying one as a gift.

Following the event, we made our way back to Byron House and sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by Mary.

Thank you so much Mary & Tony for a most enjoyable evening!

Friday, January 10 – Harrow on the Hill

I’m back into the city today, mainly to attend a play this evening.

I made my way in early so that I could partake in a favorite activity – just walking around this picturesque city (even on a cloudy winter day!). I made a loop from Green Park into Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, then into Kensington and back to Trafalgar Square.

It was a little chilly, so I wore my Motion W stocking cap on the walk. Well, near Hyde Park Corner I got an “On Wisconsin” shout out! That was pretty cool. Badgers are everywhere!

Located in an obscure alley in Kensington is this classic car dealer. I like stopping by when I’m around to see what’s on display.

I also like checking out the Burlington Arcade, off of Piccadilly, to take a look at what’s on offer – mainly at the vintage watch shops. Classic cars and vintage watches. I can dream, right?!?

The play I’m attending didn’t begin until 8pm, and the theatre happens to be located near Trafalgar Square. That worked out nicely, because The National Portrait Gallery just happens to be open late on Friday nights. The perfect spot to roam while I warm up a bit!

And wow! My favorite piece in their collection is back on display! During my last two visits to London (last year and in 2020) it was in storage. This is a large piece, as you may be able to ascertain based on the size of the placard on the left: 64 in. x 61 in. Do you know who this is?

I think one of the reasons I like this piece is because of the title. Funny!

Okay, I’m off to the show!

I would say the main reason I chose this play was because it is the stage debut of Lily Collins. Folks of my generation will probably know her best as the daughter of Phil Collins. While most everyone else will recognize her from Emily in Paris.

The play takes place in a Barcelona apartment, and starts out as a possible one night stand between a Spaniard from Madrid and a tourist from the United States. It turns into much more though, as layers are revealed. It ran about 90 minutes with no intermission. I liked it! And was lucky to book a ticket, because the production ends tomorrow!

Travel Note: Another great night of sleep!

Saturday, January 11 – Harrow on the Hill

A couple items of financial note today…

I’m paying my rent in cash. That entails a few ATM withdrawals (due to daily limits, etc.). The notes I received were a mix of 20s and 10s. Of those about 5% were of this type…

Kait tipped me off last spring when the King Charles notes were introduced. However, here we are several months later and only a few are in circulation. Interesting…

And speaking of interesting, how about this?

A letter coincidentally arrived for me in the mail this week! I haven’t lived here since 2010, and I emptied my Barclays bank account in 2014. At least I think I did; maybe I should check! (watch this space) The letter is a request for me to fill out a tax residency form. Crazy!

Monday, January 6 & Tuesday January 7 – transit from Madison to London

Hello again everyone. Welcome back! Thank you for your continued interest in my winter travels.

I’ve returned to London, with a similar plan as last year – enjoy the city while using it as a base to visit other places in the region. A big thanks to Mary & Tony for welcoming me back to the very familiar Byron House. I’m thrilled to once again call Harrow on the Hill my home (for a few weeks)!

I’m planning on making a slight adjustment to the Journal Entries this year. I feel like I got too much into the minutia of my daily activities previously; nobody cares if I went for a walk or to the grocery store (boring!). So this year I may not have an Entry for every day of the week. I’ll only do a post if I see or do something of interest (hopefully that will be almost daily!). This will mainly apply solely to my time in London; I foresee being busy on a daily basis during my travels away from the Capital. And I hope to avoid posting pictures that are similar or identical to those from my time here last year. No promises though! I do have some favorite locations!

My itinerary from Madison to London was identical to last year:

• 6am departure from Madison to Newark
• Loooonnnggg layover in Newark
• Early evening departure to Heathrow, with a 6:45am arrival

Like last year, I used miles to upgrade to Business Class for the trip. It was especially nice because I had the use of the BC lounge in Newark during the layover. And there is also a little-known arrivals lounge at Heathrow that I also took advantage of! I utilized the shower facilities at both locations!

I had a nice nighttime (early morning) view of the Thames as we approached Heathrow. I was lucky – sitting in a window seat on the correct side of the plane. Lit up were the Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s, the Eye, and Big Ben. I know, a photo (or two) would be nice, but I was half asleep and just enjoyed the view (maybe it was all a dream?).

After spending some time in the arrivals lounge, I was on the SL9 bus for the ride to South Harrow. It had snowed a little before I boarded the bus, but stopped (and mostly melted) by the time I made the walk up to the Hill. It was wonderful to see Mary and Tony again, and we caught up over some tea and cake. Thank you Mary!

I had an Uber pickup in Madison at 4am on Monday, and coincidentally arrived at the doorstep of Byron House at 10am on Tuesday (4am in Madison). So, a 24 hour trip! Of course, only about 9 hours of that was actual flying time!

Wednesday, January 8 – Harrow on the Hill

I tried to stay up as late as possible last night, but failed miserably, falling asleep around 7:30pm. And then woke up around midnight. Ugh! Was back to sleep around 2:30am though, and made it all the way to 10am. Not terrible, I guess. Hopefully tonight will be better!

It was really tempting to just lay around the flat all day, but I eventually found the motivation to make a trip into the city. I mainly just walked amongst my favorite places around the parks and the Thames (did 20k steps for the day). I ended up in Trafalgar Square, with a visit to the National Gallery. While there I took advantage of their daily one hour tours, where a curator provides background on 4 different works in the collection. One of my favorite activities (and it’s free; another favorite!).

Trip Wrap Up

Before I get into the gory details of the trip, a couple more photos to share…

Below are some lists I compiled during the trip. Most are ranked in no particular order; the exception would be if a list is numbered.

Favorite Experiences

• A return to Byron House (and spending time with Mary & Tony)
• Visiting Ruth & Kent
• Hard Rock Cafe Tour
• Stamford Bridge (Chelsea Women’s Soccer)
• Lunchtime performance at the Royal Opera House
• Big Ben Tour
• The Who at The Royal Albert Hall
• Bach’s St. John’s Passion at St. Paul’s Cathedral
• Mini Day at Brooklands Museum
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• The Ladder of Kotor Hike
• The Dave Matthews Band at The Royal Albert Hall

Favorite Places Visited (thanks for the suggestion Kait!)

1. Qatar
   • Visit Ruth & Kent
   • Itinerary
   • Food
2. Montenegro
   • Ladder of Kotor Hike
   • Perast
   • Train Ride to Bar
3. Bulgaria
   • Hotel
   • Monastery
   • Opera
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina
   • Mostar
   • Bobsled Track
5. Romania
   • Peles Castle
   • Transylvania
   • Opera
6. Slovakia
   • Hotel
   • Good for Walking
7. Albania
   • Low ranking likely due to my poor choice of locations to visit

I excluded the U.K. and Austria from the list. The U.K. dominated my time, and I only spent one full day in Austria.

Favorite Accommodation

• Byron House, Harrow on the Hill
• Underwood Manor, Doha
• Art ‘Otel, Sofia
• Morrol’s Boutique Hotel, Bratislava

Favorite Meals

• Welcome Dinner hosted by Mary & Tony
• Georgian Restaurant with Ruth & Kent in Doha
• Thai Restaurant with Ruth & Kent in Doha
• Turkish Restaurant with Ruth & Kent in Doha
• Pre-concert Dinner hosted by Mary & Tony
• Pre-Byron Talk Tea hosted by Mary & Tony
• Dinner at The White Horse with Mary & Tony
• Baguette sandwiches from Wenzel’s

You can probably spot a trend here! I rarely went to restaurants when I was on my own. I guess I find dining with myself rather boring! Undoubtedly a lost opportunity on my part, but it wasn’t a huge priority for me. A lot of times I’d just grab something from a grocery store or a takeaway place. And I had my own kitchen in Byron House.

Let’s Crunch the Numbers

Below are a bunch of statistics from this trip and all of my other winter escapes. This is where my weirdness shines! Feel free to scroll through quickly as your eyes begin to glaze over!

Countries Visited

I traveled to 9 countries on this trip, 7 for the first time. I have now visited 88 countries. I’m so lucky to have had the opportunity to pursue this passion. I don’t take it for granted. Below is a breakdown of visited countries by continent (and the % of countries I’ve been to on each continent):

• Africa: 3 (6%) – planning on increasing this count next winter!
• Antarctica: 0 (0%) – still hoping to make this my 100th country (in 2027?)
• Asia: 21 (47%)
• Europe: 35 (73%)
• North America: 19 (83%)
• Oceania: 2 (14%)
• South America: 8 (67%)

Trip Length

1. 2024 London: 108 days
2. 2023 Caribbean: 100 days
3. 2019 South America: 77 days
4. 2022 Hawaii: 66 days (cut short due to high costs!)
5. 2020 Europe: 33 days
6. 2020 South America: 30 days (cut short due to Covid)

Trip Cost

Total

1. 2023 Caribbean
2. 2022 Hawaii
3. 2019 South America
4. 2024 London
5. 2020 Europe
6. 2020 South America

Per Day

1. 2022 Hawaii (23% higher than second place S. America; what a surprise!)
2. 2019 South America (skewed higher by Galapagos Islands and Easter Island)
3. 2023 Caribbean
4. 2020 South America
5. 2020 Europe (skewed lower due to the use of frequent flyer miles for the transatlantic flights)
6. 2024 London (lower due to a) the use of frequent flyer miles for the transatlantic flights, b) visiting Balkan countries in the winter)

Steps

Total

1. 2024 London: 1.68 million (767 miles!)
2. 2023 Caribbean: 1.32 million
3. 2019 South America: 1.09 million
4. 2022 Hawaii: 1.07 million
5. 2020 Europe: 550 thousand
6. 2020 South America: 440 thousand

Per Day

1. 2022 Hawaii: 16.2 thousand
2. 2020 Europe: 16.1 thousand
3. 2024 London: 15.5 thousand (redeemed myself after last year’s embarrassing performance!)
4. 2020 South America: 14.5 thousand
5. 2019 South America: 14.4 thousand
6. 2023 Caribbean: 13.2 thousand

2024 Extremes

• Most: 31.0 thousand in Bucharest
• Least: 1.5 thousand on the day after my arrival in London

Postcards

I mailed 8 postcards to Oliver on this trip (from all of the countries I visited except Austria; I was only there one full day, a Saturday). One is still in transit; below are the mailing times for each of the 7 received (thanks for your assistance in documenting this (and promoting my dorkiness!) Holly, Mike & Ray!):

1. United Kingdom: 8 days
2. Bosnia and Herzegovina: 16 days (this surprised me; I would have expected Sarajevo to be one of the slowest)
3. Montenegro: 18 days
4. Romania: 21 days
5. Qatar: 22 days (this surprised me too; by how long it took!)
6. Slovakia: 23 days (the postcard wasn’t thrown in the trash at the post office after all!)
7. Bulgaria: 25 days

I kind of have a feeling that Albania will windup being the slowest, but maybe they’ll end up making me eat my words!

Planes, Trains & Buses

• Planes: 20 flights totaling 26,026 miles (the circumference of Earth is 24,901 miles)
  • Longest: Heathrow to O’Hare on 25 April
  • Shortest: O’Hare to Dane County Regional (Madison) on 25 April
• Trains: 3 trips in Bosnia and Montenegro (plus several rides in and around London!)
• Buses: 5 trips in Austria, Slovakia, Montenegro and Albania (plus several rides on the SL9 to and from Heathrow!)

Trip Map

The trip map, which is linked on the 2024 London+ homepage, is up to date.

Favorite Pictures

I snapped close to 4,000 photos on the trip. Here are a few of my favorites…

Well, that about does it! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for things to add to my lists, or photos I’ve overlooked.

Thank you so much for following along. I hope you’ll join me again next year!

(Spoiler Alert: Mary & Tony have gratuitously offered me the use of their flat again next year, so I’ll be making a return visit to London! My mission in 2025 will be to use London as a base to visit Africa. Can’t wait!)

Tuesday, April 23 – Harrow on the Hill

I’ll be remaining on Hill for the penultimate day of my winter escape.

First up is a lunchtime music performance by a Harrow School student at St. Mary’s Church.

It was a pleasure to be in attendance for Mr. Chan’s performance. He played beautifully, and rarely looked at his sheet music! The concert lasted 30 minutes, and there were about a dozen of us lucky enough to be in attendance.

This evening Mary, Tony and I walked around the corner to have dinner at The White Horse pub.

This was a fun! I was happy that Mary & Tony were able to join me for a night out before my stay on the Hill come to an end.

Wednesday, April 24 – Harrow on the Hill

I spent the day preparing for tomorrow’s departure – cleaning the flat, and packing up my stuff. Pretty exciting, I know!

But I’ll be ending my stay in London on a (very) high note! I’m heading back to The Royal Albert Hall tonight to see…

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I booked it back in September. And once I bought this ticket, my departure window became very small, because I also wanted to do the Crazylegs walk in Madison this coming Saturday, the 27th.

So, how coincidental (fortunate) is it that the band is back in London during my stay? I’m lucky!

Since I have the poster from the ’10 show, it seemed logical that I should also buy tonight’s concert poster too, right?

Sidenote:

Sidenote No. 2: Coincidentally, just three days ago it was announced that The Dave Matthews Band will be a 2024 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Congratulations. Well deserved! (There was a chant of Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame by the crowd during a break between songs)

I got back to the flat around 12:30am. A little late, but well worth it! A great finish to this year’s wonderful winter escape in London!

Thursday, April 25 – transit from London to Madison

After my late night, it’s fortunate that my flight didn’t depart today until 1pm. But since I had bags to check, I decided to get to Heathrow early, leaving the flat a little after 9am to catch the SL9. I’m loving this bus!

The United flight is on a 767 and I booked Economy Plus for the trip. The cost of the one way trip was $329 + 66k miles. Compare that to my one way business class fare when I traveled here from the States: $6 +80k miles. That’s the difference between London travel in early January versus late April. I’m telling you, winter is the time to visit!

The flight to Chicago was scheduled for a little over 9 hours, but we ended up landing at O’Hare around 45 minutes early ( a lesser than normal headwind?). My entertainment of choice during the flight was to binge watch the first few episodes of The Sopranos first season. A nice diversion (and thankfully unedited for airplane viewing; I wouldn’t have watched it if it was). Now I can’t get its theme song out of my mind (You woke up this morning…)!

I know I’ve talked in the past about the benefits of having Global Entry. Well, it was on full display today at O’Hare. There was a massive queue for the normal immigration stations, but I was all by myself at Global Entry. Beautiful! And my bags were there waiting for me when I exited immigration. Spectacular! All of this speed was rather dulled however by the fact that I had a four hour layover! Oh well…

Travel Note: My Global Entry was set to expire this past January. I applied for renewal last May though, and paid the fee at that time. However, for whatever reason, as of this writing, my application is still being processed. Thankfully, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has acknowledged this backlog and has therefore granted Global Entry access to those of us who have applied for renewal, paid the fee, and are awaiting a decision.

It was a beautiful day in Chicago, so I ended up spending much of my late afternoon layover time outside, in the area around the Hilton Hotel at the airport.

My flight landed in Madison around 9:30pm (3:30am in London), and from there I grabbed a Lyft to the house. (thanks for the airport pickup offer Kari; I would have felt guilty though, having you make that late night run)

Well! This was another amazing winter adventure! And quite the difference from the manic pace of last year, right? I really enjoyed having a base from which I could make short out-and-back excursions. Thank you Mary & Tony for providing me with that option.

And thanks to all of you for once again following along. It means a lot to me. And I really enjoy your feedback; whether it be by comments on this site, texts, emails, or conversations. You inspire me to keep this going!

I’ll be posting one more entry in the next couple days. It will include trip stats, lists, and some favorite photos. Guaranteed to bore you to death!

Friday, April 19 – transit from Tirana to London

My flight is at 10:30 this morning. Due to the rush hour factor, and Tirana’s ugly traffic, the hotel staff recommended that I leave for the airport at 7:30. There is a shuttle bus option that departs from a point near to the hotel at a cost of 400 lek, but its schedule doesn’t accommodate my itinerary very well. So I ended up taking a taxi at a cost of 3,000 lek ($30). It killed me! But I survived. The ride took 40 minutes.

I’m flying Ryanair. I usually don’t go with a discount carrier; in this case though the price was irresistible. Including the extra fees I paid for an exit row seat and overhead bin space, the total cost for the one way flight was $61. The only drawback is that the flight landed at London Stansted Airport, which is north of the city and required a train ride into the capital.

The Tirana airport is well organized. I especially liked the automated readers in the departure hall for U.S. passport holders (plus a few other countries that issue biometric passports). I thereby avoided the queue for the manual passport check, which was pretty long!

Travel Note: Like the Italians, the Albanians seem to have mastered the art of cutting in line. Not quite on the level of the Italians, but close. And it’s annoying!

The nonstop flight lasted 3 hours, and the 737 was full. (In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to be sitting in the exit row of a Boeing airplane!) The train from Stansted to Liverpool Street station took 50 minutes and cost £23. From there, I grabbed the Metropolitan Line back to Harrow on the Hill.

This evening I attended a talk at the Harrow School commemorating the 200th anniversary of the poet Lord Byron’s death. Byron was a student at the school in the early 19th century, and arguably one of their most famous alums.

Prior to the talk though, Mary and Tony invited a few people in for a proper English Tea, with delicious sandwiches, scones, and cupcakes. It was wonderful. Thank you Mary & Tony!

The talk was followed by a drinks reception in the Old Speech Room Gallery. A fun evening!

Saturday, April 20 – Harrow on the Hill

I’ve always wanted to attend a play at the historic Old Vic Theatre. Well, tonight it is finally going to happen!

The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat theater located near Waterloo Station. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal Victoria Palace.

Travel Note: I use a website called Theatre Monkey for seat location tips. Very handy if you ever plan on attending a show in London.

Sunday, April 21 – Harrow on the Hill

There is more of Lord Byron on today’s agenda. This afternoon the Harrow Hill Trust is sponsoring a walk entitled Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know, George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron, 1788-1824).

Following the one hour walk, Mary & Tony invited about 20 folks over to the house (Byron House) for tea and cakes. A lovely ending to a fun Byron weekend!

Monday, April 22 – Harrow on the Hill

I’m down to the last three days of my trip, and I have a fairly busy day planned in the city.

Many categories of science and technology are represented in the auction: including globes, microscopes, sundials, cameras, telescopes, and more. A link to the auction is here.

My next stop is The National Gallery, where I’m going to check out a new exhibition.

Entry to the exhibition was at no charge. However, I booked a timed ticket to enter The National gallery (also at no charge), thereby avoiding the line outside.

Well worth the visit. Caravaggio’s use of light amazes me!

And while I was at the Gallery, I absolutely had to stop and take a look at a couple of works by my favorite artist, Claude Monet…

I’m attending another play tonight. I had some time to kill though, so I just did some walking around the Charing Cross area.

I have mixed feelings about the production. I was very long; 3 hours plus a 20 minute interval. And the subject matter wasn’t all that interesting to me. But it was the kind of play where the actors’ talent is on full display. And Clarkson and Cox delivered (as you would expect). Especially the former (in my opinion).

Wednesday, April 17 – transit from Shkoder to Tirana

I’m back on the bus (Gus; apologies to Paul Simon!) this morning; traveling to Albania’s capital, Tirana. According to the online timetable, a bus to Tirana departs every 30 minutes from the stop in the city center where I was dropped off on the ride from Kotor a couple days ago. The hotel check out time is 10:30, so I’m thinking I’ll grab the 11am departure. A nice leisurely morning.

It’s raining though, and since the bus stop has no cover, I decided to just wait out the weather at the hotel and do some work on a journal entry. My wait wasn’t long. By 11:15 I was on my way to the bus stop.

However, 11:30 came and went, with no departure. We eventually hit the road around noon. I think the lateness was due to the driver waiting for the bus to fill up with passengers. It was 2/3 full when we left. The trip took 2 1/2 hours and cost 400 lek.

The regional bus “station” in Tirana is again just a stop on a main thoroughfare; in this case located outside of the city center. Traffic in the area was brutal, and there were no taxis around, so I just decided to walk to my hotel (located in the center). That took 90 minutes.

The walk wasn’t very photogenic, but I do have one image to share…

I did go out for a little walk around the neighborhood, no photos though unfortunately. Nothing really popped out at me.

Thursday, April 18 – Tirana

As you can probably tell from yesterday’s write up, my enthusiasm has waned a bit as this trip concludes. And that has continued this morning, but I’m still going to head out and roam about some.

But first…

I started the day with motivation issues, but still managed to do 22k steps worth of wandering!

Albania Notes

• The population of Albania is 2.8 million. The largest city is Tirana at 400k. The population of Shkoder is 88k.
• For not being a super big city, the traffic in Tirana is ugly.
• I think my choice of places to visit in Albania was not the best. Going to the coast or the mountains would have been better. Based on my schedule though, and preferred method of transit, these two inland cities were my best options.
• As in most of the eastern European places I’ve visited this winter, there is a lot of smoking in Albania.
• The people I encountered here were very nice. An example: I stopped at a kiosk in Shkoder to buy a postcard. The cost was 20 lek (crazy cheap), but the smallest denomination bill I had was 500 lek (~$5). The vendor didn’t have change, yet offered to just let me take the card and come back later when I had change to pay him. Very generous, but I didn’t take him up on it. I did come back the next day though, when I had change, and bought the card.

Monday, April 15 – transit from Kotor to Shkoder, Albania

This is my 150th Journal Entry. Kind of a milestone, I guess? Whoo hoo!

I’m taking the bus this morning to Albania. The departure is 8am, so I won’t have time for breakfast. The hotel provided me with a takeaway bag though. Thank you!

And this time, in order to get the best views, I planned ahead and sat on the correct side of the bus. Brilliant!

We then boarded the bus, drove for a minute, and got off again for the check at the Albanian border.

The bus trip from Kotor to Shkoder took about 4 hours, of which 30 minutes were spent at the border crossings. The cost of the trip was €19. I was kind tired after my active last two days; the bus ride was a nice break.

The “bus station” in Shkoder is no station at all, just a designated spot to pull over on a main boulevard in the city center. (I shouldn’t be condescending though, that’s the same process used by Badger Bus for the trip to O’Hare from the UW Campus!)

I arrived too early to check in to my hotel, so I ended up strolling over to a nearby park to relax. It was a nice day, and the park was pretty crowded – all the benches in the shade were taken. I ended up finding some cover under a tree.

Conveniently, my hotel was a 5 minute walk from the park…

And per my routine, I did a little walking around this evening…

Travel Note: It is recommended that foreign visitors do not drink the tap water in Albania.

Sidenote: The Olivier Awards (the West End equivalent of the Tonys) was held last night in London. And coming as no surprise to me, Sarah Snook was named Best Actress for her one-woman performance of 26 different roles in The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Well deserved! (there are rumors that the show will be heading to Broadway; could a Tony be in her future as well?) And I was also fortunate enough to attend a performance by the Best Actor winner, Mark Gatiss, in The Motive And The Cue.

Trivia: For those of you who are fans of the TV series Sherlock that starred Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Gatiss is a co-creator of the show. He also portrayed Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft. And if you’re not familiar with Sherlock, I recommend that you check it out!

Tuesday, April 16 – Shkoder

After a leisurely breakfast, I headed out on a one hour walk to visit Rozafa Castle.

On my way to the Castle, I came across a…

Here are some views of the surrounding area from the Castle…

Shkoder Lake is the largest lake in the Balkan Peninsula and, as you’ve seen in my posts, is located in both Montenegro and Albania.

I ended up walking around a little bit, but was honestly feeling a little tired. I did make one (actually two) stop on the way back to the hotel…

It was nap time when I got back to the hotel! And when I woke it was raining; a perfect excuse to stay in and work on a journal entry.

Saturday, April 13 – Kotor

Another fine breakfast selection to start my day. I’m getting spoiled!

The calories will come in handy today because I’m going to hike The Ladder of Kotor. The rocky path climbs up the mountainside in a series of switchbacks between the Scurda Canyon and the Fortress Walls of the Old Town of Kotor. The Ladder of Kotor (aka the Ladder of Cattaro) is a historic mule track, which was built in the 19th century by the Austrians, in order to connect Kotor with Njeguši and Cetinje, Montenegro’s former royal capital.

I didn’t hike the complete Ladder of Kotor trail to Krsac and the P1 Road. Instead, I opted to turn around at the “Top of the Kotor Ladder” viewpoint, which was plenty long enough for me!

The trailhead isn’t physically marked, but fortunately it is identified in Google Maps!

I took my time at the top, and actually found a tree that I could sit beneath and rest for a while. Perfect!

After a couple minutes more of our stare down, the pair became bored and decided to go look for something to eat. Whew!

There’s a interesting story behind the trail that you can see running diagonally over to the walls of the Fortress. Access to the interior of the fortress is from sea level near the Kotor Old Town. The entrance fee is €15. In the past, people would ascend the Ladder of Kotor trail and then divert over to the Fortress via the trail seen here. They would then enter the Fortress through the window in the wall, thereby avoiding the entrance fee! Well, the folks running the Fortress caught on to this, and now when visitors exit the Fortress they’re required to show their ticket. If they don’t have one, they’re charged €15. (I suppose someone could sneak back OUT of the Fortress through the window!)

The trek back down to the trailhead took 90 minutes. A little quicker due to the aid of gravity (duh!), but I also spent less time taking pictures.

The Old Town of Kotor is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And it is like a maze walking through there. I got lost many times. (And I had to go in there because that’s where my hotel was located. But I loved it!)

Here are a couple photos from the Old Town as I made my way back from the trail to the hotel…

After resting up, I went back out and walked around the town a little bit.

Sunday, April 14 – Kotor

Today I’m going to make the short trip around the bay to the town of Perast. My options for getting there are:

• Taxi, 15 minutes, €20
• Bus, 30 minutes, €2
• Bike, about 45 minutes, not sure of bike rental cost
• Walk, about 2 3/4 hours per Google Maps, free

You know there’s no way I’m taking a taxi! And I wouldn’t be comfortable riding a bike amongst the reckless drivers here. So, that leaves bus or walk? I actually thought I might do both; take the bus there, and walk back. I like the idea of walking because I could then take my time and enjoy the views along the bay. Plus, the buses only run every two hours on Sundays, so I may be able to walk most of the way back before a bus even shows up!

Now, the only drawback regarding the bus option is the fact that they’re known to run notoriously late, or sometimes they don’t even show up at all! But I’m feeling adventurous, so let’s give it a shot. The timetable indicates a 9:18am pickup just outside the Old Town near my hotel. I’m at the stop at 9:10, waiting with four other folks. And to my surprise (joy), here comes the bus at 9:22! Awesome! Twenty-five minutes later I was dropped off in Perast.

I was a little confused by the location in the photo though. It states Bay of Kotor, so I associated that with the town of Kotor. Not so fast! After arriving in Kotor on Friday, I walked around the waterfront looking for this bell tower, with no success. What the… After doing a little research, I discovered that the photo was taken in Perast, which I had planned on visiting anyway. The plan comes together! (stupid, but lucky!)

This is a very small town! (The population of Perast is 269) Here are some scenes from my walkabout…

There is also a water taxi service going out to one of the two islets off the coast of Perast, called Our Lady of the Rocks. The service is continuous, with boats running every 20 minutes back and forth. The round trip fare was €5.

Okay, I think I’ve explored all I can of Perast! Time to begin the walk back to Kotor.

With all of my sightseeing, the walk ended up taking 3 1/2 hours. But it was well worth it, don’t you think?

Today was great! In fact, these past two days in Kotor have been a blast! (and the beautiful weather certainly contributed to that!)

Travel Note: If you’re interested in traveling to Kotor, be aware that it is a cruise ship destination. I was lucky in that no ships were docked during most of my stay. One finally did arrive on Sunday afternoon. I checked the Kotor port schedule before I set my Montenegro itinerary though, and was happy that most of my stay would be cruise ship free!