Not sure where Albania is?

Here’s your geography lesson for the day.

It’s a hop across the sea from the heel of Italy. It’s north of Greece. It’s south of Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro.

It sits on the coast of the Adriatic and borders both Kosovo and North Macedonia to the east.

Now you know.

It’s photos that I like to share, they’re the reason for my rolling Caboose blog. These were taken last June, 2023 as we biked through this charming, slightly behind-the-times, country.

People say Albania is the least developed country in Europe; tourism is in its infancy which was a pleasure.

The only crowds we ever saw were sheep.

It was an extremely closed and isolated country in the past and has been compared to North Korea. The borders finally opened up to the world in the mid-1990s and Albania is now seen as a safe, unspoiled, economical holiday destination.

Here are the 11 biker-grandmas who went to check the place out last spring.

In order of age on the stairway, 70-85 years young. Tough old birds and experienced cyclists who peddled nearly 500 km with no problem.

We had e-bikes mind you, we aren’t crazy. The mountains are high in Albania.

The rural landscape was pastoral.

We booked the trip with Freedom Treks, a company based in England, but were handed over to CycleAlbania, who grouped us with other cyclists from Germany, Denmark, the US and Mexico.

Here’s the gang our young Albanian guide herded around the country during the 10-day tour. He’s fourth from the left.

For the most part the roads were quiet and the traffic was slow.

Superb food was included in our tour package, everything locally grown or fished. We sampled plenty of Albanian wine, beer and the local specialty, raki, a fermented and distilled fruit beverage as potent as vodka.

Hotels ranged from elegant on the coastal Albanian Riviera to rustic in the rural countryside.

Our guide and our driver of the support van were sweet, cute and extremely efficient and organized. This wasn’t their first rodeo, but we may have been their oldest riders.

Every morning the bikes were raring to go with freshly-charged batteries. They were top quality machines with four levels of assist. I don’t remember any breakdowns. And luckily, only two small tumbles with no serious injuries.

They found the best coffee breaks for us everyday.

The rides were usually 50-70 km a day with some challenging climbs and fast, winding, keep-your-hands-on-your-brakes, descents.

Notice the long zigzag climb below. It was a tough 1600 metre ascent on our last day. We love e-bikes.

Albania - Part 2 coming soon. Cool architecture, a nutty, paranoid dictator, a sexy octogenarian at the hot springs.

Stay tuned!