It is a pleasant 3 hour drive south winding through pretty, mountainous terrain. Our destination is Lake Ohrid, a massive lake that straddles the border between Macedonia and Albania. It is Sunday and the sun is shining and the little tourist town of Ohrid on the Macedonian side is abuzz with tourists and locals walking the lakeside promenade soaking in the UV rays and the view.
The setting is sublime and on Monday when the tourist traffic dissipates it is peaceful. We are lakeside on the promenade and it is a lovely 15 minute stroll to the delightful old town, a maze of cobblestone alleyways. The moniker “Jerusalem of the Balkans refers to the fact that there are 365 churches here, one for each day of the year. The oldest is the church of St Sofia which dates back to the 11th century. The ancient theatre dates back to 200 BC and a fort on the hilltop dominates the town.
Monday lunch is at Monastery winery with a cheese and charcuterie platter and a guided wine tasting. Both food and wine were amazingly good.
We finish our afternoon with a boat ride on the lake on a quirky “semi submarine” offering both underwater and deck views.
Our final morning in Macedonia sees us driving around the lake to the Albanian border and stopping at the Monastery of St Naum. It was established by St Naum, a Bulgarian writer and enlightener, in the 10th century. The present day church dates back to the 16th century and is said to be where the brothers St Cyril and St Methodius developed the Cyrillic alphabet.
