Schengen: “Schengen: an agreement between 27 European countries that allows residents of those countries and goods to pass freely across the borders of each country without passport or other controls”
Countries not belonging to the Schengen group have negotiated various visa waiver agreements so their citizens can visit the area freely. We can stay 90 days within 180 days which for the average tourist is not a problem. We want to stay for the 5 month sailing season which means we need to exit the Schengen area and go to another non-schengen country to have enough days to get the boat back in to storage at the end of the season. This is commonly called ‘the Schengen Shuffle’
Due to Robyn’s accident we found ourselves with a diminishing Schengen time allowance in Greece when we can’t be sailing because of the time needed for Robyn to recover from her injuries (min 6 weeks). It was evident that we had to find a quiet place to recover that was out of the European Schengen area so we flew to Kotor in Montenegro which has a very picturesque old town area, beautiful mountains,and amazing scenery, being right up the end of the fjord-like waterway. Some have called it the southern most fjord in Europe but it is actually a “ria”, a submerged river canyon.
The flights were via Belgrade with Serbian Airlines and we ended up missing our connecting flight. Apart from the time spent in another airport while they sorted stuff we had a very pleasant stay in the Grand Plaza Hotel with all meals and transport laid on. Not too shabby and unlike other travellers we lapped it up as we had no impending timeline. Quite good really.
Then onto our self contained apartment which was located in suburbia just outside the old town of Kotor. The old town is located on the foreshore (heritage listed) with the castle and substantial fortifications extending up the mountain escarpment. Water gushes out at the base of the mountain through the fortress walls and culverts. The harbour is plenty deep enough to take cruise liners right up to the old town. Together with the nearby overhanging limestone cliffs Kotor and surrounds make for an impressive landscape.
Kotor has an interesting but complex history with a series of invaders and occupations going back to at least 200BC when the Greeks were in control, followed by the Romans and Byzantines – the influence of both clearly seen in the architecture, town planning and water reticulation. The invasions and occupations continued with everyone having a crack including Hungarians, Serbians, Venetians, Italians of course, British, French, Austrians and even Bulgarians and Russians. The most significant fortress modification were made by the Venetians who modified the Medieval defences to be able to take a canon attack. These impressive fortifications extend a long way up the high escarpments commanding an exceptional strategic position. The Venetians were invited to rule at the time to keep the expanding Ottoman empire at bay and quite successfully lasted nearly 300 years. There are even submarine tunnels located near the head of the bay from WWI and II.
Wandering through the streets reveal a collage of alley ways, arches, balconies and cats. The cats of Kotos are famous and mostly very well cared for by the whole population. Of course there are many churches and the busy streets frequented by the passengers disgorged from cruise liners numbering between 1 and 5 at peak times apparently with up to 3000 passengers/vessel at a time. As a practice we had the old town to ourselves by visiting and walking through in the cool of the evening after the ships departed.
Certainly one thing that is noticeable with the local Montenegrins and Serbs is their verticality. They are a very tall race but John is happy as he has noticed that they seem to make all the women the right size. Well he is certainly “going straight to hell for that one” (Robin Williams quote). Wagging finger from me (standing on a box)!
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