The Road to Dubrovnik

So on June 19th after we left Albania, we headed on into Montenegro.

The fields were more tended and we saw tractors and not just people in the fields.

Sitting in the bus, we feasted our eyes on the mountains.

Just before sunset we arrived at our hotel, The Aurel in Podogorica.

 

The rooms were very clean and decorated in that minimalist style.

Here we are in the breakfast room the next day.

 

Some of the rooms were larger and had little dining areas.

They even had a little kitchenette.

The next day we continued on driving through the Balkans. There was graffiti and signs like this.

 

I thought this was an unusual building.

The mountains in Montenegro have a lusher quality somehow than the ones we have seen farther south.

 

This sign is for the mountain Lovćen, which is the source of the name of the country Montenegro.

The mountains  are still quite rocky, but the brush seems greener and more prevalent. Podgorica gets about 65 inches of rain per year, while Tirana only gets about 46.8 inches per year, so that makes sense, I guess.

We headed west unti we reached Kotor and the coast.

 

We stopped at a city with a fort for lunch. There were all kinds of food stalls.

Look at all these different kinds of olives!

The fortress is comprised of a variety of fortifications dating back before the 6th century. Most noticeable are the 13th to 14th centruy components. Here you see a medieval sculptural element.

The city walls are n tact and you can see the extent of the medieval city inside. Here there are many stores and tourist spots.

The streets are narrow and winding.

As always there were artists and pan handlers.

There were also several churches.

 

On eof the most intriguing aspects with regard to Kotor ws the fact that it was a moated fortress.

From the rampart walls you could get a very nice view of the moat. Below you see it from the ground level outside the fortress.



This map can help you understand what a large area is within the walls of the fortification.

We continued on and had to take a ferry to get to Dubrovnik. 

What follows is a series of shots of our group on and around the ferry.
 

Then we were back on the road. Here is a bombed out building which is probably in Croatia.

I loved this "Beware of wild boar " sign!

Dubrovnik is another town with a huge protective fortress and city walls.

Both of them seem eager for people to visit the shop!

 

This is the entry into Fortress Bokar also known as Zvjezdan. There are long expanses of walls around the medieval city that reach from Fort Bokar to St. John's fortress on the southeast side of the city.

 

 In some places the walls are some 20 feet thick and 80 feet tall.

Forts were constructed here in the early middle ages, perhaps around the end of the 8th century. The Saracens attacked and laid seige to the fortress for more than 15 months, but failed in their attack. Here you can see the romanesque architecture of the middle ages with the round (so called Barrel) vaults in the ceiling.

The majority of the extant fortress was begun in the 1400s and it took more than 100 years for the structures were completed.

There is some indication that Fortress Bokar and the Walls of Dubrovnik might have been the source of inspiration for the King's Landing set on The Game of Thrones television show. (See this blog for more info.)

There was so much to see inside the walls!

 

Here is a map of the fortress area.

 

This kitty had found a cool place to sleep out of the sun along with sundry cement balls and furnishings.

Outside the medieval walls there was also much to see.

We wanted to get access to the water and passed by this ornamentation.

The view of the fortress from outside shows how imposing it is.

 

And below the fortress we found a place to swim.

 

And then it was back to the bus to head farther north!