A day in Ohrid

Photos here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UXDxjsBtEdQm1KDq9

Ohrid is s wonderful ancient city and it's  easy to see why it a world heritage site. You can literally see the layers of the past laid bare as you wander from site to site.  Today, those sites are predominantly  byzantine era churches. In saint sophia you can see three layers of frescoes, starting in the tenth century, followed by 13th and 15th century layers. At saint pantalaimon, the frescoes covering the walls were only rediscovered in the 1960s. From the 16th century, the church was converted to a mosque and the frescoes were covered in white plaster. In front of thr church are the remains of an early christian basilics from the fourth century, with some mosaics still in situ.
Apart from churches there are also the well preserved roman theatre, in use today by a load of school children dancing; and the csstle. While most of what you see today was built by a tenth century bulgarisn king, samuel, it dates back to the 4th century bce. In roman times it would have been the military base for the via egnatia.
In the restored house of a pair of 19th century merchant brothers is a lovely mix of period settings, ethnographic material and ancient artefacts. Unfortunstrly, the stsr attraction of a golden death mask dating to 500 bce or so, and found nearby, is on loan to anothrr museum. But there was a lot else to interest me. A foot oil lamp, relief sculpture from the theatre, a lovely ancient greek inscription lamenting the death of a daughter. There was a milestone, perhaps from the via egnatia, and more besides. I loved it. The wood carvings were lovely too, in walnut and only from last century. It is a specialty of this area. The traditionsl dress was gorgeous too. As per everywhere else i went today, the place was invaded by a horde of teenagers on a school excursion. The town was heaving with them, but not many tourists. Had lunch at a restaurant built into a tower of the ancient town walls. Thought i better have something locsl, stuffed peppers. Delicious. Apart  from it being incredibly cold today, Ohrid was an absolute pleasure. So far, northern macedonia reminds me a lot of Croatia. Despite the cyrillic alphabet, a lot of the words are the same,  and despite the different brands of christianity, there is a similar vibe to the people.
Tomorrow i head into the hills for a 25 km or so climb over to Resen on the other side.  I am going completely off grid on this leg, following a park map instead of the route provided,  which tim tells me, is not accurate anyway.