Today we decided to take the bus to Herceg Novi. A bit like Kotor, Herceg Novi’s Old Town is 600 years old. The city was mentioned for the first time by the Bosnian King Tvrtko I. Over the years, Herceg Novi has had a very troubled history because it is located in such a strategic position, very close to the entrance of the Kotor Bay, now the border with Croatia. For that reason, Herceg Novi has been conquered by the Ottoman Empire, the Spaniards, the Venetian Republic, Russia, France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This intense mix of cultures over the years can be seen in the architecture of the buildings and fortresses. The Old Town is quite well preserved with a couple of highlight locations like the Clock Tower from 1667, the church of Archangel Michael and the drinking fountain Karachi.
We climbed and got lost in the town of 100.001 steps (yes, apparently there are that many!). But we enjoyed the views from the forts, admired the churches and stopped at a magnificent hidden jewel ‘Konoba skver’ , a cute restaurant with an amazing view over the harbor. Great sea bars as catch of the day – it was yummy!
If you want to stay in Herceg Novi, I would recommend the Lazure hotel: It is a nice boutique botel in an 18th century Venetian stone building. The hotel overlooks the marina and was once the original quarantine building when sailors first arrived. A lot of care and attention has gone into preserving the original features.
Kotor is a tiny town in the Bay Area and it is protected by UNESCO. Every corner you turn in the old town, you are surprised by cute little shops, churches, bars and hip restaurants. And while you get lost in these charming cobblestone streets, local kitties guide you on your way. All of a sudden cats seem to be everywhere! So what is it with all the cats in Kotor? Not only can furry felines be found at every cobbled street corner, the souvenir shops are cat crazy and there is even a museum dedicated to cats. They even have a ‘catsquare’ :). The cats lived in Kotor for centuries and protected the town from rats, mice and snakes. Nowadays they have become a kind of symbol of good luck and prosperity.
Even though Kotor is located on the Bay area, it is not a real beach destination. It’s meant for those with a heart for romance, history, and old architecture. The look of the Old Town (Stari Grad) owes a lot to the Venetian Republic, so add a bit of elegance and attention to detail and you get the Venice vibe. Kotor town is protected by walls fortified by bastions. The bastions are a prominent feature and there’s only three doors allowing people to enter the town. Wandering the streets really feels like a step back into the olden days. Beautiful old buildings, like the Pima Palace, located across from the Buca Palace. The palace belonged to the Pima noble family, built in the seventeenth century. Kotor is also member of a leading hotelschool, located in a beautiful old building. If you are looking to stay there, I would totally recommend hotel Cattaro or Astoria, but there are many nice boutique hotels and airB&B’s.
Ismael, our hotel guide took me to this great restaurant a bit outside of Kotor, Verige65. This is a stunning bar with views of the narrowest bar of the Bay of Kotor. It is a modern and stylish bar and popular with tourists thanks to the incredible views. Cruise ships pass the restaurant and come so close that you feel like you can reach out and touch them. There were only some sailboats during my visit, but it is a gorgeous place to enjoy the scenery. Verige 65 is a bit of a touristy place, but I highly recommend to stop there, even just for a coffee.
We all know that Croatia is beautiful and that people call it the new Italy. But I ‘ve never been to Montenegro and I must admit that it took me by surprise … Tiny and proud, Montenegro – “Black Mountain” – it has something of a fairy tale about it. The land seems to be put together by magic. A cobalt-blue fjord, fishermen’s huts in a sunny cove, a rocky path disappearing into woods, palaces, a church in a cave, an island built on the wrecks of enemy boats – all a bit disorganized, but with a logic of its own. It is a rare gem that is not yet truly discovered and developed. But it can stir up your imagination and if the sun comes out you realize that it’s like a postcard …I’m so thankful that I could be part of that living postcard…
With a population of just about 600.000, Montenegro has had a tumultuous history. Ruled by Illyrians and Romans, by infighting Slavic tribes, Huns and Goths, by battling Venetians and Ottomans, and most recently embroiled in the meltdown of Yugoslavia, Montenegro wears its war wounds as medals, rather than scars. It has rich remnants of its past occupiers and invaders. In a half hour drive along a bay-side corniche, I looked at beautiful landscape, Roman mosaics and a Venetian naval town, pretty much unblemished, before going on to admire art in a Serbian Orthodox church and a Roman Catholic chapel.
This trip through Croatia, Serbia, Bosnië-Hercegovina and Montenegro was so divers, it has lots of different vibes, impressions, different cultures, war scars, religions….the trip was fantastic and as always it is the people who make a journey unforgettable and I’m really grateful to have met them on my path. Our calm teddy bear and driver Perro, who guided us through the hills of Serbia and made us pass three frontiers, our diplomatic, chatty, knowledgeable and funny guide Bulent (with his sexy, husky Obama voice :)), our Montenegro guide Ismael, the lovely Antwerp couple Lieve and Dirk and my fantastic new friends that I will never forget – the golden girls. (Irene, Rina and Edith) I hope to still be as healthy, bubbly, cheeky and full of adventure at the age of 79!!! Thanks guys for making this another unforgettable adventure!
The visit to Mostar was not particularly one that I was looking forward to, but I’m really glad that it was a part of this roundtrip. The weathergods stopped crying and the sun came out… I had the feeling that I was in Turkey, with the small souk-like streets. But I could feel the ghosts of the past still lingering…and it reminded me about the movie ‘Romeo & Juliette of Sarajevo’
Ravi, our cityguide was only 9 years old when the war broke out. His family escaped to Germany. But they came back to rebuild their old house. Bosnia-Herzegovina was the most destroyed country in the BalkanWar in the 90s. It is hard to believe what happened in this peaceful country only 30 years ago and how much these people suffered. For centuries, both Mostar and Sarajevo were provided as examples of where various nationalities could peacefully and happily live next to each other. None of the inhabitants of this area really expected that things could suddenly change overnight and that friends, neighbors, families would be fighting against each other. Have we not learned enough from WOII? And…will people ever learn? The cleansing of places like Višegrad, Mostar, Srebrenica, Prijedor, and Zvornik was a war of racism and misogyny. The level of sexual violence against Bosnian Muslim women was so targeted and systematic — educated women were singled out for the worst treatment — that it led to rape being recognized for the first time as a weapon of war under international law. During the war, slightly more than 100,000 people were killed, about two-thirds of them Muslims. And why?
Today, the first thing I noticed about Mostar was its incredible beauty. The city, located in the valley of the Neretva river and surrounded by mountains, is one of the most picturesque places on this trip. Here and there, the tall, slim towers of minarets mark their location in the city – and clearly show how the city is divided, which part belongs to Muslim Bosnians and which to Christian Croats. The division of the city was also the reason why it marked its place in the worlds’ history. Mostar was under siege for 18 months, during which the most remarkable moment was the destruction of Stari Most (Old Bridge).
Now the Stari Most, the signature of Mostar, is the most photographed spot in the city and probably in the whole country. But the bridge, that originally dated back to the 16th century and stood in that place for 427 years, was destroyed on November 9, 1993. The structure that is so admired now, the symbol of the city, re-opened on July 23, 2004. The destruction of the old bridge was one of the sad symbols of the Balkan war and it’s still very vivid in the memory of the inhabitants. Inscriptions on the stones around the bridge, saying “Don’t forget ‘93” or murals showing how the bridge was rebuilt to remind people.
But war scars in Mostar are not only seen in the presence of Stari Most. When walking around the city, it’s easy to notice where the war line was. Destroyed houses haunt from the main streets of the city, so many buildings still have bullet holes all over them – and these are almost always on only one side of the road. Even in the little souk-like shops, the venders sell empty shells, gas masks and tell you sad stories. We enjoyed a fabulousnesses cevapi lunch of near the river and thought about how precious life was…Lots of wars happen to claim more territory and where people try to invade a country. This one was different. There was so much cruelty and even enjoyment; new ways were invented of killing people in this war. All that hatred, the rapes and the ethnic cleansing….amongst friends and neigbours…..Freedom is a very precious thing indeed.
After Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, we end our tour in Montenegro for a well deserved few days of relaxation. Nowadays Montenegro is a top tourist destination. Some even call it the “Monte Carlo of the Adriatic.” It is here that you’ll find the luxurious getaway resorts like the Regent Porto Montenegro in Tivat, The Chedi in Luštica Bay, the Nikki Beach Hotel & Beach Club in Radovići, the One&Only Portonovi, and the Aman Sveti Stefan (currently closed over a beach access dispute), as well as homes for sale or rent. The country increasingly draws Americans and Europeans in the summer months because of its proximity to Croatia, Greece, and Italy
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Offering some of the world’s best scenic escapes, the country is no stranger to Hollywood stars. Icons like Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren vacationed here in the 1970s. Madonna, the Beckhams, and Naomi Campbell have all journeyed here, while back in 2010, then-couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie visited the country. Pitt — who took Jolie to see such bayside towns as Perast and Kotor, where he filmed the 1988 film The Dark Side of the Sun — at one point had to get out of his car to ask paparazzi to respect his holiday. No paparazzi for me, except maybe for the toothless fisherman :). But I loved the little town of Perast, with the fisherman and the cozy restaurants overlooking the ocean. Just in front of Perast, there are 2 tiny islands – the Catholic monastery of Saint George, and Our Lady of the Rocks. The story behind the island is of two sailors who saw an icon of the Madonna and child resting on the rock. They thought it was a good luck miracle and afterwards left stones where the icon was found, which in time evolved into a tradition and an island and small chapel were formed. Every year on June 22 locals take their boats and bring rocks to the island to make it bigger. The ‘Lady of the Rocks’ island is also home to a Catholic church. We visited the island by boat and I very much enjoyed the little church.Check out the hotel that I’d choose if I would be staying there: the ‘Heritage Grand hotel’. Small, quiet and chic. You also have some cute apartments in Perast. We also visited Tivat, a coastal town nestled away between two cliffs in the northeast corner of Montenegro.
We are staying at the Karin Kumbor hotel, a 10 minute walk from Portonovi, located in a fjord-like setting. With a feel that’s part Lake Como, part Monte Carlo, Portonovi is flanked by mountains and the area is filled with luxury boutiques, high-end restaurants like ‘the Square, the luxury One & Only hotel, and a lot of eye-catching real estate. Mega-yachts can be seen anchored in the adjacent Bay of Kotor. Several years ago Tivat and Potonovi and its mountainous surroundings attracted Canadian businessman Peter Munk, the Chairman of the world’s largest gold mining corporation Barrick Gold. He was visiting the Adriatic coast from aboard his yacht and took a day trip from Dubrovnik to Montenegro and Boka Kotorska. The result of his idea born during that day trip was to build the most luxurious marina at the Adriatic. Check out the interesting story here. I must admit that I don’t know if it would rather stay at Porto Novi, at Tivat or if it would be nicer to stay at the Aman resort in Sveti Stefan. There are many holiday destinations that you associate with A-list appeal like Cannes in France, Mykonos in Greece or Gstaad in Switzerland, but the iconic islet of Sveti Stefan in Montenegro has managed to maintain an aura of hush-hush exclusivity despite having hosted the world’s biggest names. Tennis player Novak Djokovic recently got married there – hiring out the entire island for his wedding party. All of the places are luxurious, so I like all of them 🙂
“Along with its gorgeous location and infrastructure Portonovi resort offers a higher level of luxury in the area. 15 years ago, Montenegro and its breathtaking natural beauty was a well-kept secret. Now that the secret is out, it might become just another luxury tourist destination. I’m happy that I got to see it now, still in it’s raw beauty. But like a Montenegrin said, who came back after living 10 years in Canada. Whatever happens, they can’t take away the beauty of the mountains and the ocean….
Today we visited another UNESCO heritage site. Split…. And yes indeed, some places just have it all, breathtaking architecture, from the Greek times till our day – beautiful small alleys and charming local restaurants on every corner. The Greeks could not resist the beauty of these places, neither could the Romans, nor the Venetians and the list of people who came here just goes on and on. And now I am here too 🙂
When I saw the palace of Diocletianus, I wanted to know a bit more about the famous emperor. Who was Diocletianus and was he the genius who saved the Roman empire from extinction or was he just part tyrant/ part organisational genius? Diocletian was born in the Balkans in 244, and he grew up in a chaotic environment with little government or stability. He had begun life in obscurity – his father was said to be a freed slave. His force of personality, and genius for administration propelled him through a career in the army. At that time, Rome was experiencing a prolonged period of anarchy, which nearly destroyed the Empire. When Diocletian was proclaimed emperor, the city was still dealing with internal rebellions, barbarian incursions, and multiple claimants to the throne. The Roman Empire had devolved into a shaky shell of what it had once been. The rise to power of Diocletian was very typical for this time. (And I would dare to say that it is typical of all times) He was a strong military commander who was popular among his troops, and his legions proclaimed him Emperor in Nicomedia (modern Turkey) in 284. Because of the authoritarian nature of the monarchy at the time, the Diocletian rule and the period that followed it, are sometimes referred to as the dominant period. However, this form of rule seemed to be necessary for such a time of chaos. Diocletian had to make people believe that all the power truly resided in his hands and that it could not be taken away from him. This was the only way for him to ensure that he is not vulnerable and his ability to create such a powerful image of himself was extremely effective. As a result, he maintained power for 20 years! It is safe to say that Diocletian resuscitated Rome, and due to his efforts, the empire carried on until the 5th century. He retired voluntary and the it is believed that he spent the rest of his life quietly in his palace, gardening. If we compare this to the world of today, not that much has changed….
I did love the medieval architecture, the roman remains and the Gothic and Renaissance palaces. When you take a seat on the stairs at the emperor’s square before the bell tower of the St. Domnius Cathedral and take a lookup in the sky, you feel, as the legend has it, the old Diocletian had his palace built in the center of the world. One of the things that I realised straight away was that it’s probably a good idea to just put the streetmap away and allow yourself to get truly lost in the windy streets of Split. Embrace it, enjoy it (that’s what I’m saying anyway after a good 40 minutes running around not knowing where I am or which way to walk) :-). Seriously though, it is a great way to explore the city and it’s hard not to bump into all the sights you’ll want to see.
After all that beauty, we made a stop in Ston. Like many of Croatia’s medieval towns and cities, Ston is surrounded and protected by a defensive stone wall. But unlike Croatia’s other walled cities, Ston has a unique claim to fame – its 14th century stone walls have been dubbed the “European Great Wall. Ston is also famous for it’s oysters and good wine….All of these delicacies are highly regarded by foodies and chefs around the globe. In fact, you can pretty much guarantee that any oysters you eat here will have been plucked from the ocean that morning, if not within the past few hours. What a life of luxury 🙂
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