Day 38 to 40 Montenegro - The 'Fjord' of the Med....big cycle ride, kayaking and abandoned church

Day 38 to 40 Luxury after the van

3 days of luxury on the bay of Kotor in Montenegro. The appartment's roof terrace is the business and S and C are clearly enjoying it full well.

The bay is perfect for cycling and also for the Kayak - flat roads all the way round and calm waters with no wind.

So we take full advantage of it and spend a day cycling the 40 Km around the bay fuelled by a few beers, lunch of course and the added interest of a ferry trip too, albeit short, which is required to close the circle around the bay.

Kotor Bay is on the Mediterranean sea however open sea is many miles away - it visually looks like the Fjords you see in Norway and there is no other place like it in the rest of the Med....hence the cruise ships. There are also many many Russians  - 1 in 5 cars appears to be from Russia and they are very nice cars...BMW, Porsche, Audi.

The bay has crystal clear flat calm water; it is lined with tiny harbours and small platforms on which locals and tourists install themselves on to sun bathe and swim from...its stunningly beautiful. I take the spear gun as there are many fish but they again are pretty small and my skills are lacking - however big fat mussels are plentiful and whilst I fail to bring any fish home I do bring a bag full of mussels back for squid and mussel pasta lunch - top drawer.

Susan nails the 40Km  - Kotor Bay Circuit on bike - as seen from SPACE

After 5+ weeks in the van our stuff needs a decent clean out. Anything that can be washed has been  - towels, bedding and the pillows too... I even catch Susan ironing some of her clothes.

The waterfront is faced with the most beautiful of old stone buildings. Lots of them are in a state of decay - in the UK they would have been snapped up years ago and renovated  - some of them have been picked up but you sense there are some bargain gems to be had out here that given a few years the opportunity will have passed.

Susan ( in yellow ) on roof terrace

In the photo below there is a large ruined church up the hillside behind our pad - no buildings are near it and you just know it is going to be rarely seen, overgrown and frozen in time - just too much effort to go and see, vandalise or conversely maintain. I decided to see if I could get to it. Flip flops, thunderstorm and heavy rain coupled with tracks and paths that faded to nothing were not going to hold me back. I was determined that nothing was going to stop me and whilst it took me almost 2 hours to get to the church made it in the end.....The paths were full of spider webs, thistles and were overgrown but the building and its grounds did not disappoint.

A phenomenal structure that vegetation is rapidly swallowing back up again. The overgrown path to the church is a work of art, cut stone steps but now barely visible - its eerily quiet, the roof has caved in, there is no vandalism, no bottles, no graffitti.....the very latest date reference I can find is 1958 on a small wall plaque, however it looks more like it was added after the church was abandoned as it is all 19th Century of earlier.

I slip and slide down the hill side - not a stray dog in sight - this whole episode would not be possible in Albania, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria etc...as I would have been dismembered and eaten by stray dog and then left to the insects to pick my bones clean.

Bad boy

330 year old tombstone encryption as if done a few years ago

It is such a top place that we negotiate 2 more nights here with the owner and so we now get the opportunity to see England beat Uruguay on Thursday from the comfort of our palatial apartment.

tombstone carving from 1728 - Awesome

Boy having fun in Kotor 

My Mum and Dad join us this Sunday in Trogir in Croatia for a week in a Villa. When I spoke to them tonight they were proud to announce they had bought themselves 300 Euros....

A lack of knowledge on European countries EU status and/or currency clearly runs in my family as Croatia uses the 'Croatian Kuna'....Rock on