Montenegrin tour

Woke early but rolled over and slept in until 8 a.m. I had been awakened at 3:30 a.m. by the noise drifting up from the street below of revellers going home. Apparently the partying is non-stop at the peak of the season.

We have a tour at 9 a.m. but the meeting place is only 5 minutes away.

Forecast is for some rain and the clouds are already dark.

My body is achy. But a walk through the Old Town eased out some of this - especially when I realised I had got up at 7 not 8 (!) - obviously I can’t count church bells …

Miloš is our guide today and he was a really relaxed, entertaining and knowledgeable guide.

We depart Kotor and take the old Austro-Hungarian road regarded as one of the most scenic in Montenegro as well as one of the most famous hairpinned roads in the world; of course it has featured on Top Gear. 

We stop on one of the serpentines for beautiful panoramic views of the Boka Kotorska Bay at a height of over 1000m.

The road continues to the tiny village of Njegusi where we stop at a traditional kafana in a 19th century house for breakfast of their cheese and prosciutto smoked here accompanied by rakija, a traditional fruit brandy drink typically about 40% (!) alcohol.

We drive through beech, oak and linden forests in the Lovćen National Park. 

Here is “Black Mountain”, after which Montenegro got its name, which rises to 1749m and has wonderful views for miles around. 

It is the location of the mausoleum of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš - we walk up 461 steps to reach it!

Njegoš (1813-1851) was prince-bishop of Montenegro as well as being a poet. He was born at Njegusi, the village where we had breakfast. The ceiling of the mausoleum is decorated with 18 kg (220000 pieces) of gold donated by Italy 21 years after his death.

Next stop was Cetinje (the former royal capital). The Ladders of Kotor track which I walked yesterday in fact continued to Cetinje and for centuries that track was the only route that connected Kotor with Njegusi and Cetinje. 

We had a walking tour of Cetinje visiting an Eastern (? Serbian) Orthodox church and the monastery of St Peter. The town is very stylish but as the capital is now at Podgorica, it has lost much of its purpose and people have drifted away.

We have another winding drive to a scenic viewpoint over the Crnojević River which joins Lake Skadar. 

Down at river level is the town of Rijeka Crnojevica with its attractive bridge built in 1853 and where we have lunch (so no need for dinner tonight!) followed by a boat trip along the river. There is a lot of bird life.

From here, we return back up to the main road through Cetinje again and continue on the scenic drive to St Stefan via Budva on the Adriatic Sea. 

Budva is a very busy place, a popular tourist spot with lots of nightlife, beaches, and hotels (including the Hotel Splendid in which the casino scenes were filmed for the James Bond movie ‘Casino Royale’) with lots more under construction.

The island of Sveti Stefan (now joined to the mainland by a short road access) is an exclusive holiday resort (currently closed due to a dispute between the owners and the local government - supposedly about allowing public access to the beaches but Miloš had a different story about unpaid taxes …). 

However in the past, it was a small, fortified fishing village which partly served as a shelter in times of war. About 400 inhabitants are said to have lived in the historic old town of this small island at that time. It was at one time also the summer residence of Queen Maria of Yugoslavia. It is named after the church of St. Stefan which is still here today.

Our tour has been accompanied by a patter of interesting and sometimes amusing anecdotes regaled by Miloš ranging from earthquakes (there have been 5, the last in 1979), the Montenegrin Laziest Citizen competition, and the pros and cons of cruise ships (with consideration being given to restricting these in Kotor).

It is a busy coastal drive back to Kotor and we arrive about 8 p.m. after a long day! We have been lucky as the forecast rain hung off. We also met some nice people on our tour and had some interesting chats.