We went on the first EasyJet flight to Tivat. We then stayed in Kotor for a week between 27/03/16 and 02/04/16. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of photos after my NAS drive was hacked, but there’s still a fair few of the beautiful country. Most days turned out warm with blue skies, there was rain one day, anda couple of mornings there a low hanging sea mist.
Kotor was an absolute delight. It was similar to Dubrovnik in stone used and the building design, but there was not the war damage. The city is dominated by the city walls which extend to the fortress high above the city.
Climbing up the 1350 steps to get to the fortress at the top of the city walls was an experience.
The Bay of Kotor
The bay of Kotor is often described as a Fjord. It is not, but it is a huge sheltered deepwater bay, with glorious views.
Even when the weather was iffy the views weren’t
A couple of photos of Perast from different parts of the bay.
STrangely as we walked around the bay we were suprised by the number of abandoned houses there were.
There were a fair number of daytrippers to Kotor but very few staying in the old town. So we had opportunity to walk round this magical place at night.
The city walls were amazing.
Tivat
The facilities in Tivat were being developed. There major development was on a former Yugoslavian Naval base. With new accommodation and shops and restaurants.
There were great views from the promenade to the mountains.
Herceg Novi
We caught the service bus to Herceg Novi. This took around an hour and went round the whole bay of Kotor. There were great views from the bus. Herceg Novi was a lovely little town, andwe had a walk round then caught the bus back.
Perast.
This is a small village just down the coast from Kotor.
The village is best seen from the water, which also emphasises the hills surrounding the bay
The main reason to visit the village was a boat trip to visit two islands in the bay
Although it was warm and sunny the snow was still clinging to the mountain tops.
Tour
We booked a day tour which turned out to be absolutely stunning. I think it is the only tour I have ever done where I was knee deep in snow and on the beach on the same tour. Local history was included such as the capital was chosen so in times of war it was easy to reach by the whole population and could be defended in every direction, or that flat land was reserved for farming, apart for the rich who were ale to pay the fines.
We left Kotor on the Serpentine Road. This climbs up the side of the bay with 25 hairpins, and has the most amazing views of the whole of the whole area
or a totally justifed panorama!
Njegos Mausoleum at 1657m in Lovcen National Park. We were among the first visitors to the Mausoleum that year. We couldn’t get to the car park because the road was still blocked with snow, so the bus dropped us a couple of hundred yards away so we could cut through the woods. The mountain has been hollowed out for a huge staircase, with the Mausolem at the top.
The Mausoleum would fit in any fantasy story with epic statues and grand design.
But the greatest sights were outside. There was a viewing platform at the edge of a ridge. This was only partially cleared and a little unnerving with knee high snow on one side and a long drop at the other.
My photo was terrible but a little bit of Gemini worked wonders.
and the views
Cetinje Monastery in Cetinje, the Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. This was a lovely place a large park and a lot of civic buildings.
Rijeka Crnojevića – This was a charming village near Lake Skadar
The tour continued to the shores of Lake Skadar. The other shore is Albania.
A view from a layby.
Then the tour headed to Budva old town and beach. Apparently even 10 years ago there was a lot of Russians moving to Budva. There was a lot of new building next to an old core.
There was a sense of fun
Montenegro was one of my favourite places and somewhere I would like to go back to. A small curise liner docked one day and the place was over run.