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Montenegro / Bosnia and Herzegovina / Croatia: Way back home #1

All the plans in Montenegro were fulfilled, so Nada and me started our journey back home. Since we were not in a hurry, we first explored the town of Budva, crossed the Bay of Kotor with a ferry, drove on the only toll road in the country, had dinner in Bosnia and Herzegovina, found Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyard in Croatia and went to bed in Sinj.

Mogren Beach, one of the main and favourite beaches of Budva. Beaches were named after the Spanish sailor Mohrin, who had experienced a shipwreck and landed here. As a sign of gratitude, he built a church dedicated to St. Anthon. The remains of this church are located on Mogren II beach.

 

The oldest church with the precise date of construction in Budva is church of St. Mary's, dating back to year 840.

 

Holy Trinity Church

Church of St Sava the Anointed

Small Maritime Museum

On the southern side of the Old Town Budva, at the most elevated place, the town fortress Citadel was built from which city walls begins and ends. The fortress is first mentioned in XV century.

Towards the highest point

View to the Old Town and the new buildings

Nada and Tuši

Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.

The entire town is encircled with defensive stone walls. The fortifications of Budva are typical of the Medieval walled cities of the Adriatic, complete with towers, embrasures, fortified city gates and a citadel.

 

The town citadel is situated on the southern tip of the city. Originally known as Castle of St Mary, fortification was continually rebuilt and expanded through Middle Ages, reaching its final form during the Austro-Hungarian rule.

 

Inside the citadel

Local fisherman

St. Ivan church from 17th century

  

Deep inside the old city, exploring the narrow streets

Dancing Girl Statue, a topless girl doing the dancer's pose

Towards the Mogren beach

Crossing the Bay of Kotor

 

Food in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the city Posušje

In Croatia we visited Velika and Mala Crljivica, where we found many Stećak medieval tombstones.

Stećci are medieval tombstones, notable for their unique design and decoration that typifies funerary art between the 12th and 16th century in this region.

Stećci were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. It includes a selection of 4,000 stećci at 28 necropolises - of which 22 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, two from Croatia, three from Montenegro, and three from Serbia.

A fraction of stećci bear inscriptions, mostly in extinct Bosnian Cyrillic, some in Glagolitic and Latin script.

GeoCaches found (all received a visit by trackable items "Siebasiach's Figure Eight Geocoin", TB735HE, "Gallotia Mystery", TB7372G, "Sanban s1", TB42DJW and "Julia ud Zweeenes 100000 Caches", TB35GHN):
- Budva: Old town, GC2YXGC
- Vapnenac, EarthCache, GC25DQ2

- Stećci, GC5XC5E