The Bay of Kotor

Today we took a road trip around the Bay of Kotor and inland into Montenegro. This was a perfect time of year for this trip because of the beautiful fall leaves. I took so many pictures of the trees while we were driving in the woods.

We took the scenic drive south up a winding road high up into the mountains. There were so many switchbacks and I was sure that Ronin was going to get sick, but he didn’t. We had some gorgeous views down into the bay from up here.

We continued to drive to Lovćen National Park, where we parked and then walked up to the Mausoleum of Petar II Petrovic-Njegos. It was almost 500 steps up to the top, most of them through a tunnel up the mountain. The views were stunning and gave a beautiful sight of Montenegro.

We continued across the pass to the mausoleum, which had some huge statues holding up the building with their heads! There was a final lookout at the end, and the views were endless due to the cloudless sky. When we were coming back down there was a group of younger people with some flags. They let the kids wave the flags, which they really liked. Then we walked all the way back down to the car to continue our trip.

As we drove to our next stop I had to take some more pictures of the lovely changing leaves and some cool murals on the buildings and even on the side of the cliffs. The mural of the house was deceptively large.

Our next stop was Cetinje, which is the formal capital of Montenegro (the capital was moved during the Soviet rule). We found a public parking spot and walked a loop around the town. We saw several pretty buildings, churches, and statues, including several of the old embassy houses and other capital buildings that are now historical icons and no longer in use. The most interesting is the Cetinje Monastery, where we were allowed to visit only a few rooms of. The colors in here were very dark, reminding me of more of an Eastern European Orthodox church than a typical Western-style church.

By the monastery was a giant park, and the kids got to run around in the fields. Anything to give the chance to let off some energy! As we walked back to the car we stopped at two small grocery stores and got a picnic lunch as we continued on our tour of the coast.

Next we drove to Lake Skadar National Park. This is only about 30 minutes from Cetinje, but the road is very narrow and really windy. There is an old abandoned hotel in the middle of nowhere, which is when we knew we were where we wanted to be.

Our goal was to find the Pavlona Strana, a horseshoe bend in the river in the middle of the wetlands.  We got some good pictures, and the kids wanted a picture of mommy and daddy kissing on the lips. Too bad Ronin’s finger was in the way!

We then drove to Sveti Stefan, which is a really neat walled town on a tiny island. It was originally a fortress, but is now a resort and you can’t get on the island without a reservation. The sun was not in a great location for pictures, but it really was neat looking. We took some time to walk down the rocky shoreline and got to walk in the water just a bit. There were some brave souls swimming in the water, and even a few nude sunbathers!

Our final stop was Budva, which is the party town of the bay. Although we can’t really partake of the nightlife because of the kids or the great beaches because of the chilly weather, we were able to walk around the small walled town, which again had a bunch of cats the kids just had to play with.

We went to the Citadela Fortress, which was another great old fortress. Once again, we were one of the only ones here, so the kids got the opportunity to explore and play castle. My favorite part was the library, which is just what I would want my library to look like. There were also these really awesome leather chairs, which were so comfortable! If I could, I would have taken one of these chairs home with me.

We walked around the rest of the small town, taking pictures of the churches, the large city cates, and the view of the water. After this long day of exploring this area of Montenegro we still made it back to Kotor in time for dinner.