Or
DO NOT ignore Rule #1
Prior to any trip, especially when on a cruise other than a
River Cruise, Chucky does extensive research on possible private tours at
select stops, particularly if the Ship sponsored tours look lame or an
independent tour operator has enough credible reviews that getting back to the
ship on time would not be a problem.
This is usually augmented by getting several other hardy souls,
particularly from Cruise Critic roll calls or wherever to split the cost, thus
making a tour far more affordable and intimate, avoiding the usual 50 person,
get on the bus-get off the bus - limited time in key spots overpriced Ship
tours.
Sooooo, when researching Kotor Montenegro for tours,
the same theme kept popping up with the independent tour operators, Traffic,
especially with more than one ship in port, since it’s a Tendered port. And more importantly Traffic on the weekends, especially on the Old
Austrian Road to Njeguški, Cetinje and Budva, with a possible visit to Perast
and Our Lady Of The Rocks.
The stop in Kotor was on a Sunday [weekend] with
time being tight, and the independent tour operators, hesitant to match the
ships tour and still guarantee timely return to the ship, Chucky went ahead and
booked a ship tour, which included a Bus ride, up the Old Austrian road and
visit to Njeguski, Cetinje, Budva and a walking tour of Old town Kotor… time
permitting.
Rule #1 in Montenegro:
DO NOT book a bus ride up
the Old Austrian Road on the Weekend.
Why you Ask?!?
Read on…
The old Austrian
Road
from Kotor to the Njeguski, built in the 12th
and 13th century has 24 famous, numbered and very dangerous hairpin
turns, traveling 38km and rising 881 meters above the sea. It was built for the transportation of the
day, mostly horse drawn something or other which obviously did not include 40ft
long tour busses, which can barely make the hairpin turns. The road, of course is very narrow with no
room in most spots for anything to pass.
Now picture, Sunday, tourists in rental cars,
along with other busses coming down while your bus is trying to go up and you
get this…
And this
Over, and over and over again.
Fortunately busses going up have the right of way,
because in the past with only manual shift, it was too steep, thus difficult
for up-bound vehicles to start again in low gear for the climb, so any cars, or
busses for that matter, coming down, must back up to any spot, including the
hairpin turns that allow passage, most of which is so close to the edge or the
rock wall of the mountain that side mirrors must be closed and tires are half
off the road.
This poor fellow's wife got so frustrated with his inability to back up, she kicked him out of the car, took over the wheel and made him walk to the passing point, waaaayyyy up the hill.
This poor fellow's wife got so frustrated with his inability to back up, she kicked him out of the car, took over the wheel and made him walk to the passing point, waaaayyyy up the hill.
Somehow, we found the very front seats reserved
for us and the Tempelshifs [an explanation will follow later] where we had the perfect view of it
all unfolding in front of us.
Dragon Chick, who is acrophobic in the first place
had the window seat and a Birds Eye, or Dragons Eye if you will, of the shear
drop off on some passes and the VERY tight squeeze between bus and car on
others, which of course resulted in a lot of “oooffff – ooffff – eeeekk –eeeek”
coming from the window seat.
On some turns, you would swear that the bus was
going to lose paint on the front fenders as we passed soooooo close to the wall
of the mountain, but our bus driver Costa, with 25 years of doing this made it
look too easy.
For the strong of heart, here is a link to YouTube
Video of a motorcycle ride DOWN the Kotor Serpentine.
With all the Weekend Traffic and the constant head
to head stops with cars and busses backing up, it took 2.5 hours, just to
travel 38km to Njeguski.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful once we
reached two way roads, with brief stops in Njeguski for snacks and the old Capitol of Centinje, with
a pass by Budva, the Riviera of Montenegro, where the Aman Resort Managed island
of St Stefan {the Logo
Pic for this NOWAT} stands out in the Bay.
Since the trip up took so long and the weekend traffic so
packed we did not have time for the planned city walk of Old Town Kotor and
barely made it back to the ship in time.
We hit Kotor again on the second cruise, so we'll work out a
city walk somehow and maybe a bus ride to Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks.
Ciao 4 Now
Uncle Chuck & The
Totally stressed from the wild ride,
Dragon Lady
This looks just as scary as the roads in the amalfi coast to positano....
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