LONDON AND THE MED 2025

Day 33 Montenegro

Re reading some of my recent posts, I get the feeling that being on the road so long might have been making me a little jaded. Well Montenegro has fixed all that.

Sailing up a beautiful fjord to the lovely old town of Kotor and being in a country where they actually wash and care for their cars and mow their lawns has given my spirits an incredible boost.

Our tour today first took us to the very top of the high mountains that surround Kotor. The road which had been constructed over a century ago was a single lane with 26 hairpin bends. It also handled two way traffic.

Here we are stopped at the 26th hairpin bend looking down at our ship. Jeanette is being very brave as there are no guard rails here.

If you encountered another vehicle, the rule was the vehicle nearest to the previous switchback passed, had to reverse back to that switchback to let the other vehicle squeeze by. We had to do that twice in a giant bus on a narrow twisting road way up in the mountains. My hair is now considerably greyer than when I started out. I should note that buses could only go in the up direction on this road.

Once at the top we drove to a small village where we stopped at a little inn for what the guide called ‘breakfast’. This comprised bread, Montenegrin prosciutto, a rather nice local cheese and a large glass of white wine. The latter helping considerably in settling the nerves from the trip up.

There were hams hanging over the inn table where we were sitting. They looked petrified to me but Jeanette insisted they were just aging. Given the amount of tobacco consumed in these parts, I guess the proprietors were getting smoked ham for free.

We travelled on to the old capital of Montenegro which was a pretty place. We visited the Palace of the last King of Montenegro. No photography was allowed inside but i reckon this was the first Palace I have ever been in that looked as though a family actually lived there.

Back on the bus we drove through an upmarket seaside tourist resort town, then spent around an hour and a half bumping over a two lane road which is being very slowly converted to a four lane one, getting back to our start point in the old town of Kotor.

The town walls are amazing, running right up the cliff to the top. This model gives you an idea of how it was set out.

Here is a view of part of the wall from our cabin. I reckon the soldiers manning the walls must have had thighs of steel just to get to and from work each day.