Blogs from Kotor, Montenegro, Europe - page 2

Four ports in Four days. Dubrovnik, Croatia We stepped out on the pier and into a wooden boat for a short sail to the Old Town. There are now hotels along the coast as tourism continues to grow in importance here. The old town is walled against invaders but during the Balkan war it was besieged by the Yugoslav troops and it took weeks before the siege was broken. Bullet holes are visible on the walls as a re I dear of that dreadful time. In 1666 a massive earthquake devastated more f the Romanesque architecture and the town was rebuilt in the Renaissance style. I would love to show you the wonderful pictures I took but (Drat, Damn, and Oh Sh-t) I deleted them by mistake. That was a first. After a walk around in ... read more

Nach den entspannten und größtenteils einsamen Tagen in Bosnien sind wir wieder bereit für etwas Massentourismus und wollen uns Dubrovnik ansehen, wohlwissend, dass wir nicht die einzigen Touristen sein werden, dass man sich vermutlich durch die Gassen schieben lassen muss und innerhalb der Altstadtmauern vermutlich kein Plätzchen für sich alleine haben wird. Aber zunächst brauchen wir noch ein Weilchen, bis wir unseren Campingplatz, übrigens auch der teuerste und schlechteste der bisherigen Reise, bei Dubrovnik erreichen. Denn wenn man von Mostar kommend die Hauptstrecke in Richtung Dubrovnik fährt, reist man zunächst aus Bosnien aus und nach Kroatien ein, und zwar so richtig mit allem was dazu gehört, denn man reist ja aus einem Nicht-EU-Land in die EU ein. Allerdings ist die Grenze hier recht wenig frequentiert. Dann fährt man allerdings auf der Küstenstraße, die alle Touristen nehmen ... read more

Despite disturbed sleep last night, my energy was up for a long, full day in Montenegro. About forty minutes down the main road was the emigration post for Croatia. Our driver, Tomas, collected our passports and presented them through a window to the official, who did a computer scan and solemnly stamped each one. We drove a few minutes on, and Tomas presented the bunch of passports to the Montenegrin official, who just stamped us in. A moment later we were stopped for a police check; the official made a motion of checking the passports, but he didn’t really. Montenegro is lusher than Croatia (4000 mm of rain compared to 400 mm annually). Some trees were adorned with white flowers, from which the petals dropped like snow. The upper parts of the mountains were dry with ... read more

Today we leave Albania with its crazy drivers and intermittent roads and head for Montenegro. After a cheesefest of a breakfast we drive to the border which takes ages to cross. Not because it’s particularly busy but because it’s particularly slow. Queuing is arbitrary, Albanians keep pushing to the front and the border guard drops what she’s doing to deal with them instead. Finally we’re through and in the rural south of Montenegro. After about a mile, a red light appears on the dashboard, the car starts beeping and displaying a ‘check engine’ sign. Not the best start to the day. After a few miles of driving our sick car along tiny gravel roads, we reach the highway which runs along a ledge between the mountains and the bright blue Adriatic Sea. We stop briefly at ... read more

Friday 29th We finally got the document at the end of the day with the friendly campsite owner handing it over to us. Result! We packed up there and then and headed straight to the Montenegrin border. This time it went without a hitch and went straight through with not even a search of the vehicle. We drove in the early evening and were met by a beautiful coastal road that led all the way into the bay of Kotor. The water was glistening in the sunset and were very happy to be in the move again! We found a small patch of grass down a narrow path and slept there for the night. Saturday 30th That morning we had to be out early! As we were waking up and Char was poodling around Dobby there ... read more