Just returned from a day trip to the Bay of Kotor in nearby Montenegro (which i may have misstated as Herzogovina in my last post?) Whoooooops. Showerd up, changed and ready for dinner..
We got up relatively early and walked to where our rental car was parked at Peter (the owner of our little apartments) about 15 minutes outside the city. Absolutely breathtaking view of Dubronik’s harbor in the morning light, already started to get hot!
We drove about 45 minutes to the south to the border of Croatia and Montenegro. They had two checkpoints, one for leaving Croatia, and one for entering Montenegro, my question was what was the area in between?
We drove down into Montenegro after waiting foreveeeeeer at the border, for nothing more than a little, tiny, cursory glance and stamp of the passport. BOOOO. Drove through several cities along the water before entering into the huge bay of Kotar. Montenegro doesn’t seem quiteeeee as put together as Croatia, and given that it only got its independence in 2006 I guess that makes sense. It was a little more communist in feel, and a little more rundown, but of course we did not spend that much time in the country.
Along the way, we stopped at a small town of Venetian ancestry, cool little city with a nice old church and very old buildings. Out in front there are two very small islands with buildings on them. One of the islands is man made and the other is natural, cool stuff.
We had a cappuccino and continued our drive. Eventually we arrived at Kotor (the city) and found a place to park. We walked around the old city, which is very small and very very legit. Much less of a tourist destination than the other cities we have seen and it showed. It has a very large city wall that climbs a huge cliff/mountain/hill? behind the city. Check the pictures and decide for yourself. We paid 2 Euro and climbed up the old city wall towards the fortress at the top halfway up was a church with a great vista. Apparently this fortress repelled an Ottoman siege of 2 months in the 1600’s. We continued up and up and up all the way to the top of the fortress, working up a pretty big sweat. Eventually we descended, walked around the city some more, had lunch and took off. Very neat city, one that my mom was super excited about. She decided she thought it was the most charming one so far.
We packed up, and started the drive back. We took a different route back that involved a short ferry across the narrowest part of the bay. Long wait, but it was kinda cool to add ‘small-car ferry’ to our long list of transportation used on this trip and another country to the growing list.
1. Plane
2. Subway
3. Tram
4. Taxi
5. Bus
6. Small Car-Ferry
7. Large Ferry
8. Rental Car
9. Fast Catermeran
10. Foot? I just wanted an even 10 haha.
Countries
1)Canada
2) England
3)Austria
4)Croatia
5)Montenegro
6)Bosnia and Herzegovina (tomorrow)
7) Slovenia (3 days)
8) Germany (Next week)
Whew. What a list so far. Amazing what you can accomplish in one week of traveling!
The drive into Dabronik was especially beautiful as the sky had exploded in color for a breathtaking sunset. Also, I cut my hand climbing the cliffs yesterday and it is getting infected, and jonny mcconny you saw the last time my hand got infected. Hopefully that clears itself up soon.
Off on the long drive to Mostar, Bosnia tomorrow for a little more up close and personal glance into the impact of war on this area. Very important to remember that not too long ago brutal violence and genocide plagued this area. The darkness that humanity can create is truly astonishing and frightening, especially when we are watching on TV reports on the conflict in Georgia. Kinda hits harder when you are in an area that went through something similar not 15 years ago. Hopefully things clear up there ASAP and the Russians and Georgians can have peace.
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