Montenegro

Another day another country.

Mike and Jo have organised this part of our trip and today we headed south to do some exploring in Montenegro.

Rick Steves, in his travel guide of the area has a great way of describing the country as “ gritty, raw and a bit exotic “. While Croatia has been able to maintain its beatiful architecture the same has not been the case for Montenegro which the concrete block influences of Yugoslavia.

Fortunately not all of the country has fallen under this spell and there are some stunning sights. We headed south and cleared the border customs without any issues. This bought us to the Bay of Kotor. After passing through some industrial towns our first village stop was at a place called Perast. This was on the advice of our AirBnB hosts. This is a beatiful little town in a very strategic position as it guarded the shipping straights which are very narrow here and

used cannons to repel invaders. After parking the car (in which process Mike made some new friends!) we wandered along the water front and explored some of the historical buildings.

From there we made our way to the main visit for the day being Kotor after crossing over the worlds shortest river.

Kotor has had people there from about 2500 BC. Again for the strategic reason of being able to protect from invaders. Just about everybody has had a crack at settling there. In more recent times they found themselves part of Yugoslavia after the WWI settlement which didn’t sit too well. They managed to avoid most of the impact of the war in the 90’s and finally gained their independence in the early 2000’s.

We started with lunch at a recommended restaurant which was outstanding. The local food is based around cured meat, cheese and fish. Between us we had a crack at all of these. The food was supported by local beer and wine and a small feast was had.

After lunch we continued exploring the town and then all of us headed up the walls for a while. Mike and Jo continued much higher for some spectacular views. All this effort earned an ice cream.

We then worked our way back to Dubrovnik using tunnels through mountains and a car ferry over the sound to help us. Arriving back at the apartment we sent Mike and Jo to the Old Town to source some dinner and replenish the very good local beer. A much appreciated dinner provided a great end to a top day.