MONTENEGRO – KOTOR

MAY 1-2, 2025

Kotor is a very small city located on the shore of the Bay of Kotor. It is one of the best preserved and most beautiful medieval fortified towns in the Mediterranean. It was first mentioned in 186 BC. It was a rather unknown tourist spot, but the advent of cruise ships has increased business since 2000. I hope it keeps its quaint beauty.

The first order of business was to find food. (Remember, Ivanica was so small it didn’t even have a shop let alone a restaurant.) We found the MARENDA restaurant close to where we parked the car. It was a wise choice. As we walked up, I saw the server deliver a massive platter of meats to another guest. I’ll have that! (We shared)

You know the meat is fresh when you see this on your way to the bathroom.

After lunch we headed to the OLD TOWN.

As with all old cities, the passageways are narrow and crooked. There are always towers to go up and explore, too.

We came to an artisan’s shop. Her name was Lana, and she had watercolours of cats on postcards for sale. One in particular reminded me of Ruby, my daughter’s Sphynx cat. I decided not to buy the postcard, but wound up chatting with Lana anyway. As we headed up a tower directly across from her shop, I looked down as she looked up.

We had a good chuckle and that seemed the end of it. The next day, I decided that I did want the postcard. We went back to see Lana and I gave her a Canadian pin, as a memento from yesterday. She thanked me and said, “You were interested in that postcard yesterday.” I replied that I was going to buy it because it reminded me of Ruby and I showed her a picture. She asked if I could email it to her, as next year she was going to feature Ruby in her collection. She then insisted that I take the postcard as a reciprocal gift. I swear, those Canada pins give us great mileage!

ST. TRYPHON CATHEDRAL was built in 1166, on the same site where an older church, built in 809, had already existed long ago.

The interior had round brick columns and arches.

as well as other ancient looking artifacts.

Even the window was elaborately carved.

As we were wandering around there was a huge ruckus coming up the street near ST. LUKE’S CHURCH.

Church bells were ringing and men were waving flags as a wedding party came around the corner. Tourists parted like the Red Sea to make way. Everyone seemed to pull out a phone to capture the moment. They disappeared into ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH.

The FRANCISCAN CHURCH of ST. CLARA has a plain exterior, which hides the beautiful interior. It has a number of altars and the amazing multi-coloured marble altar that was sculpted in 1708. There has been a monastery on this location since 1362.

There was a CAT MUSEUM that was more than a little bazaar. It had vintage material relating to cats from between the 16th century and 1970. There were antique books, coins, postcards, memorabilia and other cat curiosities.

We saw a church way up on the steep hill above the old city. Further up, still, was what looked like an old fort. Pierre immediately wanted to go up.

The ancient walls stretch for 4.5 km (3 mi), 1500 steps to be exact, with a vertical ascent of around 280 meters.

About a third of the way up, we came to CHURCH of OUR LADY REMEDY.

The view was impressive.

ST. JOHN’S FORTRESS was already there when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I reconstructed it.

The walk down was much faster than going up.

When we were walking back to our car we came upon a curious scene. One man was bent over, leaning on a bench, and another man was picking something off his bum. It was gum. A third man was standing nearby. I jokingly motioned that I was going to slap the man on the ass. The third man was nodding and laughing, saying Do it! I slapped the man on the ass. We all laughed. We got to our car and left.

Our Airbnb was a lovely little one room stone cottage. It was very unique and cool to sleep.

I have mentioned the wonderful fruits and vegetables before. But check out these grapes! They were the size of plums and SO juicy and delicious. And cheap!

We took the KOTOR SERPENTINE ROAD to get to Budva. The road is only 8 km (4.97 mi) but climbs about 950 metres (3116.8 ft) in elevation. What makes this road a tourist attraction, and totally a driver’s dream drive, is the 16 hairpin turns. It took us about an hour to drive.

The road was so narrow that we had to bring the rear view mirrors in so as not to hit against the oncoming car’s mirror. There were times when someone had to pull over as far as possible in order for the oncoming car to pass.

The views were breathtaking.

I am normally not a car person, but I told Pierre that there was a red car two cars in front of us that was really nice. When we got to the top of ridge there was a small restaurant with a lookout point. We decided to stop. We parked next to the nice red car (Lexus LC 500).

We bought a cool drink and went out to the lookout platform. We were trying to take a selfie when a man said “Since I know you so intimately, let me take your picture.” It was the man who’s ass I slapped! You can’t make this stuff up! We all laughed and he did take a nice picture for us. The three men were from Israel and on a guy’s driving trip. The other guys had Porches.

We were supposed to be staying in Budva. Airbnb contacted us and told us that our host had a family emergency and had to cancel our reservation. Airbnb took the liberty to make us a new reservation. Fine. When we got to Budva we tried to contact our new host, but there was no answer. While we waited we thought we would go see the Ballerina Statue along the promenade. Google Maps took us on a street that was a dead end. Terrific! Lets go back to the Airbnb and see if he contacts us. We waited for a fair amount of time before finally booking another place. The new host did not respond either. I guess we were not meant to stay in Budva. At this point it was getting late, and dark. We did not want to be driving on these crazy crooked roads in the dark. We ended up booking a hotel through Booking.com in Canj.

Canj is a small tourist town on the Adriatic that looked like it hibernates in the off-season. We found a small restaurant for dinner. They did not open for breakfast.

We made a short stop in CETINJE, MONTENEGRO. It was founded in the 15th century and was once the capital of Montenegro. Once again, our Canada pins came in handy. We were not exactly sure where the CETINJE MONASTERY was. There was a huge parking lot with an attendant. I thought we could at least park there and I could ask him where the monastery was. He said the monastery was across the street and behind some trees. I thanked him and gave him a pin. He told me, “Don’t park here, it will cost you. Park over there, it is free.” Thank you very much!

We walked past the quaint little COURT CHURCH.

At the MONASTERY, we were met by a bearded fellow in long black robes. He instructed us to cover our knees and shoulders with the shawls provided. He then gave us a short tour of the small SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH and showed us the right hand of St. John the Baptist. (he must have been a descendant of Shiva to have so many right arms) No pictures were allowed. I might have snuck one if the priest had not been right beside me.

Outside of the church, I asked the priest what the difference was between Orthodox and non-orthodox. He said that the Orthodox church had a more Roman structure: rules, straight lines. Whereas non-orthodox followed more of the Greek philosophy ideas: more abstract. I have since read other differences, but I like his version.

I have been calling this man a priest, but as we were about to leave another priest came up and greeted him, then kissed his ring. He was the Bishop!

We had to say goodbye to beautiful Montenegro and cross the border back into Albania.

We were off to Kruje, Albania for our last full day in the Balkans.

ON THE ROAD NOTES:

When we were going from Shkoder, Albania to Sarajevo, BiH, we had to pass through Montenegro. We had breakfast in Albania, lunch in Montenegro and dinner in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

That earlier, pass through trip, was outstanding! Firstly, they have free WiFi.

Secondly, the roads were riddled with tunnels. I quit counting at 100. Some were well lit, others looked like they were hewn with pick and shovel a hundred years ago.

The landscape was an array of angry looking mountains and deep gorges. We were absolutely gobsmacked at the beauty. We came around a corner and through a tunnel to a bridge with this view. I screamed “Stop the car!” Pierre said, “We are on a bridge, we can’t just stop.” Until he noticed other vehicles stopped to take in this gorgeous view.

We stopped at a beautiful rest stop in PLUZINE.

All the bathrooms, even the service station ones, are pristine.

We had heard Montenegro was beautiful. It was more than beautiful!