Meanwhile, back at the lake...

The view from our hotel

Watercolour sketch

©2014 Charlene Brown

This tranquil view of Lake Ohrid (even the swans and their cygnets were dozing off – within a few metres of the shore) belies the often-violent history of the area.

Samuil’s fortress benignly overlooks the iconic Macedonian Orthodox St. Jovan Caneo church, thought to have been built in the 13^th century prior to incursions by the expanding Ottoman Empire, and the lake itself, which Macedonia (then Yugoslavia) shared with Albania through many tumultuous years.