November 11, 2016 - Sailing In to Narnia

We woke to the foghorn as we sailed in to Kotor, Montenegro.

Our guide, Mike (Marko), from 360 Montenegro, met us at the dock to whisk us away to Lovćen National Park. Our van climbed up into the mountains on a road with 29 switchbacks. We stopped several times to admire the view.

Notice some of the switchbacks in the lower right

Higher

Storm lookout point

While we watched, storm clouds moved in and it rained. There was lightning, and the thunder echoed off the mountains. I've never heard anything like it. We continued through winding mountainous roads until we reached snow. (This was really exciting for our companions from California.) Our goal was the mausoleum of Peter II (I think), one of the "Prince Bishops" of Montenegro, and a mountaintop restaurant. They had an interesting system. Their monarch had to be a monk, and therefore couldn't marry. He would be succeeded on the throne by one of his nephews. He therefore had to have a brother. Mike said the snow was earlier than normal this year. He didn't know whether the restaurant would be open, and eventually, after climbing about 5,300 feet, the snow on the road grew icy and Mike didn't feel comfortable continuing the drive.

An inholding in the national park

Time to turn around

We turned around and proceeded to Cetinje, the former capital of Montenegro. At this point I want to share a little about Montenegro, on the off chance that you have never heard of it. The population of Montenegro is about 625,000. It was part of Yugoslavia when I had to learn world geography. When Yugoslavia broke up, Montenegro became part of Serbia. They achieved independence in 2006. The present capital is Podgorica. The primary industry is tourism, though there doesn't seem to be much tourism infrastructure. They really have nothing else going for them in the way of industry. Unemployment is 25%, but as high as 50% among younger people. When we got off the ship there must have been twenty taxi drivers offering to give us a tour. They seemed rather desperate. They have very little flat land and produce very little food. A lot of houses have "For Sale" signs. A lot of yards are littered with junk, old rusty pieces of metal, trash of all kinds. At the lookout points you can see piles of refuse just lying around. It's like they have given up on themselves. Back to Cetinje. It was a small town and we saw the highlights by walking around for 30 minutes: a small church, a monastery, a small museum, the (small) former royal palace and the former French embassy (which was built using plans for an embassy that was supposed to be built in Cairo). The monastery's claim to fame is possession of the following relics: the right hand of John the Baptist and a piece of the Holy Cross. Mike told us a lot of other places to have the right hand of John the Baptist, and to prove this was the real one he recited a lengthy pedigree authenticating the relic held here.

Cetinje monastery

The way to the world's greatest museums

Royal Palace

Residential part of Cetinje

We drove back down to Kotor and had a little bit of time to look around the Old Town.

We did not have a chance to climb the 1430 stairs to the monuments on the mountain behind the town. Aw, shucks.

Pilgrims' path up the mountainside