Serbia, Montenegro, Albania - May 2018

Another quick side trip on my way back to the USA from the UK.  I flew from Gatwick on Tuesday morning, 8 May, first to Amsterdam and then on to Belgrade in Serbia.  I arrived in the mid-afternoon and took a taxi into the city and my hotel, the Belgrade City Hotel. Since this was a quick trip and I was leaving the next day I immediately set off to explore the city, or at least that part of the city I could walk to from my hotel.  

Belgrade

The city is a little shabby, there are some quite modern buildings but there are a lot of older buildings some quite grand but some of them are in a state of disrepair.  Also the graffiti taggers have been at work and the town is peppered tags, most of them quite crude. I do appreciate and seek out good graffiti but this stuff is just a blight on the city.

Tesla's High Voltage Discharge

The Nikola Tesla Museum was close by so I went in and joined a tour.  It is not a particularly good museum and the exhibits are rather poor but the Serbs are obviously quite proud of their most famous scientist even though he did most of his work in the USA.  Apparently he only spent 31 hours in Belgrade during his life.  There were some fun demonstrations of high voltage spark discharges and the illumination of neon bulbs.  His suit and hat and other artifacts were on show too but not too impressive. I didn’t know but he was quite obsessive about germs and didn’t like to shake hands without gloves.   He was also obsessive about the number three - he liked to walk around buildings three times, he counted steps and liked to finish on a multiple of three, he only took hotel rooms that were a factor of three.

Orthodox Church

Continuing on there as a nice park with a statue of some unknown past hero and a nice Orthodox Church.  Shame I didn't have a guide book at this point. What was quite noticeable was the number of people in the parks. Parks were full of parents with their children.  You would never see such a thing in the US or even the UK.

Joe Strummer Mural

I continued my walk around Skadarlija, the so-called Bohemian district.  It was a little funky with lots of bars and restaurants perhaps Bohemian.  There were a few better quality grafitis or wall art. A fine portrait of Joe Strummer and similar ones of people I do not know.  

Sava River (left), Danube (top and right)

Continuing further on I reached the medieval fort area of Kalamegdanska.  The extensive walls and fortifications to the fort sit in a park area above the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers.  Again there were lots of people sitting around enjoying the evening and of course lots of children playing in the parks. There was a collection of armaments in the grounds all the way from early cannons, to WWI and WWII field guns, up to SAM missiles.  The latter really looked scary and out of place in such an old historical area.

I headed back towards my hotel and the nearby train station.  I had to pick up my train ticket at the station’s Western Union office.  As promised the lady in the office had an envelope with my ticket and the schedule for the next morning’s train.  As I walked through the quite dilapidated station I recognized it immediately. I had been there in 1971 on my way to Istanbul.  It hardly looked any different. I think perhaps I spent the night on a bench there. What a tremendous feeling of nostalgia. I was traveling with two ladies from Edinburgh University - I can’t even remember their names.

Belgrade Train Station

The next morning my train to Podgorica was scheduled to leave at 09:10.  It was the only train on the station, a shabby and graffiti plastered thing.  An old electric locomotive and 5 coaches one of which was a restaurant car. My coach was quite comfortable and I selected a seat with the cleanest windows though really all the windows were pretty filthy.  My seat had a top window that was one so at least I could get a clear view from that. The train left a couple of minutes early and we were on our way with only about 10 other folks in my carriage. Not a money maker for Serbian Railways.

The Belgrade to Bar Train

The train passed through the suburbs of Belgrade along a disheveled track - overgrown and every concrete surface emblazoned with graffiti.  A few miles out of the city we passed the train shed for what was Tito’s personal train. The three engines looked impressive but even they were covered in graffiti.

Tito's Private Train

The line was started in the 1950’s but it wasn’t completed all the way to Bar on the coast until 1976.  It is 296 miles long and has 254 tunnels and 435 bridges. In the early days it took 7 hours for the trip but now because of speed safety restrictions on the track it takes 11 hours.  Various parts of the track were bombed by NATO during the war.

Serbian Countryside

As we passed into more rural areas the landscape changed to grassy agricultural land and lush forested areas.  Somewhere on the way we cut across a corner of Bosnia-Herzegovina but there was no recognition of it and the train does not stop there.  As we left Serbia customs officers passed through the train to check documents and stamp passports. Similarly Montenegran officials checked us on arriving in Bijelo Polje the first Montenegran town.  A pretty straightforward border and efficient border crossing.

Montenegro

Montenegro

The final stretch of the line in Montenegro was the most spectacular section.  We crossed the Mala Rijeka viaduct, the highest and longest on the line, just after Bijelo Polje.  Then the track followed a steep 25% downgrade from high up on the side of the valley. What an amazing construction feat this must have been.  We started way up high on the side of a deep valley cut into the limestone mountains and descended with squeaking brakes through a series of tunnels and bridges down to the same level as the road as it entered Podgorica.

Station in Podgorica

We were some 5 minutes late which is not bad for an 11 hour trip.  At the station in Podgorica most of the passengers left the train. On the platform, exactly as expected, was my driver holding a sign with my name.  I had pre-arranged a car to take me to Tirana that evening. As we left Podgorica darkness was falling and it started to rain.

I didn’t notice much about the drive other than the driver was very careful to observe the speed limit.  Perhaps the police were really strict in that area. The other noticeable thing was the frequency of roundabouts, it was continuous, one after the other, it seemed like there was not a continuous stretch of road for more than a mile.  We arrived at the border with Albania in the rain. There was a short wait and a brief check on the passports on the Montenegran side, then another short wait to enter Albania. The once closed country is now quite open and welcoming.

The road into the capital, Tirana, was not particularly impressive - not a major highway.  My driver used his GPS to deliver me to my hotel - the Hotel Austria. A modern hotel in a backstreet area near the center of town.  We arrived around 11:00 and I was tired after 11 hours in the train and 3 hours in the car.

Skanderbeg Square, Tirana

Next morning I was up reasonably early and set off to explore the city.  It isn’t a very big city and the major sites in the center can be walked quite easily.  There was the Skanderbeg Square with its statue of Skanderbeg the Albanian national hero on horseback, the National Museum facing the square, the oldest mosque in town - Et-hem Bey Mosque, a clock tower, a Catholic Church, a huge modern Orthodox Church, an even larger mosque in the process of being built and then the infamous pyramid of Tirana.  The latter is a monument to the now much despised dictator Enver Hoxha designed by his daughter and which was once the most expensive building project in Tirana. It is now in disrepair and is covered with ugly graffiti. Apparently they can’t decide what to do with it - destroy it or keep it as a reminder of those desperate days.

Skanderbeg Statue

The Tirana Pyramid

I covered all those sites in a couple of hours before breakfast.  After breakfast I took a taxi out to the Bunk’Art museum. This is an old bunker complex out of town built in the 1970’s as a site to protect Hoxha and his government if someone attacked Albania with nuclear weapons.  It is an immense complex with hundreds of rooms, an auditorium, protective air locks, explosion proof doors. While in the 70’s, we, in the rest of the world, were not thinking much about that nuclear attacks, in Albania they were preparing for the worst.  I had the the place to myself - there aren’t many tourists here. Nevertheless the museum provided a most informative history of what happened during the period from just before WWII up to the end of the Communist era. And fortunately there was an English translation for most of the displays.  The best museum

Bunk'Art entrance

Bunk'Art Bunker Corridor

Walking back towards town I got another taxi to the second Bunk’Art museum which is close to the main square.  This one Bunk’Art 2 deals with the police and security forces, the Sigurimi, in Albania from WWI up to the terrifying period of the Hoxha regime.  The Sigurimi were not a force to be trifled with. This museum is also housed in a bunker complex below the city streets.

At that point it was nearing 1:00 pm and I was feeling like I had walked enough.  My flight was at 3:30 so I took a taxi to the airport, Mother Theresa Airport (she was Albanian). Taxis do seem quite reasonable here.  At the airport all was smooth for my WizzAir departure for Budapest. Interestingly my ticket for the flight was 27 Euros.  If I hadn’t have printed my boarding pass at the hotel that morning, I would have been charged 35 Euros to get a boarding pass at the airport.

Mother Theresa Airport

EasyJet from Budapest to Gatwick and an overnight stay at the very fine Bloc Hotel before my Norwegian flight to Oakland and home.

There are more photos of the trip here.

Three Peaks Challenge - May 2018

It all started when I paid a visit to my friend Peter Kirton in London.  He suggested that I join him and his three sons on a “Three Peaks Challenge” that his son Akira was arranging.  The idea is to climb the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales in one weekend. Starting in Edinburgh, we would drive to Fort William for Ben Nevis the highest peak in Scotland (4,413 ft), then drive to the Lake District to climb Scafell Pike (3,209 ft), the highest in England, and finally finish up with Snowdon (3,560 ft), the highest in Wales.

It sounded like a nice thing to do so I agreed.  Over the next few weeks however I felt more and more unsure of things, Ben Nevis is the highest of the three and it is cold up there and there is snow.  

On the Friday afternoon I flew from Gatwick to Edinburgh to meet up with everyone and we all set off in a couple of rented vans.  There were 22 of us, mainly friends of Akira’s, predominantly fellow parents from his children’s school. We drove north from Edinburgh into the highlands, stopping for a bite of food on the way in Doune (totally overwhelming the staff at the pub who were not set up for an onslaught of 22 people in one go).  

At Fort William we had rooms at the Nevis Bank Inn.  The arrangements were a bit loose and we all shared rooms and most people had to share a bed.  I was fortunate as I shared a 2 bed room with Peter and son Hugh and I got my own bed.

In the morning after herding everyone out after breakfast (not an easy task) we set off for the mountain.  Since conditions on Ben Nevis can vary rapidly and the forecast was not good, Akira had arranged for a guide.  Not something I would generally do but in retrospect with 22 people many of whom had little prior mountain experience it was a good idea.

The Group before Ben Nevis

The trail from the Ben Nevis Inn is a well maintained route along the side of the mountain but it is up all the way.  It is built to last with huge boulder steps for most of the way up the lower slopes. Whoever built and maintains the trail did a fine job.  

Lower Slopes of Ben Nevis

On the lower slopes we were below cloud level and we could not see the top - it was shrouded in clouds.  It was pleasantly cool but not cold walking up the lower slopes and the fine rain that had been with us at the start fortunately stopped as we got higher.  There was some nice scenery with a couple of lakes and a view of the loch at Fort William below (Loch Linnhe). As we moved into the clouds we started up a series of long and steep switchbacks.  At the top of these we had reached snow level. There was a bit of a tough scramble in the snow up the last steep rise before the trail leveled out and sloped more gently towards the top. I used my crampons on this last bit since I had carried them all the way up but you could certainly manage without them.

This top section is where things could have gotten tricky without a guide, the clouds were low, the visibility poor, and the wind was fierce and somewhere out there there was a drop off down the steep side of the mountain.  

We finally reached the summit - a concrete trig point, a stone shelter and a weather station.  Of course we weren’t the only ones up there. It was terribly crowded with over a hundred people milling around taking photos and congratulating each other.  We did the obligatory summit team photo and munched on Hob-Nobs before starting our descent.

The Group on the Summit

Yours Truly on Summit of Ben Nevis

On the way down we did get a clearer look at the drop off down the steep side and it was very near to the summit trail.  That is definitely where things could have gotten nasty.

The way down was much easier for me.  When I am not limited by my breathing and gravity I find I can move a lot more quickly.  In fact I like to jog down a bit, it seems to be easier on the knees and quads.

At the bottom there was a pub where we all had snacks and beer while we waited for everyone to get down.  Then it was in the vans for the long drive south.

We drove through much of the same route that we had taken in the dark the previous night and we got the chance to see how beautiful it really was.  It was my first time in the highlands and they didn’t disappoint.

We picked up a couple of more people in Glasgow who were joining us for the last two peaks and then continued south to Lockerbie where we were staying for the night.  We finally arrived at the hotel around 9:00 pm and got the last orders in for a meal in the restaurant. For whatever reason I lucked out on the rooms and got one to myself.  It was a very small double bed with one side against the wall, not the sort of room to share a bed with another person.

Next morning our friends John and Gabrielle, who live an hour away in Kirkcudbright, joined us for breakfast.  I had seen them in Idaho for the eclipse the previous year but it had been many years since Peter had seen them.

Moving on south we drove into England and around the west side of the Lake District to the trailhead for Scafell Pike in Wasdale.  The weather was much better - sunny, warm, blue skies. A perfect day for a hike.

Wastwater from bottom of Scafell Pike Trail

My legs were certainly sore from the previous day’s efforts but I eventually got adjusted to climbing again.  The route from Wasdale is the shortest way up the mountain, being only 2.5 miles each way. Of course that makes it the steepest and it was a relentless slog up the side of the hill.  The lower 75% was a well maintained trail but at the top it became more of a slog through boulders and scree. Not easy going at all.

The Group on Scafell Pike

There were lots of people on the summit - a Bank Holiday weekend and the promise of good weather really brings everyone out.  Again after summit photos and celebrations we started down the hill. The downhills were becoming more painful now and my quads were really burning.

View from Summit of Scafell Pike

Wastwater from Scafell Pike Trail

At the bottom of the trail was a pub in Wasdale and a refreshing pint of shandy was just what I needed.  Then it was onwards for the long 4 or 5 hours drive into Wales to Snowdon. Again we drove through some stunning countryside a lot of it new to me.  Along the west and southern edges of the Lake District then as it got darker we were on the north coast of Wales (the Dee estuary, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay) before we turned down towards Caernarfon.

Since we were so late the restaurant we had planned to eat at declined to wait for us we had to find another place to eat.  We settled on an Indian in Caernarfon. It got a bit boisterous after the long drive and the consumption of alcohol but our Indian hosts did a great job of putting up with us and serving us some fine Indian food.

We arrived quite late at our hotel, the Saracen’s Head in Beddgelert.  After two nights of my own bed, I finally had to share a bed with Peter.  It was large enough and fortunately his snoring wasn’t too bad.

The next morning I wasn’t moving very well at all.  The stairs in the hotel were difficult and left me out of breath, how was I going to climb Snowdon?

View of Snowdon from Trailhead

There are many routes up Snowdon but we chose the Pyg trail out of the Pen-y-Pass car park on the way up, with a return on the more gentle but longer Miner’s trail.  The trail as usual was very well maintained for the most part. Lots of big boulder steps that tested you going up and going down.

Snowdon Summit

Snowdon is perhaps the most spectacular of the three mountains given that Ben Nevis was in the clouds.  It is a real mountain and you can clearly see the peak as you ascend. The views as you ascend are simply wonderful and the day was perfect, blue cloudless skies and quite warn.  As you climb out onto the summit ridge you join the railway track of the cog railway from Llanberis. There can’t be many mountains where you summit to a railway station and a cafe.

The Snowdon Cog Railway

Snowdon Summit Photo

After the obligatory summit photos we adjourned to the cafe for huge Welsh Pasties and cold Coca Colas.  Perfect.

The descent down followed the same route as we took going up and then the Miner’s Trail turned off downhill on a very steep section for about ¼ mile before leveling out for a gentle walk along the side of a lake and then down to the parking lot.  I took a most refreshing paddle in the icy waters of the lake. Just what the feet and calves needed. Some hardier folk like Akira and Ken took a swim in the lake. That would have been too cold for me.

Down Miner's Trail, Snowdon

The final mile back to the trailhead is a most pleasant walk. Nothing steep, just a gentle descent with a well placed pub at the bottom provided the necessary refreshments.

Lower section of Miner's Trail, Snowdon

So there it was, three peaks in three days.  That was quite an achievement and I don't know if I need to do that again.  Everyone was calling it the “Three Peaks Challenge” but I later learned the true Challenge was doing what we did in 24 hours.  That seems a little extreme, but lots of people do it apparently.

It was then a 5 hour drive back to London where we distributed people around Windsor and Heathrow and said our goodbyes.  I caught the bus from Heathrow to Gatwick where I had a hotel for the night.

There are more photos here.