Croatia --> Montenegro

Another day, another former Yugoslav state. We pointed the motor South and drove to Montenegro for the day. The bendy-wendy drive along the coast-line provided breath-taking views as far as the eye could see and of hamlets and sea-side towns dotted along the way. We dropped down into a couple for a quick look-see and walk-about. It had been suggested that we stop at Kotor and Budvar specifically - and being that neither of us had done any proper research into what was available to us in both Bosnia (yesterday) and in Montenegro, we did as advised. Kotor was a busy place - definitely a stop for any tourists - and had its Old Town protected by a fortification of walls, built into the steep mountainside behind it. Our choice of footwear (birkenstocks) did not lend itself to climbing up for better views so we kept our feet on the ground and mooched about the narrow lanes and little shops that were open and welcoming to the likes of us. Subsequent research about Kotor has revealed that it is located on the only natural fjord in the world. I wouldn't know about that or the claim that it is listed as one of the most beautiful bays in the world, but it certainly is all very nice.. Further south, we stopped at Budvar, our final stop before doing an about turn to return home, which we frankly thought was a bit of a dive, but to be fair, our rating should be voided by the fact that we didn't look around its own Old Town. (A wee bit old town'd out...) It was however the location of some good spots, on our number-plate game. We had clocked up many countries along our route north yesterday and south today, of cars and buses with plates registered to the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Czech Rep., Slovenia and a whole host of other European states, with the exception of any Scandinavian, Spanish and Portuguese offerings. Hungary was proving to be a frustration but Budvar came up trumps with that one, along with Finland (which ticked our Scandinavian box), Russia and, to blow everything else out of the water (including earlier spots of Californian and Florida plates) we claimed double-bonus points for a car from the Cook Islands! Well, we were excited and I guess you had to be there, but I thought I'd record it here, because it did form a big part of those two days!

Linds drove back to Croatia - we picked some Montenegran wine up before we crossed the border, along with some knock-off pringles (TM) and some fizz for Friday and then dropped down into Cavtat, a nice little harbour town (that I had read about) which was only 20 mins or so away from Dub'nik. There we enjoyed a supper of fresh sea-bass - which was delicious.