Dubrovnik- the jewel of the Adriatic

If we have to leave our beloved Montenegro, we might as well go someplace awesome, so Dubrovnik, Croatia, here we are!!!!  One of the largest and best preserved walled medieval cities in the world, Dubrovnik does not disappoint.  However, there is a huge problem with that- everyone wants to see it.  Crowded with tourists does not describe the claustrophobia that we went thru yesterday when we walked to our room in the old town.  But once the cruise ships left,it was incredible!

An old defensive fort sits above the city- bombed during the war, the rubble still makes for the perfect sunset spot!  You can walk up- but it is an excruciating climb.  Better to take the tram! Enjoy!

 I finally found a bottle of wine I could appreciate!  LOL!!!!

 Dubrovnik old walled town from the hill

 Rich with the Croatian coastline in the background.  Incredible number of cute little islands along the coast.

 Sunset over the islands

 Old walled city illuminated at night

The main square at night.  The red and white projection is the pattern for the Croatian soccer team.  They played in Brazil last night (Wednesday) against Camaroon and won 4:0.  

With a tear in our eyes, we say goodbye to Montenegro!:-(

Sadly, today we say goodbye to Montenegro, our home since June 7 when we arrived by ferry.  We stayed mostly in Budva, reportedly a party town.  While the bars blared music late into the night, the town is so much more- great food, great beaches, great vistas, great walking town.  But it was the people we met that endeared this town into our hearts for the rest of our lives!  At our hotel, Nemanja, Ksinja, Natasa and Fritto are forever our friends.  Outside the hotel we met and be-friended Luka and his girl-friend Liza- truly the future of Montenegro!  In meeting them, we learned so much about this part of the world.  More than we imagined we could ever learn!  What we envisioned as a beach vacation mushroomed into an understanding of the great and forgiving nature of a people that were at war not so long ago.  While so far we have learned about Serbs and Montenegrans, soon we go to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzogovinia for perhaps a further understanding.  I suspect we will find the same kind hearts there as we have here!  Also great was the meeting of so many young people from around the world that stayed at our hotel: Russians, Germans, Brits, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Sweden, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland and Spain- the human race truly has a great future! All hard working and hard-studying, the people we met give us great hope!

 Me at Jaz (pronounced Yazzzz) beach

 Ploce (pronounced Polcha with long o) beach

 Rich steadying the paddle boat we took out to the two islands in the bay of the town of Petrovac (pronounced Petrovoch)  Cute little town!

 The islands in Petrovac bay.  The island on the right has a little chapel on top!  We docked the boat- more like held it in place so it didn't smash against the rocks- and we took turns climbing up and ringing the bell.

 the main square of Petrovac

 a water hover device!  cool!  we saw this in Petrovac

We took a side trip to Ostrog and Cetenje in Montenegro.  Below are some photos- it was raining heavily that day, so bad photos, but= amazing!  Here is the monestary of St. Basil in Ostrog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrog_monastery).  Reportedly it has a piece of the original cross!!!

 The monestary is built into a cliff!  Quite a ride up switchbacks to get up there!

 Me entering the monestary

We also went to the town and monestary of Cetenje (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetinje), the spiritual center of Montenegro.  This city was the capital for many years and is quite cute!  It had some beautiful old embassy buildings that are re-purposed.  It also has a monestary that has the left had of St. Peter (yes, you can see it!) and 3 pieces of the orginal cross.

 Me saying good bye

Rich saying good bye

Rich at the full moon here in Budva!

Budva, Montenegro- let's lay on the beach and do nothing!!!!

We are finally here in Montenegro!  Interesting how we got here.  We always knew we would take the ferry from Bari, Italy to Bar, Montenegro, and we knew how to get the tickets, get to the ferry terminal, etc.  What we didn't know, or even expect, was the labyrinth of buses we needed to take to get to the ticket counter for our documents and then get back to the ship.  Every terminal I have been to, including Brindisi in Italy, has the ticket counters near the ship.  Not so Bari!  Theirs was miles away, with no instructions!  Thank god we met up with an Albanian that knew the port and the bus system!  Of course what we thought was plenty of time turned out to be just under the wire, not that that is unusual for us:-) We finally got on the ferry and to Montenegro with no other glitches.  

Now we are in Budva, Montenegro- just a beautiful beach town, complete with an old walled town, beach promenade, different beaches you can walk to or take a bus or boat, restaurants and boats, and really nice people, good food, and prices we love:-).  The country is basically mountains that lead down to the sea!!  We got here Saturday, and have 2 more days here- sadly we leave tomorrow (Wednesday), unless we extend our stay.  I hope we do, but there are other towns in the country we want to see, and time is getting short! 

The coffee here is delicious!  It is Turkish style, so has sediment on the bottom- don't gulp it!  The main foods are vegetables, soups, and grilled meats- all delicious!  The sea is absolutely beautiful!

We can't believe what we thought was more than enough time to explore Europe is not even close to enough time.  We got our appointment for our visa in Berlin on July 8, so our goal is to get to Germany about July 1- way off our June 1 goal!  LOL!

 Rich ontop of the old city walls looking out over the sea

 View from the towns main beach- which is the entire front of the town!  That is St.Nicolas island

 A view of part of the old town from on top of the wall.  Note the hotel and beach next to it.  There is a huge amount of growth here- almost too much!  They tell us that the town is busy only 5 months of the year and deserted the rest.

 Rich with the symbol of the town

 The picturesque island of Sveti Stefan- it is now a privately held island/hotel.  Only way to see it is by boat

 Sculpture on way beach path, with old town in background

Old Town from the beach!

Lecce- (as in the Spanish word for milk- leche)- a gem

We have all heard about the economic difference between north and south Italy- the north is rich and industrial/financial, and the south is just plain poor. So when we had a few extra days in Italy before we could catch a ferry to Montenegro, we decided to go to Lecce. The reason: 3 Italians had all mentioned it, one calling it the Florence of the south. Our travel book, Rough Guide Europe (Not a very comprehensive travel book, don't use them. "Let's Go" is WAY better.) said it had "well trodden streets but a sense of discovery will accompany a visit". So we expected an old, run down town; what we found was the cleanest, well taken care of town in all of Italy! It shines, from the sun reflecting off the beautiful stone work! The town describes itself as Lecce Baroque- Baroque gone wild! Everything looks like a wedding cake made by a schizophrenic decorator. The amount of detail in everything is just astounding! One of the Italians told us to always look up: Right she was! The relief work under windows and balcony supports is amazing. The capitols of every column are different and complex- art pieces by themselves. The decorative stone work on almost every building, not just churches, really sets this town apart. We are both very happy we were able to come here. Plus, it is in an area of Italy we never heard of: Salento. From the pictures, the beaches are incredibly beautiful. Plus they have these old medieval towns, like Gallipoli, a walled medieval city sitting on an island, connected by an old bridge. Wish we had more time, but then we always wish that! Lecce is located in the heel of the boot of Italy- we never thought we would get this far down in Italy, but sure glad we did. We spent 2 night nights hwere, but could have spent a couple more.

 Cthedral, and Cathedral Square, at night.  Night was beautiful in this city.  They did an extraordinary job of adding lighting, which reflected off the limeston buildings.  It was really beautiful at night.

 St. George made an appearance!

 Rich in Cathedral Square with the bell tower in the back ground.

 A street in Lecce!

 This is decoration around a window on one of the churches.

 This is one of the capitols on a column in St, Croce church

 Inside St. Croce church

 Selfie at the cathedral.  That is not dirt on the photo- those are hundreds of little black birds that fly thru the town in evening.  It took alot of shots to get them in a photo:-)

 street at night

main square at night

Sorrento and the Amalfi coast: too beautiful to be real!

All along in planning our trip, we knew we were going go to the Amalfi Coast because we have heard so much about it.  But, nothing could have prepared us for the beauty of this little strip of land in southern Italy!  Green and lush, with incredible hills and mountains, and the cutest little towns nestled into the crevices of this penninsula!  We were in awe at the beauty!  No picture can truly capture the over-all beauty of everything we saw!  Hopefully these will give you a taste, and encourage you to experience this area on your own.  It is truly worth it!

We stayed in the town of Sorrento.  Actually, in Sant Agnello, just outside of Sorrento.  Our hotel- Porto Salvo- was an old monestary that was converted into a hotel.  Very affordable for us.  The walk to Sorrento was about 20 minutes, but it was along the coast, most of the way.  We were told it is completely expensive.  But we found it affordable by eating in family owned restaurants, drinking our coffees at the counter rather than at tables (twice the price), and a few times we bought bread, meat and cheese, and fruit, and made our own lunches.  In this way, we could easily stay our 5 days, even though we wanted to stay longer!

The peninsula is about an hour from Naples, and has an extensive (but very crowded) public bus system.  We took it to Amalfi, and Ravello.  We also booked a boat tour from Sorrento to Amalfi and Positano.  Going by boat was awesome!  You saw all the towns nestled there, and the bigger towns as you approached.

Ravello is a very small town in the hills.  It is known for its vistas and the old castle, which is totally cute.  We had lunch there- excellent!  Wandered the town shops, but mostly sat and stared at the scenery!

Amalfi is the main town on the penninsula (and gives it the name).  Crowded is not the word- I have never seen so many people.  It was actually annoying, except that cute barely describes it.  Amalfi Cathedral is amazing!

Positano is the post-card perfect town with multi-colored buildings climbing the hills, and sandy beach along the entire water-front.  Behind the buildings as narrow curvy streets lined with shops.  Amazingly cute.

Shopping, eating, and drinking really defines the area.  Good quality merchandise, most made right there, is displayed everywhere.  Positano is actually known for their sandles.

Every night, we got a bottle of wine and sat and watched spectacular sunsets.  This is a place that I love and think everyone should go see.  

As an aside, sorry but the pictures are not in order.  Wifi in Italy is very iffy, so the photos did not load in order.  But, it is like a puzzle, we'll just jump around!

Amalfi Town- central square looking at the Cathedral

Positano as we approached by bus

Positano- Rich and I walked in the Mediterranean Sea!

Positano- Rich in the beach-front promenade

Amalfi from the far side of town

Amalfi as we approached by boat

Amalfie beach

Selfie on the coast

Rich in a door way in Ravello

Amalfie from one side of the town

Selfie in Ravello, over-looking the penninsula

Selfie in Sorrento.  As you can see, it is surrounded by cliffs!

SUNSET!!!!!!

Rich at the Sorrento City sign

Ravello Cathedral and bell tower

Ravello view of the penninsula!