Alpe D'Huez

'I say, Bertie, I fancy a spot of skiing this winter. I hear there’s a new resort opened up in Alpe D’Huez in the French Alps. 1936 was the first season.' Aubrey looked at his man servant as he stood with back to the fire, steaming mug of Horlicks in hand. ‘I think we’ll avoid Bavaria this time. Too many of those frightful Nazis swanning around the resort and making a racket in the beer halls.’

‘Indeed Sir, and do you wish me to accompany you on this expedition?’ Bertie’s eyebrow rose quizzingly and spoke almost as loudly as his voice.

‘Bertie I would be lost without you. Even if cousin Mabel accompanied us I would have no-one to enjoy a good gin and tonic with over a blazing fire.’

‘Will you be requiring the Bentley, Sir? If so I will have to unfreeze the radiator and test the starting handle, as well as topping up the oil. I need a day to check everything is in order. The garage is still under a foot of snow.'

‘Absolutely Bertie. Make sure you use some of that Castrol oil left over from last year. We will take the Bentley to Croydon Airport and park her there for two weeks. It only costs 3 shillings to leave her on the tarmac.’

‘Golly gosh, Sir, that’s frightfully expensive. Would it be more precipitous to take the train?’

‘The train is too inconvenient Bertie, and even more expensive. Why, these days only rich people can travel by train! Could you possibly wax my skis and find my poles and boots, there’s a good man? They should all be in the attic.’

‘Consider it done Sir.’ Bertie’s response was as smooth as a Baileys flavoured coffee as he swung around and disappeared up the hall stairs to forage in the eaves.

As Aubrey settled down to a glass of port with Stilton and grape accompaniments that evening, his faithful butler peered into the room around the wood panelled door. ’Sir, I need to prepare your wardrobe for our trip to the Alps. What vestments would you like me to pack?'

‘I need my four Norwegian jumpers, including the red one with the reindeer patterns, that’s my favourite. I also need my khaki ski jacket that I wore in Bavaria last winter and a selection of my Canadian lumberjack shirts. Then I’ll take the boots that I bought at Harrods in the summer. I will leave it to you to include a selection of undergarments sufficient for a two week stay. Oh, and don’t forget a cache of my favourite Cuban cigars. You know how I love to smoke one after a workout on the piste.’

Bertie bowed gracefully as he left the room, ‘I will do it immediately Sir.’

The morning of the 15^th December 1937 dawned crisp and clear as Aubrey’s bright yellow Bentley edged out of the gates of Tottering Towers in deepest Sussex and wound its way towards the A23 trunk road. Soon they were belting along the newly laid dual carriageway with barely another car in sight. Aubrey wore his flying jacket from the Haywards Heath Air Training Corps and his brown leather helmet, gloves and goggles given him last Christmas by great aunt Sybil.

And so it was that Aubrey Lancelot found himself at Croydon Airport on the 15^th December 1937, booked on a flight in a silver and blue De Havilland aeroplane of the British and Overseas Airways company to Grenoble for a private transfer to the chalet.

Just a bit of fun!

　

Alpe D’Huez is a great resort for beginners like me. It’s shaped like a giant bowl, the higher you go, the steeper and higher the slopes. This is not always the case as with some resorts you have to travel high to get to the easy slopes. It is one of the biggest ski resorts in the world. I went there in the first week of the season when prices are down, the first week of the winter holidays. A group of about thirty of us took over a large and very cosy chalet just down the road from the most unusual town church.

Alpe D'Huez

I caught an Easyjet flight £158 return from Gatwick and we were buried by an avalanche of school girls on board in a state of hyper excitement. ‘Oh my gosh, see that guy over there in the airport bus with the red jacket with hood on. He’s in the Olympic team. Oh my gosh, I love him,' they squealed. Bobbing up and down and turning around in their seats like chipmunks, it made the flight a tad noisier than average.

Access is by a £45 return two hour transfer from Grenoble Airport which eventually whisks you up from the valley floor via a succession of hairpin bends to the resort at altitude 4100 to 10930 ft. The area has been used by the Tour De France as a stage finish, the road up to Alpe D’Huez having 21 hairpin bends.The transfer is run by Ben's Buses and yes, Ben is a real live person and not just a trademark. They have a great personal service and liase with you as you get off the plane in Grenoble, make sure everyone is on board before leaving with a proper register, and let you know what;s going on if there's a problem. I was impressed.

Dusk

I booked the holiday at the last minute for £378 which included a week’s half board in my own room complete with single and double beds, with very generous ensuite facilities. It's got to be a winner when the sink is large, man, and there's generous space all around to place your jumble of toiletries, as well as cupboard space. Complimentary shower gel and shampoo were also provided. 

A generous breakfast which always offers porridge is complemented by all day tea and coffee, tea and cake (extra yummy and plentiful) at 4.30pm onwards every afternoon, and a three course meal at 7.30 in the evening with as much wine as you want. But be careful of drinking too much wine as it overrides the sleep function in your body, and sleep is what you need as skiing is a full week's workout.

Hi from Alpe D'Huez

The chalet is pretty central just down the road from the church and five minutes from the ski hire shop. I had booked too late to organise my skiing from the UK and had to do it when I got there, but this was to be a blessing in disguise. At the shop I was told that despite having been skiing just once before I was good enough for the silver pack, 120 euro for skis, poles and boots for the week. On top of this was the ski instruction, 155 euro for 5/6 days (same price for both). I did incredibly well because on the last Saturday morning no-one turned up for the lesson from my group, it being changeover day, and I ended up having one to one tuition which is normally incredibly expensive! My instructor was a tree surgeon off season.

I also did really well with my ski pass as a woman offered me her ski pass for four days until her husband turned up. It meant I only had to buy a pass for a further three days. She said treat it as an early Christmas present!

I spent the first day of ski school with the beginners and then graduated to level 1 the next day. My first instructor was an older woman who has a vineyard when she’s not ski instructing (someone has to do it!). My second instructor was Cedric, a young Frenchman who pointed out as soon as I joined the group that 'we have nice girls in this group,' which gives you some idea of the attractions of being a ski instructor.

The gang!

A typical day for me was waking up almost without exception between 6 and 7am to ready myself for the day. This is normally unheard of when I am on holiday, but when your ski lesson starts at 9.15 an early breakfast is essential. Downing porridge with syrup, eggs, yoghurt and tea (on at least on two occasions I was the first down to breakers) was followed by a quick ablution session before departing with four layers (vest, thick shirt, fleece and outer jacket) to the boot room to collect skis, poles and boots. Then it was down to the 'lobster pots' to take us up the hill to the ski school. 'Lobster pots' is the term given to the ski lift that takes you to the slopes and the first cable car station, and every morning  there was a huge queue to get on because it's the only way up the mountain for the school groups, ski schoolers and ordinary skiers. Somewhat infuriating as it made us late a couple of times in the week, although the holiday manager gave us a lift in the minibus a couple of times. Ski school ran for two and three quarter hours, when you bond in various stages of incompetence with your fellow beginners. Every day it's someone's turn to collapse spectacularly or otherwise in mountains of snow when off piste or bone shaking thumps when on piste. This pastime is seriously hard on the legs and learning parallel skiing I found a steep learning curve as you try to balance on your outside left ski as you swing round to the right and vice versa. By the end of the week I reckon I was almost beginning to look like an elegant swan gliding across the piste, looking ahead and downhill, holding my poles in front of me, keeping my skis parallel, and bending my knees forward, but this was after no end of tumbles and racing out of control across the piste, miraculously staying on my feet on numerous occasions.

A highlight was going off piste on a couple of occasions with our instructor and into really deep fresh snow. This was a chance to show off one's balance in more extreme conditions or to disappear in a whirlwind of flailing skis into a self made hole in the snow. The first day I managed to sail through all this like an old timer and was quite pleased with myself. The next day I crashed and burned not once but twice as my street cred shot through the floor. 

Falling over is inevitable but to be avoided as much as possible given the extreme difficulty of getting up with your skis still on! I think the younger you are the easier it is. Imagine an upended turtle trying to right itself and that is how I felt. Every time I rose with the help of my poles, my skis slid away and down I went. The best solution was to remove one ski. Then you have the problem of getting your boots back in the skis when the soles and bindings are stuffed with snow and ice. One day I gave up trying to put my ski back on and walked down the slope, hard work at the best of times. When I checked the bindings at the shop, there was nothing wrong with them!

Afternoons are spent practising what you've learnt in the morning either with friends or fellow learners from the ski school. If your partner is about your level, you are likely to stay with them for the whole afternoon. If however your partner has superior skiing skills, starting the afternoon as a twosome becomes a distant memory as they ski a hundred miles ahead of you and only reconnect with you for late afternoon tea at the chalet, where they wonder what on earth happened to you.

With about thirty of us guests in the chalet it was easy to get to know one another and very sociable as we enjoyed dinner together every night at the long tables in the dining room, and were served by an excellent set of waiters and waitresses. Notices previewed the next day's arrangements and all important weather details (basically a bumper snow week!) and also notified us of evening activities which were mainly of the indoors type and variations on parlour games. These engendered a healthy level of competitiveness and a good chance to get to know the rest of the group. 

Before dinner we were led in meetings by a school chaplain who did a very good job of leading us in carol singing and some devotions and discussion on the Christmas story. This was an ideal time to collect one's thoughts and thank God for the day's blessings, including protection from broken legs, etc! A recent DVD of the nativity story complete with nasty evil Herod and convincing narrative was used to illustrate the devotions. In fact one evening's activity was to watch the film in its entirety.

So most apres piste activity stayed inside the chalet given the extreme level of friendliness of the guests, although on the last night some of us remembered there was a town out there and hit the Igloo bar in the centre of Alpe D'Huez.

. If you've never been skiing, give it a go! You will love it.

　

　

　

The map gives some idea of the extent of the area

                                                                      Black Down

Southern England may be one of the most populated places on the planet but it is easy to find plenty of quiet spots with miles of countryside all to yourself. Sussex and Kent form a great bowl bordered by the North and South Downs and filled with the delights of the Weald, but in that bowl are numerous ridges and pockets of high ground that sit up like giant lumps of cereal. One such area is Black Down.

View out over the Weald

The slopes of Black Down

 

Black Down is a popular Sussex beauty spot that Lord Tennyson loved so much that he decided to get a house here to get away from day trippers on the Isle of Wight where he lived. You can understand why he liked it because it is the highest spot in Sussex and also in the South Downs National Park (919ft) and sits like a great mound just south of Haslemere, with fantastic views all round towards Leith Hill, the North and South Downs, and of course the Sussex Weald. ill Sussex is the most mature and tame of landscapes and Black Down is about as wild as it gets round these parts, which isn’t very, and shares the same features as other well known southern beauty spots such as Ashdown Forest with its open heathland  and scattered woodland. In fact it’s like a much hillier Ashdown Forest, crossed by winding and switchback little lanes swinging between banks of trees and undulating countryside.

The Weald from Black Down

 

You can access Black Down directly from Haslemere town centre by following the little lanes south up from the main street. This takes you up to Tennyson Ridge and Tennyson Lane. Take the Lane and the road heads upwards in a pretty straight trajectory past some rather large ‘stockbroker’ type houses to end up at a series of car parks at the top where the highest points of Black Down can be easily accessed. There’s lots of sandy paths through the woodland and heath, but in the winter you do need boots as the mud and puddle mix does mount up.

You can do a ‘circular’ route which takes you south to the Temple of the Winds which sounds like a place where you will meet assorted time lords doing funny wizardy things with staffs and the odd Gollam scurrying through the undergrowth. In fact it is a splendid viewpoint looking out over the Sussex Weald and across to such iconic spots as Ditchling Beacon, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke. Here there is a topograph (bet you’ve never heard of that!), one of those steel direction pointers that indicates direction of well known landmarks and how many miles away they are .

Woodland on Black Down

If you swing round to the west from here you can follow the slopes of Black Down along a well marked path which follows the contours and enjoy the more rolling countryside but still expansive views out to the west. Whereas trees hide the horizon to the west when approaching the Temple of the Winds, here the views out to the west are uninterrupted and more treeless heathland. Keep going and the path takes you back into the woodland and then back to the car park.

Haslemere is an ideal place to find respite after a bracing walk on Black Down, although it is a tad well heeled (definite beige handbag area) so be prepared for any steep prices. Actualy it has  a little museum in the town centre with quite an interesting section on Black Down. Visiting this museum was the first time I became aware of the famous local beauty spot.

Black Down at dusk

 

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm centre

Stockholm in winter

Stockholm is a good visit in the winter but just make sure you take a warm jumper/fleece, coat, hat and gloves to be prepared for those cold crisp sub zero temperatures.

Stockholm is seriously expensive, you need a lot of spondulux to survive in Sweden for more than a few days, but it’s also fun to visit, even in the middle of winter. But don't get up too late or the hours of daylight will swiftly disappear mid afternoon! I arrived there one snowy night the 3rd of January leaving an incredibly blustery UK. We landed at Skavsta Airport which is about an hour and a half by bus from the centre of the city. The snow was more of a smattering than a blanket but was a suitable introduction to Scandinavia. Yes, it was indeed Ryanair that I flew with!

Classic Stockholm waterfront scenes

Once I arrived at the bus station in the city centre I asked directions to the hotel without much success. It sounded like it was just up the road but it took a little while to find my bearings, and eventually I caught a taxi as it was on the late side.

I stayed at the Crystal Plaza Hotel on the street Birger Jarlsgatan, an art deco nineteenth century apartment type hotel on this main thoroughfare in a central part of the city, just north of the waterfront. Adequate for a short stay, it is warm, has great décor (colourful carpets and paintings, great chandeliers), a spiral staircase, and a brilliant breakfast with very attentive staff. It provides a welcome lair at the end of a cold winter day, with TV and internet access, a minibar and a nice clean bathroom. (By the way the best hair gel I have ever bought I used here and it was a mini tube from Gatwick Airport Boots which I have not since been able to find again). The downside was that the shower door was not quite fit for purpose as it was broken and took a little adjustment to position properly, and the mattress was a little hard for my liking (I am a soft bed/pillow fan, bit of a wimp really!)

Stockholm - Venice of the North

A ten minute walk from the hotel lands you in the middle of the city centre. Here you can mosy up and down the long straight walking streets and visit the indoor shopping centre with its very helpful tourist desk and scrumptious confectionary displays. Stockholm is strewn over a haphazard shoreline which twists in and out around a substantial harbour and island setting. Around the city lies an archipelago of islands which provide a summer playground for the locals and plenty of work for the ferries that ply their trade between the city and its surroundings. There's not much sign of water activity in the winter with lines of boats tied up against the promenade hibernating for the winter. The city centre is concentrated on a small number of compact islands, the tiny island of Gamla Stan (the Old Town) being right at the heart with its classic government buildings and chic shops and eating joints. It's an ideal spot to start a Scandinavian murder mystery! You can walk easily from one island to another or use the transit system, the efficient trams or the extensive underground. To the north of Gamla Stan is the modern city centre, Norrmalm with its grid iron pattern streets and modern shops, and here is the main railway station. South of Gamla Stan takes you to Sodermalm which I got the impression is quite a hip and trendy area to coast around. Its northern shore rises quite steeply to the settlement above, and once over the bridge you can ascend to a viewing platform high above the city for great views all around the city centre and waterways. It was icy cold up there on a brisk blue sky day which will leave your eyes watering and your nose running. The main street cuts straight through the island from north to south, again splitting the characteristic street grid pattern.

To the east of Gamla Stan is the tiny island of Skeppsholmen which I breezed round in double quick time in the evening. It has the Modern Museum for international art, with a great collection of Swedish and international masterpieces.

Entrance to Gamla Stan

Waterfront view

The green and parkland style island of Djurgarden can be reached by a short tram ride along the harbour front, then over a little bridge to find the rather large Nordiska museum on the right. This is an island of at least three museums, but be ready to part with a tidy sum to get in! I managed the Nordiska museum at a cost of about £9. This is a hulking old bulk of a building with a massive atrium and comprehensive exhibits on several floors, tracing the history of Sweden down through the ages in architecture, dress, furniture and decoration, lifestyle, Swedish minorities, customs and religion, photography and goodness knows what else. You need at least half a day to get around, and roller skates would be useful.  It's got a nice cafe as well. Just shy of the Nordiska is another evocative museum, the Vasa museum where you can study the 230ft  Swedish warship, the Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 in Stockholm Harbour! and was salvaged in 1961. It has been restored to almost original splendour. The museum is described as a five star attraction.

Attractive harbour front

Winter sun central Stockholm

You can't beat the cold crisp high pressure, admittedly short, days when the sun casts a beautiful hue upon the pastel coloured Swedish buildings, as in the above photo.

You can buy a Timmarskort, a 72 hour card that gives you three days travel throughout the Stockholm area by bus, underground, tram and train which costs you 230 kr. This is about £20. The trick with krona is to divide by ten and then knock a little bit off to convert them to pounds. This card can take you way out of the city to far flung towns as well as give you quick mode around the city centre.

For instance you can take a train from Stockholm Central Station north to visit Sigtuna, the oldest town in Sweden founded in the tenth century, where the first Swedish coin was minted. You have to take a bus for the last part of the journey. The rail north takes you right out of the urban area into a landscape of gently rolling countryside of fields and interspersed woodland under a leaden sky, a dusting of snow covering everything in the near zero conditions. Once you get on the bus, it takes you up and down through little towns and then to the lakeside upon which Sigtuna sits. Sigtuna itself is a small township centred on a high street of old wooden buildings running parallel to the lakeshore, with suburbs stretching up the hill and down the lakeside. If you take a walk along the lakeside you get classic Nordic views across the waters to far wooded shores and into tiny inlets, all set beneath the pinks and reds of a setting sun. it’s just as you would imagine Sweden to be if you had never been.

So what’s worth doing in Sigtuna:

Well you can hit the tourist office on the main drag, Storagatan, the oldest street in Sweden. The tourist offce has an interesting mix of things to buy, and here I availed myself of a fine red woolly hat. The office told me about the following:

The 18th century Town Hall - a cute little building, the smallest in Scandinavia, with a clock tower that looks a bit like something out of a Hansel and Gretal story. It’s used for wedding ceremonies.

The church of Maria - the oldest brick building in the local valley going back to 1247.

The church ruin of St Olaf if you like old ruins.

Further west are the church ruins of St Lars and St Per, the latter which stands on a hillock isolated from the rest of the town.
These old ruins are likely to have been built in the 12th and 13th century.

Sigtuna waterfront

Sigtuna Museum - this was closed although the local information said it was open. I peered inside but didn’t see much. However it does have a collection of exhibits from Viking times and the Middle Ages.

I went up the hill out of town to the west to see the Sigtunastiftelsen (Sigtuna Foundation), a cultural and Christian meeting place founded by Manfred Bjorkquist in the early twentieth century. It’s quite an extensive set of buildings, but after prowling around for a while trying to find a way in, a lady appeared at one of the entrances and told me the place was closed!

Rune stones - Sigtuna has more rune stones than any town worldwide.

These are some of the highlights and I also ate at the buzzing Café Valvet on the main street which did a very good lunch of egg and potato, a Swedish delicacy.

Stockholm centre

Nykoping (pronounced Knee shopping!) is an ancient Swedish town, a seat of old Swedish kings, about a twenty minute ride from Stavska airport which is definitely worth a visit. Here you can stroll along the long, straight main street, and also visit the castle, wander along the river past the old watermill, and take a walk out to the harbour. Nykoping Castle is quite an easy visit with lots of exhibits and displays and virtually no visitors, so there was plenty of time to get the attention of the reception department if you had any questions. It was originally a 13th century defensive fortress, and a colourful story from its past is the Nykoping Banquet when King Birger (Burger King!) invited his brothers to a banquet at the castle, but then chucked them in the dungeons where according to legend, they died of starvation. Nice chap!

You use your card to pay on the bus, they don’t take cash, something you would have to get used to in Sweden. So I had to use my euro currency card. Fare was 24kr each way. By the way Swedish buses and trains seem to run like clockwork, I guess there is a little more joined up thinking here than in the UK.

(NB If you need to stay at Stavska Airport overnight you can stay at the Connect Hotel which charges 595 kr per night for a basic but comfortable room with a bunk bed, although you have to share a bathroom which is modern, clean and of substantial size with ample shower space.)

Scenes of Nykoping



Classic Swedish architecture

Prices

Three nights at the Crystal Plaza cost 1759kr including bar snacks

Left luggage charge 50 kr per day

Coffee at Skavsta Airport Food Hall: 24 kr

Bus journey Stavska Airport to Stockholm city centre: 259 kr (Flygbussarna)

Evening meal at Ristorante Sogni, Kungsgatan 3 was an eye watering 286kr for a plate of pasta, a beer and a tiny dessert, and that was service not included! It was very nice, a substantial bowl of pasta, but we’re talking about £25!

Latte in Stockholm: 35kr

Southern Rail:

Book ahead with Southern which has the franchise of the main commuter routes between London and Sussex and you can save a lot of money e.g. I have paid £11.50 Durrington to Gatwick Airport return (£4.50 there, £6.75 return).

Entrance to Gamla Stan

Dusk in Stockholm - yes it is a statue!

Day trip to Montenegro

Gateway to Kotor

Montenegro has got to be a cool upcoming happening place in the next few years and is already getting rave reviews. I notice that in the Independent today (Sunday 21st October 2012) the travel section has Montenegro as one of the places to see in the coming year. Blessed with nature's bounty, it packs a big tourist punch for such a small nugget of a nation.

There are a number of companies that do this trip from Dubrovnik for between 300 - 360 kuna which might be an easier option than organising your own trip. By all means hire a car as an alternative, or if you take the bus, you can leave relatively early in the day, but the problem with this is getting back at a reasonable time. The last bus back was inconveniently early. In the end I went with 'Adriatic Explore' (http://www.adriatic-explore.com/index.php) who proved to be very professional, with a pretty young guide by the name of Anastasia who spoke excellent English and looked after us with great care for the whole day. Right from the start she gave us a non-stop and very informative commentary on everywhere we were passing through together with a comprehensive history of this part of the Balkans



Bay of Kotor

We set off down the coast from Dubrovnik with two women, an Australian guy and myself on board. We sped down the spectacular coastline with a running commentary on the surroundings. On arrival at Cavtat we picked up eight people at a hotel so were almost full. Cavtat by the way is a lovely little resort at the extreme south end of Croatia, enough of a centre for a holiday in itself. You can get to Dubrovnik easily from Cavtat by bus or boat. Cavtat by the way is a great place to spend your last night in the area before flying home as it's just shy of the airport and you can continue to soak up the holiday atmosphere with one foot on the airport concourse! You climb out of Cavtat for a short distance, then past Dubrovnik airport on your immediate left and you are passing through the last bit of Croatia with good views of lush agricultural valley surrounded by hills. Be warned that there are also horrendous road-works in this last bit of Croatia with traffic lights and some really bumpy stretches of road. This slowed us up a little but eventually we crossed the border and stopped at a garage for a refreshment break. Take note that Montenegro does not accept Croatian kuna. You have to take euro or use the ATMs, so I had to take out 20 euro for the day being a profligate spender! With my newly acquired euro I bought a tiny coffee not worth the money (mistake!) before boarding the bus again. After a ride though the green Montenegro countryside, the scenery became increasingly spectacular as we neared the coast and majestic mountains fall into the sea. A fjord like landscape opens up as you enter the bay of Kotor past a narrow inlet into a wonderful mix of steep mountain sides and sea-lochs, all decorated with little hamlets and the ancient town of Kotor itself which sits on the bay within its old city walls. Kotor is on the far side of the bay from where you enter from the northwest. It's a long way around the bay as the road hugs the shore.

Imagine a bird's eye view and the bay looks like the two wings of a butterfly which taper southwards to a tiny neck of water that opens out again into an enormous twist of loch that finds its way between impressive heights eventually to the sea. Following the lakeside the road twists around this brace (butterfly wings!) of huge water stretches and then back on itself at the other side of the inlet. It is here that a ferry can save you the journey round, but who would want to miss the scenery! This part of the journey is a real highlight of the tour, made for snapping to distraction, although you can get duff photos through a bus window! However, our driver did stop at a convenient point to disgorge us for proper shots.

Main entrance to Kotor old town



Kotor

A guide is provided in Kotor, in this case a buxom and jolly young lady who took us on a tour of the old streets and architecture. You enter through the Sea Gate (West Gate – 1555) from the Harbour side and find yourself in a wide impressive thoroughfare that runs parallel to the walls. Here is the Town Clock Tower (1602). The town is shaped like a triangle, a beautiful jumble of old buildings sandwiched between the high hills and the water, and surrounded by old walls that hug the city and then stretch like a diamond necklace out and up into the hills with interspersed fortifications. I did not have time but it would be well worth trudging up the hill to trace these ancient walls.

Kotor

The town has a harbour, and there was a pretty impressive large boat in dock when we were there. The town has the usual clutch of old churches. I visited the Church of St Nicholas (1909) and the Church of St Mary (1221 – a little older!). Definitely a place worth coming back to.
I was a good boy and returned to the minibus at the scheduled time. (I have been known not always to do this!).The last people to return to the bus were a Portuguese family we had picked up in Cavtat.



Views of Kotor town

 

Carrying on along the coast you head towards the Montenegro Riviera which has a much shorter season than Croatia, so by September things are really winding down. Negotiating the mountainous coastline, our minibus skirted up the hill side above Jaz Beach, an inviting curve far below which looked like a hip, hop and happening kind of place. Must get the shades out.




Montenegro Riviera

Budva is the business end of the Riviera, a rather commercial and concreted resort which stretches significantly around the bay and is one of the places to be in the summer for youngsters. You can check out the nightlife on You Tube and it's pretty brazen in the summer. A nubile young American takes viewers on a tour of the hot places to visit at night. If you get through to the other side of Budva, the coastal road takes you high onto the cliff top for a view of St Stevan (Sveti Stevan), a little settlement on a peninsula reaching out into the Adriatic. It is one of the top attractions of Montenegro, although you cannot now access it unless you book into the hotel there. Shame! From the road it looks a glorious spot, a jumble of terracotta roofs interspersed with greenery, encased in a neat little island joined to the mainland by a raised roadway on an isthmus. Casino Royale was filmed here, although there was no sign of James Bond! It looks like a cool place to play poker if you're an international criminal with an eye-patch and a facial scar!

Sveti Stevan of Casino Royale fame

We retraced our steps by returning to Budva for a couple of hours break. Here we were free to wander, have lunch and visit the beach. I investigated the old town, the best bit of the area, and found myself in a lovely spot to eat. Here were four older members of the party, two English couples who invited me to join them for lunch. Cue to have a seafood salad for twelve euro as a bit of a treat. We watched people having their photo taken with a backdrop of the old walls of the town. A blonde dressed in white sat lazily on a ledge sunbathing for all the world looking as if she was modelling the latest range of TK Max clothes. I took the liberty of leaving my lunch acquaintances early to catch a few rays on the beach and go for a swim. We had been asked to return to the minibus a little earlier than the original schedule had said. A little annoying but our driver had a home to go to and it was September! Funnily enough the Portuguese family were the last to return to the bus again.

Budva

Budva old town

The lengthy ride back took us right past Tivat Airport, gateway to the sun for those visiting Montenegro from the UK. It is conveniently close to all the areas I mention here so I have duly noted it for the future. 

Driving back to Croatia we took the ferry to cut out the long ride around the Bat of Kotor. This is a car and passenger ferry and takes a mere seven minutes or so to cross the nape of this seaway.

Montenegro is now on my radar and promises to be a worthy standalone holiday destination. It looks unbeatable with its mix of Norway type coastal scenery plunged into a Mediterranean context of hot temperatures, beaches and classy old towns. Unmissable!