drive  to  kotor  &  perast,   montenegro

September 8, 2019

Our driver was at our hotel promptly at 9am. He was this HUGE guy named Elvis. He is a freelance driver, but apparently 80% of his trips are through the site we used (mydaytrip.com). I have absolutely no complaints at all with mydaytrip, and will definitely use them again. We were in a newer Audi A6, Elvis didn't drive too fast (nor too slow), and it took us about three and a half hours to Kotor- which did not include our planned 90-minute stop in Perast. It's fairly pricey ($175), but apparently the bus takes well over five hours because the border crossing through Croatia can be a nightmare. Sometimes you just pay money to save time, (and certainly much more comfortable!)

The Montenegrin flag at the border.

No problems at all crossing over into Montenegro. It took us all of ten minutes since we were the third car in line.

Our first views of the Bay of Kotor.

As we approached Perast, it started to rain.

Very picturesque in the rain.

We were starving so we stopped at a cute restaurant on the water.

After the waiter brought us our drinks, he then told us we couldn't order any food for another 90 minutes!

Excellent lunch at our second choice.

Kotor,  MONTENEGRO

               Elvis dropped us off at our hotel – the Porto In. Besides the very unique Lake Bled guesthouse in Slovenia, this was our favorite hotel on this trip. It’s about two blocks from the Kotor Old Town city walls. We were originally going to stay inside the city walls, but many people on TripAdvisor remarked that it was quite noisy. I’m so glad that we made the decision to stay outside… not only was it noisy inside, but in many areas it smelled of sewer gas. We’ve discovered on past trips that the sewer gas smell is a problem in these very old walled cities.

Old Town Kotor is unbelievable! The walled city has so many alleyways and so many great shots. I think it's better than Dubrovnik, but maybe not as clean.

The south entrance was only two blocks from our hotel.

There are cats everywhere. Not only are there cat t-shirts, stores specifically devoted to cats, and restaurants with cat names... there is even a cat museum. On the counters of the retail stores they have a tip jar for the cats. The shopkeepers donate money to take care of the them. I have many cat photos.

Six cats in this shot!

There are several boats in the harbor worth millions of dollars. Apparently Kotor is becoming the new French Riviera for the super wealthy; many of them are Russians. Montenegro has many tax shelters, so these people are also buying real estate like crazy. (Like our guide said the next day... "How you say in English - laundering?") This private boat was out of London.

We had an excellent dinner at La Catedral before walking around at dusk.

We did buy a bowl here... unfortunately, it did not make it home in one piece.

The Old Town is also quite beautiful after dark.

We are back in our nice hotel quite early tonight. We are planning to be at the wall to walk the 1355 steps to the top at 7:30am. I've decided that the six most frightful words that Robin can utter to me are "let's go ahead and climb it". Like a damn monkey or 7-year old boy... everything is to be climbed. It's supposedly too hot to do it after 11am, so we are leaving early. This photo is a preview of tomorrow's climb... it doesn't even show the top!

September 9, 2019
              OMG! Just finished the walk up to see the views from above. Instead of doing the steps along the walls, we did what they call "the ladder". It consists of many switchbacks, so it's slightly more gradual. We then climbed up a real ladder through an old window in the fort walls to the side with the steps on it. I was done at that point, but of course the "7-year-old boy" continued another 10 minutes to the top of the fortress. We then walked the thousand steps down. We were soaking wet because the humidity is so high even though it only is in the 70's, but THANK GOD it was cloudy!

We are going all the way up to the top left corner of this photo.

You can see that the switchbacks were gradual.

Nevertheless, we are still going UP.

We started at sea level.

The one cat that tried to bite me. He does look pissed!

Can stop here for smoked ham, scotch and bathrooms!

Many interesting stops along the way.

What you don't see here is that there is a huge drop-off at the bottom of the ladder.

Plus... the ladder was only fastened to the top of the wall at one corner!

A great shot to see all of the wall.

A zoomed-in shot of the walled Old Town area.

Much easier going down.

            We came back to our room at Porto In. We just needed to cool down in some AC for a while. After lunch we paid 15 euros each for a 2.5 hour boat ride that included 30 minutes on Our Lady of the Rocks and 30 minutes in Perast. Guess what Robin did in Perast? Climbed the clock tower. We didn't have that much time to do anything else. Although there was no narration on the boat (and about 25 people), I thoroughly enjoyed being out on the water.

They also love their risotto.

Two large cruise ships here today.

Many cute villages along Kotor Bay.

Sveti Đorđe Island - No tourists allowed.

Our Lady of the Rocks is an artificial island created by a bulwark of rocks and old and seized ships loaded with rocks.

Back in Perast on a much nicer day.

One guess who that person is in the window taking photos!

The stairs in the Bell Tower.

There were three working bells.

But the views ARE amazing.

Later, we had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Przun, and then walked around and took another 20 cat photos. I think we've exhausted Kotor.

Centinje,   montenegro

September 10, 2019
          Another day... another awesome tour! We got picked up by Tanja from Montenegro Wonders tour company at 9am. The traffic in Kotor was bumper to bumper and she had to park a long ways away. But once we finally got out of chaotic Kotor, the traffic was pretty much gone for the rest of the day. 

One last breakfast at Porto In.

This was an old communist era textile plant.

Finally out of the bumper-to-bumper traffic of Kotor.

Tanja was not what I expected. I had a vision of her as a heavyset 45 year old; instead she was tall and thin with long red hair in her early 30's. I noticed that many men in the cafes turned to look at her. She also seemed to know everyone, and had an easygoing, friendly manner. One other fun fact about Tanja... she used to have a tango school and has danced all over the world. So we've had a tango dancer and an Olympic biathlete as tour guides!

​Our first stop was the town of Centinje. We were shocked to find out that all the people hanging out in the very busy town center were locals, even though it was a weekday at 11am. Tanja informed us that Montenegrins don’t like to work. Even while at work, people will take breaks often. Someone may be working in a restaurant and they’ll say to a friend that stops by in the middle of their shift, “Can you take my place?” Although the friend doesn't even work there, they’ll work while the actual worker heads to a park or café.

This photo doesn't really capture the amount of people out or the party atmosphere; unfortunately, it's the only one I have.

At a busy cafe with all the locals.

"Kids escaping school" - Tanja's words.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the people up dancing to the music.

lovcen  national park,  montenegro

Even though we were already at the top of the mountain, if you want to see the mausoleum - it was another 421 steps through the tunnel.

At the mouth of the tunnel is a payment booth. Apparently, sometimes you pay, sometimes you don't. Unfortunately for us, this guy wanted to work today.

A nice cool breeze came through the tunnel.

The tunnel had many side exits.

The biggest and most important monument of Lovćen national park is Petar Petrović Njegoš's Mausoleum constructed in 1971. The location for his burial place and the mausoleum at the summit of Jezerski vrh was chosen by Njegoš himself as his last wish.

Inside the mausoleum.

“My wife can be from anywhere but my car must be from Germany” is a Montenegrin joke. We are in a VW.

Because Tanja wanted to stop and buy a bottle of organic wine for a friend, we stopped at this small boutique winery.

The room where they hold wine tastings.

The winemaker makes wine as a hobby. He only sells his wine in Montenegro and has won many awards.

Even though he doesn't speak a word of English, he really wanted to show us this old saddle he just came across.

Karuc  &  Lake  Skadar,  Montenegro

            My favorite part of the day was in the very small fishing village of Karuc. Tanja brought us to one of the local’s house where the wife cooked trout and grilled vegetables for us. The meal was actually quite good and the view was an absolutely spectacular view of Skadar Lake. Afterwards, we went out in what our guide called an "authentic" boat... which meant a rickety metal boat with a motor that took several minutes to start. Oh yeah, absolutely no life preservers and as easy to tip as a canoe. Fortunately, the ride on the tranquil lake was smooth and the lily pads on the edges were amazing. It was now sunset and the boat ride was the highlight of the day.

Our first views of Lake Skadar.

Karuc consisted of just a few houses.

Walking to our host's house.

Fantastic view while waiting for our food. It's now 4pm and we are starving. Apparently, Montenegrins eat lunch around 4pm and dinner at 10pm.

I had a vegetarian plate with the sweetest peppers ever.

Robin had Lake Skadar trout.

Uh... is that the boat? Where are the life preservers?

I was told it was a "covered" boat. That's why the umbrella is there!

You can see that the umbrella ended up on the rusty metal floor (along with Tanja's phone that kept falling).

More homes in Karuc.

Loved this pathway through the lily pads!

This hotel is only accessible by water.

Glad that didn't happen to our boat!

Although I absolutely loved the 45 minutes we were out there, I am also happy to see the dock.

            On the way to Podgorica, our final stop was at an old, abandoned communist-era monument. The place was called Beratauna; it had an amphitheater overlooking the main monument that symbolizes unity. I find these old communist monuments quite interesting even if no one goes there now. I read later that this monument was designed by a female architect.

Quite a bit of seating in the amphitheater.

Podgorica,  Montenegro

           After we were dropped off at our hotel, we ate at a wonderful restaurant called Green Garden and then added another 1.5 miles to our 4 mile total.  Even though it was now 9pm there were people everywhere! The park benches were full, the kids were playing soccer, children and families out in full force. I love how safe it is at night. You just don't see this in the US. On this trip, I have found the Montenegrins to be the warmest and most outgoing people. They laugh easy and are quite friendly. Maybe the fact that they don't value work so much says something about how much easier and free their life may be? The Slovenians were polite (and I liked that country the best), while the Bosnians were guarded, distant and somewhat unfriendly. However, the Bosnians certainly have seen much harder times than these other two countries.

Kids everywhere on a school night. These people love to socialize!

Another communist era building.

This statue is a symbol of a national dance from the Montenegrin mountains that imitates the dance of eagles.

September 11, 2019
            Went to Albania for the day (see Albania section).

​September 12, 2019
             Spent the morning in Podgorica looking for a cheap bag to solve our luggage weight problem. Here we thought we were doing this wonderful thing by having only one suitcase, but it was 11 kilos. The weight limit for European carriers is 8 kilos. So we could each bring a suitcase and both be easily under the weight limit if we bought a second bag. We walked to a large shopping mall called Delta City and bought a small duffel bag. By the time we got back at 10:30am, it was already hot as hell. So the only thing we did before we left Podgorica was go back to Green Garden for lunch.
             Some final observations on Montenegro:

Everyone was so tall, ESPECIALLY the women....

...we now understood why Robin couldn't see in the hotel bathroom mirror!

Literally EVERYONE smokes, mostly while eating.

Overall, people were thin. I don't know how though... everything is covered in cheese. This is a chicken wrap (that they simply call "tortilla" on the menu).

Just hanging out on the hotel balcony waiting to head to the airport.

Heading back to Ljubljana for the evening to start our long journey home. Thank You for a wonderful trip!