Montenegro

Lucky for us, we had to pass through Montenegro to get to Croatia. To break up the bus trip, we decided to spend a couple of nights in the beautiful walled city of Kotor.

After a long morning on the bus, we Thomases decided to hike the walls up to the fortress high upon the hill overlooking town. Sightseeing and souvenir shopping was more Grumpy’s cup of tea.

The hike up the mountain was steep and tough, but the views along the way were stunning and made the climb worth it. As a bonus, we spotted what we thought was a massive snake, but as we learned later was actually a massive strange legless member of the lizard family who eats snakes.

The next day, we decided to explore the bay, first with a bus along the shore to the tiny village of Perast where we boarded a glass bottom boat (not sure why, as there was nothing to see) and did an hour long tour of the bay and learned all sorts of interesting stories about the way they’ve defended the bay over the centuries. For instance, they utilised a chain stretched underwater across the narrow entrance to the bay to trap invading boats which they subsequently fired at, then pillaged, and finally sunk, creating an island in the middle of the bay.

Now if only they would do that with all the cruise ships.

Check out Paul’s video masterpiece.