Leaving the cruise ships behind!

We left at 9 and queued 25 minutes to get into Kotor to head up the mountains. Today there were only 2 cruise ships moored - they looked “smaller” maybe 1000 passengers each.

We rose 980m from sea level, negotiating 25 serpentine z bends. We stopped at the top from a view down to Kotor and as far west as the sea. It certainly was spectacular.

Once up the mountain it was not a steep decent as we stayed high to reach Cetinje, situated at the foot of the Lovcen Mountain the historic capital. Since 1485 it had been the sacred centre of Montenegro where we visited the king’s palace/museum. King Nikola was elected by the people of Cetinje but only ruled 11 years before making off with the money. Just as the previous president had done. They have great hopes of the new president as he studied finance in Singapore. Whether that’s a benefit to the country or himself remains to be seen.
There was a delay as another group reached it just before us. Ivana our guide from yesterday gave us the tour. As palaces go it was very modest but she had plenty to tell us about the history and the family and the artifacts on view. Swords, uniforms, a desk made from olive wood, bedrooms of king, queen and princesses.

We had a pizza between us for lunch and an interesting talk with Fatima our guide who is a trekker and climber and is keen to travel.

We had 20 minutes free to dash down the street to see a statue of a princess then we headed out to a park to see some pretty pink buildings, a monastery and then we just had time to pop into the tiny Orthodox Church where the sarcophagus of the king and queen were. His grandson was born in and lives in Paris. When he made a visit here he announced he was pleased to be in Macedonia at last which the locals love to joke about.

From our drive to the next monastery we could see Lake Skadar which borders Albania. We are lucky as it was still sunny though this has changed to 4 degrees and wet at our mountain hotel.

En route we had a fuel stop in Podgorica, the capital, which lies in a bowl surrounded by mountains. Its population is 200,000. The whole country has a population of around 800,000.

We then headed to the mountainous interior to visit the holy shrine of St Vasilije (Basil) high in the Ostrog Mountains. The Ostrog Monastery is quite a spectacle, being carved into the rising rock face and is considered to be the most inspiring Orthodox sacred place in the former Yugoslavia. It has become the largest pilgrimage site in the country, visited by Catholics and Muslims all paying homage to St Vasiliji, the founder of the 17th century monastery.

The bus could only manage so far up the hairpin bends then we decanted into a minibus for the last few km. Beside the monastery was a large structure housing the 30 monks plus all the pilgrims, some of whom were already wrapped in blankets and lying on foam mattresses outside, though there is space inside too. We climbed up to the monastery then waited to go in to the tiny room which (allegedly) held the sacred remains. As they were put here in 1989 who knows what they are. It was guarded by a monk -until he blinked I thought he was a waxwork. Up more steps and again we lowered ourselves to bow down to enter another small room. There were some colourful wall paintings and apparently a German grenade lodged in the wall, a WW2 relic. It hadn’t exploded thanks to the magic powers of St Basil.

It was then 2 hours to drive up and down twisting mountain roads to our ski resort destination at Zabljak on a plateau at 1,500m and surrounded by pine forests. It’s the highest town in the country and near the NP. By the time we arrived it was raining. The driver certainly earned his tip today.

We are lucky with our room here - it’s huge with 2 balconies (though 4 degrees means it’s a bit nippy out there), a sofa and space - the bathroom too is spacious.

I had a chat with the woman who mistakenly went off in a taxi instead of the bus on arrival. She was moaning that the palace guide knew how to be proud of her country, unlike the English - I told her things were definitely on the up in the UK. That didn’t go down well - Yvonne said later she was most likely a Reform person from chats they’d had. She had been terribly stressed and cross about the taxi issue so later I said I hoped she felt better about things now and I hope she’d enjoyed the day. “What, you mean that monastery? And these drivers don’t know the Highway Code!” I asked her which bit of the Montenegrin Highway Code didn’t they know. Couldn’t help myself!