Montenegro



We had to get up early to eat breakfast and be ready to leave at 7:30.  We arrived at the Croatian border at 8:25 to a line up of 6 busses ahead of us!  We thought we would have to sit for a long time but they opened up a second lane and we were finished at 9:05. They collected and stamped all of our passports. Then we went to the Montenegro border but it only took 5 minutes as they don’t need to see our passports. 

Just past the border we made a 20 minute stop to use some really gross bathrooms!  We also picked up our local guide, Carolina.  

Montenegro is a very small, mountainous country with only 600 000 inhabitants. We had a very scenic drive along the coast. Our first stop was at Perast. There were already many people there but we were lucky and got to walk right on the boat to go over to Our Lady of the Rocks, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is a tiny island that contains only a church. It took 200 years to build the island and church back in the 15th Century. The church was decorated with silver that was 500 years old and it contained 3 types of marble. 

We returned to the bus and continued our scenic drive to Kotor, which is a beautiful city that is tucked into the end of a long bay. 

We went right to lunch where we were served a delicious meal of fish or chicken. After lunch we continued our walking tour through the old section of Kotor. Again there were three cruise ships in port, causing it to be quite busy. We ended with 45 minutes of free time to shop or have a drink. 

We regrouped at 3:00 to make our way back to Dubrovnik. We took the same scenic route back but most of us had our eyes closed!  🤣. We did celebrate Linda Barlow’s birthday by subjecting her to our singing. 

We once again had to endure the border crossings which took about 40 minutes. 

We arrived back at the hotel at 6:00 pm, giving us a chance to relax, check out the pool or beach or grab a bite to eat. 

We regrouped at 7:30 to take a lovely evening stroll along the water promenade to reach the “Cave Bar”.  This is a bar that is built in a real cave.  I had read about it and decided to take the group and treat them to a drink. It was a gorgeous, full moon evening and we sat out on the deck beside the water. It was a perfect end to a wonderful day!














































 
























 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Julian Alps

Image
Today was another optional excursion which everyone chose to take. Our driver, Goran and our guide, Robert picked us up at the hotel in a smaller bus.   We travelled to Triglav National Park , the only National Park in Slovenia.    Robert played Slovenian music by the Arsenik brothers to set the mood! Triglav means 3 and this mountain has 3 peaks and is    2864 m high. We drove over the highest pass, Vedic pass, which is 1610 meters high and has 50 hairpin curves! Eek!    This highway was built during WW1 to provide access over the mountains.  We stopped at a Chapel dedicated to the Russian prisoners killed in avalanches in 1914.   The war in 1991 that gave Slovenia their independence from Yugoslavia only lasted 10 days and it ended on June 25, 1991.  We stopped at an open air museum which still has original WW1 Tunnels that we were able to walk through.  We stopped in the village of Bovec for lunch. This town is the Cente...
Read more

Trogir and Zadar

Image
  It was another early morning as we had to leave at 8:00 am. It was time to SPLIT!  🤣 . We drove a short distance to Trogir which is on the  UNESCO World Heritage List  as it is one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe.  Encased in 15th-century walls, the tiny medieval streets wind through the enchanting town revealing hidden restaurants and eye-catching galleries. A wide seaside promenade snakes around the town, culminating in a charming port full of sailboats.   Tamara led us on a short walking tour and then we had 1.5 hours of free time.  We continued to drive along the coast with beautiful vistas around every corner. I never get tired of looking at the numerous sailboats dotting the blue sea.  Our next stop was Zadar,    the  oldest continuously inhabited city  in  Croatia . It is another fortified city that is on  UNESCO 's  World Heritage Site  list. We were greeted by our lo...
Read more

We Made it to Dubrovnik!

Image
 We all made it safely to Dubrovnik! We had four people fly in two days early to explore Dubrovnik.  Today we had four people fly in from Edmonton, two from Toronto, 15 from Saskatoon  and Carl and I flew in from Vancouver. By 4:00 pm, we had all arrived and were greeted by tour Tour Director, Tamara. We had a bit of time to get settled and showered before regrouping for our welcome drink.  This was our first meeting together as a group as we’re weren’t able to have a Predeparture meeting (that’s what happens when the Group Coordinator moves to Kelowna)! 🤷‍♀️ After sharing a drink and making introductions we headed to the dining room for dinner.  We were treated to an amazing variety of delicious food. It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get people to head to bed.  We are all tired, ready for a good nights’ sleep and a great day tomorrow.    Good night!
Read more