We are sailing on a very small passenger ship, the MV Athena which is owned by the firm with which we are traveling. We have perhaps 48 passengers total, a small enough number to actually become acquainted with some of them. Our first stop was at the place where the oracle of Delphi operated for several hundred years. It turns out many temples, treasuries, theaters, etc. were built there during that period.
Our second stop was at Corfu, for my money the most beautiful of the Greek islands, and coincidentally the northernmost. We did an island tour and remarked how this time it reminds us so much of Madeira, a Portuguese island of the northwest coast of Africa. We didn't get that impression on our first visit. Corfu's waterfront park, called the Esplanade, is very large and pleasant.
Yesterday we were in Albania - a strange place. I won't trouble you with the political history of Albania, suffice it to say that it is both European and Islamic, and brews both beer and brandy. The oddest thing is that the country is covered with partially built buildings that in many cases have been knocked down on purpose. The builders are considered by the government as squatters although they have title to the land that goes back before the Communist period. Talk about a messed up place. About all that is left of Enver Hoxha, the supposedly Communist dictator whose ministrations they "enjoyed" for 40 years, is a series of concrete pillboxes and bunkers dotting the landscape.
Today we are in Montenegro, formerly a part of Serbia and before that a part of Tito's Yugoslavia. We are in Kotor, an ancient town at the head of what you or I would call a fjord but they call a bay. The cruise back in here is beautiful, probably 20 miles inland from the Adriatic Sea. The walls of the canyon are steep and here and there along the coast there is a small village - highly picturesque. If Americans know anything of Montenegro, it is probably that it is the birthplace of the fictional detective Nero Wolfe.
Tomorrow, who knows? I think more Montenegro.
