February 2018

Sightseeing in Montenegro

Perast
Perast is a tiny, picturesque town on the shores of the Bay of Kotor. Part of this town are two islands, St. George and The Lady of the Rock. One is the graveyard of the town and the other one is home to a famous church. The church can be reached by boat and the ride costs you 5€ per person. From the island, you have breath-taking views of the bay and scenery around you. Back in Perast, the walk along the shores is well worth it and the many restaurants invite for a break. This is a must-do when visiting Montenegro as it does not get much prettier than this!!

Ostrog Monastery
On one of our last weekends, we drove to the famous Ostrog Monastery. It takes approximately 2 hours one way from Tivat to drive there. The road took us past spectacular views of the Bay of Kotor, on to Niksic, and via a small road into the mountains to see one of the three most-visited Christian destinations on the planet. This monastery is built almost vertically into a mountain cliff and is today visited by more than a hundred thousand pilgrims from around the world, travellers of all religions, every year. From up there you have spectacular views of the Zeta Valley and we were so amazed by how this spiritual place is part of the mountain! Amazing!

Activities
After a few rainy weekends, the sun finally came out and we rented bicycles to explore the bay a little further. We cycled down south towards Tivat airport and took the road that runs between the airport and the water edge. From there you have great views of the small local airport as well as amazing views of the beautiful bay of Kotor. It is a local road with not a lot of traffic and great for cycling. Following the road, you get to a little island called Ostrov Cvijeca which is connected to the mainland by a street. There are a few houses on the little island as well as a cloister with a little church. They were really friendly and show us the inside of the Orthodox Church and let us take as many photos as we liked. Great views from the top of the whole bay and a very peaceful place. After a while there, we cycled back past Porto Montenegro the part of Tivat called Seljanovo. In summer there is the Waikiki Beach Club which must be a great place to go swimming as well as a great number of restaurants and residential apartments along the waterfront. We ended our tour at "Big Ben", one of the popular restaurants which has a rooftop terrace with unbeatable views of the bay. This was the perfect Saturday and I have only very rarely had so much sun in January!