We woke up and had a leisurely breakfast on the outside terrace.

Although the weather forecast wasn’t looking great we decided to go and visit Bogova waterfall. The drive there took around 45 minutes and there was some lovely scenery on the way.

We parked in a free car park near the waterworks station. As soon as we parked up we were approached by a young lad offering to walk us to the waterfall, obviously for a price. We politely declined. The walk to the waterfall took around 20 minutes and was fairly straightforward and quite pretty, with a few bridges to cross.

Bogova waterfall is 20m high and has a 4m deep pool at the bottom of it.

I had bought my swimming stuff with me so decided to go for a little dip. It was freezing, very refreshing.

It was a lovely swim and a really nice spot. Well worth a visit. A few other people were around when we were there but it was pretty quiet.

We walked back to the car and it was a scenic drive back to Berat. Nicola did all the driving as the roads were quite windy, so I just took photos.

We parked in one of the car parks in Berat and went to see the area we hadn’t explored yet. There was a fairground just over the road from the car park.

We walked past the Lead mosque and is named as such because of the lead coating on the domes. The mosque was completed in 961 and restored in 2014.

Just up from the mosque was a huge cathedral, St Demetrius cathedral. The cathedral was founded in the 1900s but due to a cholera outbreak in the city, building was delayed until 2002 and it opened in 2009. It was built near the ruins of the old church of Demetrius which was originally built in 1851. It was built to bring spiritual protection after over 400 people were killed in an earthquake.

The cathedral is 527m² and has a height of 22m including an impressive bell tower. The feast day of St Demetrius is 26 October and Berat celebrates this every year.

We were both hungry so decided to stop at a little cafe by the church, Taverna Dona – not the best decision we made. We both ordered grilled cheese and chips and it was probably the worst meal we had, the chips were soggy and the cheese didn’t taste great. The coffee was really chalky too.

After lunch we took a stroll down the promenade and passed a statue of Robert Schuman which honors the Luxembourg-born French statesman and “Father of Europe”. Schuman played a crucial role in founding the European Coal and Steel Community, a predecessor to the European Union. 

We also sneaked inside Hotel Colombo, a luxury hotel in Berat. It looks like a palace and has 118 rooms.

We continued down the promenade to the Bachelor mosque before turning round and walking back to the car park.

Nicola drove us back home, where it quickly hung out all my wet swimming stuff.

And then we wandered over to the Onufri museum. Onufri was a 16th century Archpriest of Elbasan and the most important painter of Orthodox mural and icons in the early post Byzantine-era in Albania. He founded a school of painting in Berat. Onufri was the first painter to use pink pigment and the French called it Onufri red. This museum is inside St Mary’s Church and contains 173 objects, of which 106 are icons, some dating back to the 14th century.

The museum contains an iconostasis  which was created in 1807. It is thought to be one of the finest pieces of Albanian wood carving. It has two rows of icons. 12 large ones known as royal icons, and 27 smaller festival icons. At the centre of the iconostasis is the Royal Door.

The nave floor is paved with stone slabs and in the centre is a solar mosaic and calendar which depicts a visual chart of the Christian period.

We passed the anvona which is a very early example of a podium where the Deacon climbs in to read the gospel. The anvona is one of the highest parts of the church, showing the significance of the word of God.

We had a quick look at the Sanctuary, which is the holiest place in the church. It is slightly elevated above the floor of the church. It is inaccessible to women, and men need a special blessing in order to enter. Obviously the clergy can enter at any time.

There were many other paintings over the two floors.

After walking around the museum we picked up some souvenirs by the castle gate before heading home.

I took some more photos of the views from our garden as we enjoyed a glass of wine.

A family moved into the village below ours with the swinging seats.

For dinner we walked up to the other side of the castle to a little restaurant. We ate a delicious moussaka with some great red wine.

The family who had just moved in ended up at the same restaurant. They all lived in different places and countries and had decided to all meet up in Albania before heading off to a wedding.

It got a bit chilly so we moved inside to the bar and tried some raki. Tim and Sandra were inside so we all got chatting together.

It was a really nice evening.