We didn't see any dogs, but boy did we see cats! Everywhere in Croatia and Montenegro. They looked to be in pretty good shape so they must be well enough fed by tourists and locals alike.
We made a quick trip south through Croatia deciding to take a more leisurely visit on the way back up. We stayed one night in Opatija on the coast in north Croatia. It used to be a famous destination for Austro-Hungarian and Italian aristocracy. You can tell from the grand hotels in this bay that it was quite a happening place. Still is.... and it has the prices to match. We stayed overnight at the Savoy hotel where Marcus met a Slovenian entrepreneur who helped set us up on Skype. The two of them hung out in the lounge all evening while I relaxed in our room.
We made a quick trip south through Croatia deciding to take a more leisurely visit on the way back up. We stayed one night in Opatija on the coast in north Croatia. It used to be a famous destination for Austro-Hungarian and Italian aristocracy. You can tell from the grand hotels in this bay that it was quite a happening place. Still is.... and it has the prices to match. We stayed overnight at the Savoy hotel where Marcus met a Slovenian entrepreneur who helped set us up on Skype. The two of them hung out in the lounge all evening while I relaxed in our room.
The next morning we drove up into the mountains and unexpectedly encountered a snow storm.
It was slippery - we came across a car with high performance tires who couldn't make it up a ramp. We drove with bated breath hoping we'd make it to a lower elevation before it got really bad. (We are such wusses without our SUV and snow tires!) It did clear up then as we headed back down to the coast towards Split. The US and EU have invested a lot of money in Croatia in the past few years and much of this has funded the building of a new highway that runs nearly the entire length of the country. It stops just past Split and if you are driving to Dubrovnik, plan on 3.5 hours of a winding, twisting road along the coast. It was especially fun for us since we were doing it in the dark and it was raining! I (Kristine) was pleased that it was dark out, as it meant I couldn't see the shear drops off to my side of the car. Anyhow, we stayed comfortably behind a truck with bright running lights, using him as our guide.In Dubrovnik we found a 5 star hotel called Hotel More for a very reasonable 80 Euros. It was a great place. I was very excited because the bathroom had a bath tub and the last soak I had was in.... I don't even remember when (I think Casablanca at the Sheraton). Well wouldn't you know it - everything was perfect in our room, except they didn't have hot water. We complained, but they informed us that it was normal. I guess they are mostly a summer destination when you don't need hot showers and baths, but still! Marcus had a pretty cold shower the next morning. It was an amazing spot on the coast though, and we noticed that their high season rates were pretty reasonable. We would recommend it - the only disadvantage is that it is a little ways away from the old town.
The old town - Dubrovnik - was really impressive. It's been criticized as having turned into a tacky tourist destination with no local flavour or soul, which is probably true, but nonetheless, it's a fantastic place from a visual and architectural perspective. We spent about 2 hours exploring the Main Street Placa and some of the very narrow side alleys.
I have to say, that despite all the rain we've had during our travels, we have certainly lucked out with sun whenever we planned to be in a city or town for one day. Monaco was sunny, one day in Nice was sunny, Venice was sunny, Dubrovnik was sunny. The days in between it rained.
Kotor Montenegro was only about 2 hours from Dubrovnik and we had a nice leisurely drive (it was inland and away from the coast). Here we noticed a very similar landscape to Tuscany - farming fields with those tall evergreens (cypress?) that are the typical image when imagining the Italian countryside (to me these look strange - they look like ornamental trees that we would put in a highly manicured landscape and here they grow naturally but haphazardly!) Marcus remarked that Italy and the Dalmatian coast would have been attached at one point in time and so not surprising that the landscape is similar. We had only a short delay at the border. We paid a 10 Euro eco tax for bringing our brand new fuel efficient car into the country. No doubt to make up for all the communist era death traps the locals drive.
If you look at a map of Montenegro you'll notice that along the coast it has an fairly large inlet vaguely in the shape of an lopsided "infinity" sign 
(no doubt there is a better way to describe it but that's the best I can do). Along the water edge there is development and behind that the mountains rise straight up - it makes for very dramatic scenery.
(no doubt there is a better way to describe it but that's the best I can do). Along the water edge there is development and behind that the mountains rise straight up - it makes for very dramatic scenery.Kotor is probably the largest town on this inlet. It is an old walled city, situated at the foot of the looming mountains that completely surround Kotor Bay. The steep slopes do not support much vegetation, giving the surrounding area a barren, moon-like feeling (well what we imagine the moon to look like, kind of like Sudbury, Ontario), but nonetheless very beautiful.
One of many plazas in Kotor old town with mountain snuggled up behind it.
A view of Kotor from the fortress
The town is completely surrounded by an old fortress wall which reaches way up into the hills and it still has a moat. The Kotor city walls are more than 4 km in length and reach a height of 850 feet. We were enthralled by the drawbridge hardware - chains and counterweights - that still hung from either side of the gateway. We climbed the hundreds of steps all the way to the top to see the views of Kotor and the bay. I loved exploring the still existing stone buildings carved into the mountain side. I tried to imagine the "daily commute" of a defense soldier who would be stationed at the top keeping watch for invaders like the blasted Saracens! Don't worry - I am not too sure who they were either - suffice it to say, almost every early
medieval power tried to capture this part of the coast. Still remaining, although overgrown with weeds, are the rooms where he would have lived - did he have his family up there with him? Was he provided a cook or did he have a lonely vigil eating stale bread and sausage for a week waiting for the next rotational guard to replace him? Behind the fortress (we climbed through a window) we visited a lonely little church. There was no one else about and it was very windy. 
Clouds moving swiftly overhead obscured the top of the mountain and I felt a little like Dorothy caught in a strange land in a past life. Flying monkeys would not have outside the realm of possibilities I thought, but thankfully we didn't see any!
We made most of our meals at the apartment getting food supplies at the a small grocery store. Fruit and vegetables were limited. For fresh fruit, you had a choice of soft apples, moldy clementines or bruised bananas. The fruit was kept behind a counter and when we tried to ask for some bananas we got major attitude from the server. She in fact kicked hard at an empty box on the floor and started muttering. Not knowing what made her upset we retreated to the safety of the canned good section.
The town is completely surrounded by an old fortress wall which reaches way up into the hills and it still has a moat. The Kotor city walls are more than 4 km in length and reach a height of 850 feet. We were enthralled by the drawbridge hardware - chains and counterweights - that still hung from either side of the gateway. We climbed the hundreds of steps all the way to the top to see the views of Kotor and the bay. I loved exploring the still existing stone buildings carved into the mountain side. I tried to imagine the "daily commute" of a defense soldier who would be stationed at the top keeping watch for invaders like the blasted Saracens! Don't worry - I am not too sure who they were either - suffice it to say, almost every early
medieval power tried to capture this part of the coast. Still remaining, although overgrown with weeds, are the rooms where he would have lived - did he have his family up there with him? Was he provided a cook or did he have a lonely vigil eating stale bread and sausage for a week waiting for the next rotational guard to replace him? Behind the fortress (we climbed through a window) we visited a lonely little church. There was no one else about and it was very windy. 
Clouds moving swiftly overhead obscured the top of the mountain and I felt a little like Dorothy caught in a strange land in a past life. Flying monkeys would not have outside the realm of possibilities I thought, but thankfully we didn't see any!We stayed in a very nice apartment right in the old town. Just a step away from a bakery that had cherry turnovers for breakfast! We also tried a "burek" a greasy layered pie with clotted cheese (or ground meat), but it was very heavy so we stayed away from that particular delicatessen. Our shutters opened up right onto a main alleyway, and we felt a little part of the community as we could hear people walking by chatting and kids playing. (This would have driven us nuts at home, but here it was all part of the experience!)
We made most of our meals at the apartment getting food supplies at the a small grocery store. Fruit and vegetables were limited. For fresh fruit, you had a choice of soft apples, moldy clementines or bruised bananas. The fruit was kept behind a counter and when we tried to ask for some bananas we got major attitude from the server. She in fact kicked hard at an empty box on the floor and started muttering. Not knowing what made her upset we retreated to the safety of the canned good section.
We spent most of the week relaxing in our cozy apartment reading and surfing the web. We 
drove 15 minutes up the coast to a town called Perast which used to be a prosperous city because it had preferential trading agreements with Venice (they paid no taxes). The town was renowned for their seamanship skills and the Venetians hired many of them to act as captains of their navel ships. It was a very quiet town at this time of year. We saw a mansion under renovation up on the hill and decided to explore inside when we saw that no one was there. I can only imagine that this place once belonged to a wealthy seafaring family. All three levels of the home had balconies and the marble balustrades were all new. The wife would have been able to look out any window to keep a constant lookout for the return of her husbands ship (hopefully with him on it!). Inside, the rooms were small and a bit awkward as they were essentially built into the side of the mountain. In one room, some of the vaulted painted ceiling remained. I wish we could find out more about the history of this dwelling - it was a romantic spot!
drove 15 minutes up the coast to a town called Perast which used to be a prosperous city because it had preferential trading agreements with Venice (they paid no taxes). The town was renowned for their seamanship skills and the Venetians hired many of them to act as captains of their navel ships. It was a very quiet town at this time of year. We saw a mansion under renovation up on the hill and decided to explore inside when we saw that no one was there. I can only imagine that this place once belonged to a wealthy seafaring family. All three levels of the home had balconies and the marble balustrades were all new. The wife would have been able to look out any window to keep a constant lookout for the return of her husbands ship (hopefully with him on it!). Inside, the rooms were small and a bit awkward as they were essentially built into the side of the mountain. In one room, some of the vaulted painted ceiling remained. I wish we could find out more about the history of this dwelling - it was a romantic spot!
Link to web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristine.d.morris/20081127CroatiaMontenegro
1 comment:
Very impressive photos and that apartment you stayed in looks great. Loved the story about your ordeal in ordering fruit and laughed out aloud after reading:
"Not knowing what made her upset we retreated to the safety of the canned good section."
Excellent travel writing. Have you thought about submitting a freelance travel article to the Globe & Mail?
D. Stark
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