Day 214 Thurs 17 May 2007 Shkoder, Albania to Kotor, Montenegro

Crossing into Montenegro, the world’s newest country founded less than a year ago, at a quiet border post we travel through country lanes before descending to the town of Bar where we discover Stari Bar, no not a place for margaritas but an ancient walled settlement largely destroyed in a series of earthquakes but now undergoing restoration. We picnic on the old city walls and wander round the hilly ruin before journeying on along the Adriatic coast to Kotor on a fjord surrounded by towering limestone mountains. Turning left by mistake we drive along the lake shore through tiny villages and find a pleasant hotel with beautiful rooms overlooking the lake. Unfortunately its too expensive so we elect a cheaper option across the road but are forced, without much reluctance, to return to the nicer hotel for dinner because of the noisy building work. Montenegro appears in a headlong rush to catch up with building works and concrete trucks everywhere. We have an excellent dinner on the fjords edge looking back to Kotor.