We're in Montenegro at the moment, having seem most of the coastline now, and a bit of inland.
Montenegro, it turns out, rivals Switzerland for lack of flat land. It doesn't have mountains the size of the Alps, but it makes up for it by not having the nice farming land down the valleys that the Swiss have. And the Montenegrin hills aren't rolling, they are pretty much all steep.
There is one large plain around Lake Skoder, which is mostly swamp and half in Albania anyway. It seems there is some flat land round Nikšić, but we didn't go there, because it is seriously out of the way.
So we have been treated to some fairly hair-raising rides, by bus and train, to get around. The bus rides have been particularly troublesome as the drivers exhibit safety standards that aren't quite what we are used to.
The driver today on the drive to Cetinje made a couple of phone call while we were driving along the edge of quite a substantial cliff.
One of our previous drivers literally held his phone in his left hand the entire trip. A driver yesterday was weaving all over the road as he drank from his water bottle. Alison has gone off sitting at the front of buses, because watching the drivers not concentrating on mountain roads is so alarming.
Oddly, the roads themselves are quite good, with decent surfaces and relatively wide. Much better than the roads in Serbia, Romania or Bulgaria, which were narrow and full of patches and holes.
Of course it is the very nature of the land which draws the tourists. The dramatic way the land plummets directly into the sea along the coast is quite something. Little islands and headlands poke out from the bays, often with medieval castles, walled towns or cute churches on them'
The beaches aren't much good, being largely rocky, but the water is crystal clear and reasonably warm. There is zero tide and surf, of course, being in the Med.
We started in Bar, which is fairly unremarkable place, full of hotels and apartments, but with an interesting old town back from the sea. We then moved to Kotor which is definitely nicer. Every day here a large passenger vessel has sailed in, so the cruise lines seem to think it worth a visit.
Kotor old town itself has most of its medieval walls remaining, and the castle above the town is something to behold, being perched unbelievably high above the town. You can climb the 1,350 stairs to the top, much of which is effectively cliff, if you like a challenge. Of course there are no safety rails even when the path is straight off a ledge. Much of the path is even marked as dangerous (due to falling rocks, I suspect). We chose to only go 2/3 of the way, because even from there you get a magnificent views of the town and harbour.
The bay the town lies on is a sheltered fjord off another sheltered harbour, and was an important Venetian possession.
In the outer bay is Porto Montenegro, a hangout of the types who like to sail large yachts, many of which are enormous. Nearby are Perast and Sveti Stefan, which you have very likely seen in tourist brochures or similar, even if you didn't recognise them at the time. It's becoming quite popular, for good reason, and is probably heaving with tourists in the height of the season.
Being the way it is, the best way to see the Kotor area is by sea. There's lot of ferries and cruises to choose from, but we took a three hour boat trip that went out into the Adriatic Sea itself – passing by the coastal defences along the way. I took a selfie in a cave we stopped in.
Montenegro, it turns out, rivals Switzerland for lack of flat land. It doesn't have mountains the size of the Alps, but it makes up for it by not having the nice farming land down the valleys that the Swiss have. And the Montenegrin hills aren't rolling, they are pretty much all steep.
There is one large plain around Lake Skoder, which is mostly swamp and half in Albania anyway. It seems there is some flat land round Nikšić, but we didn't go there, because it is seriously out of the way.
So we have been treated to some fairly hair-raising rides, by bus and train, to get around. The bus rides have been particularly troublesome as the drivers exhibit safety standards that aren't quite what we are used to.
The driver today on the drive to Cetinje made a couple of phone call while we were driving along the edge of quite a substantial cliff.
Photos taken seconds apart, of driver on phone and quite a large drop
One of our previous drivers literally held his phone in his left hand the entire trip. A driver yesterday was weaving all over the road as he drank from his water bottle. Alison has gone off sitting at the front of buses, because watching the drivers not concentrating on mountain roads is so alarming.
Oddly, the roads themselves are quite good, with decent surfaces and relatively wide. Much better than the roads in Serbia, Romania or Bulgaria, which were narrow and full of patches and holes.
Of course it is the very nature of the land which draws the tourists. The dramatic way the land plummets directly into the sea along the coast is quite something. Little islands and headlands poke out from the bays, often with medieval castles, walled towns or cute churches on them'
The beaches aren't much good, being largely rocky, but the water is crystal clear and reasonably warm. There is zero tide and surf, of course, being in the Med.
We started in Bar, which is fairly unremarkable place, full of hotels and apartments, but with an interesting old town back from the sea. We then moved to Kotor which is definitely nicer. Every day here a large passenger vessel has sailed in, so the cruise lines seem to think it worth a visit.
Kotor old town itself has most of its medieval walls remaining, and the castle above the town is something to behold, being perched unbelievably high above the town. You can climb the 1,350 stairs to the top, much of which is effectively cliff, if you like a challenge. Of course there are no safety rails even when the path is straight off a ledge. Much of the path is even marked as dangerous (due to falling rocks, I suspect). We chose to only go 2/3 of the way, because even from there you get a magnificent views of the town and harbour.
The bay the town lies on is a sheltered fjord off another sheltered harbour, and was an important Venetian possession.
In the outer bay is Porto Montenegro, a hangout of the types who like to sail large yachts, many of which are enormous. Nearby are Perast and Sveti Stefan, which you have very likely seen in tourist brochures or similar, even if you didn't recognise them at the time. It's becoming quite popular, for good reason, and is probably heaving with tourists in the height of the season.
Being the way it is, the best way to see the Kotor area is by sea. There's lot of ferries and cruises to choose from, but we took a three hour boat trip that went out into the Adriatic Sea itself – passing by the coastal defences along the way. I took a selfie in a cave we stopped in.
You will notice we have on our Balkan life-jackets in the picture. These are standard issue Balkan life-jackets, judging by the other boats.
To be fair it was an absolute mill pond – absolutely zero swell and zero chop – so we weren't in any danger of being swamped. I asked the skipper if it was always like that, and he said that they could get up to 3 metres of swell easily. I looked around for the life-jackets for those days, without much luck.
Montenegro has been well worth the quite sizeable detour it took to get us here. The level of English here has been very good, which helps. Costs are higher than most of the Balkans, but still cheaper than the equivalent places in western Europe. But it is hilly. Very hilly,
To be fair it was an absolute mill pond – absolutely zero swell and zero chop – so we weren't in any danger of being swamped. I asked the skipper if it was always like that, and he said that they could get up to 3 metres of swell easily. I looked around for the life-jackets for those days, without much luck.
Montenegro has been well worth the quite sizeable detour it took to get us here. The level of English here has been very good, which helps. Costs are higher than most of the Balkans, but still cheaper than the equivalent places in western Europe. But it is hilly. Very hilly,
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