On the second day of our short break in the Croatian town of Dubrovnik, we had booked onto a organised coach tour of the neigbouring country of Montenegro. It was an early start and we had no idea what the itinery was, but was looking forward to visiting yet another new country.
After a lengthy tour of various hotels, collecting our fellow tourees, we made our way through the Montenegrian boarder and onto the Bay of Kotor. This was a beautiful fjord-like valley with stunning mountain scenery. Unfortunately I, in my infinite wisdom, had chosen to sit on the left side of the coach, the side that all the scenery was not. So I had to wait until we got a chance to exit the coach before taking photos.
We travelled round the bay through the small towns Herceg Novi, Risan and Dobrota, before reaching the jewel of the bay and its namesake, the UNISCO town of Kotor. This was definitly the highlight of the trip for me and I only wish we had longer than an hour to explore its intricut streets. Kotor was a most unusual town in that its town walls not only surrounded its exposed sides, but also climbed up the side of the steep cliff face that Kotor hugged. In my usual fashion I tried to reach the top, but by the time Kristi and I got round to climbing the many steps, we only had twenty minutes before we had to meet back at the coach. I left Kristi and raced as far up the cliff as I could. Getting about half way, I found a little time to catch my breath, mop the river of sweat from my face, and take some pictures of the views. Did I mention it was a rather humid 32 degrees there.
Our next desination was up 1,749 metres and over the Lovcen mountain. The road gave us ever more impressive views into the valley below as we rose. It was especially interesting when we met on comming traffic on what would normally be considered single track. One car had to reverse for a few minutes before reaching a spot where our coach could pass.
At the top of the mountain sat the rather idealistic town of Njegusi. Renown for its smoked ham and cheese meant we of course had ham and cheese sandwitches when we stopped for lunch. The trip down the otherside of Lovcen led to the one time capital of Cetinje. Here we stopped for a tour of the palace museum, which was your run of the mill collection of antiques furniture, weapons and traditional dress. It was however quite amusing as the guide proudly mocked the Turks over their various captured flags, all the while not realliseing four of our number were in fact Turkish.
The final destination before the return journey was the town of Budva. On the face of it, the town seemed like a place for those looking for a beach and booze holiday, with many red faced folk in beach ware wandering the streets. Although yet again the old town was quite nice to explore its narrow streets.
Heading back to Croatia we took a ferry at Tivat across the Bay of Kotor. The day was indeed packed with sites and was quite exausting, but gave us a good insite into the country of Montenegro.
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