On my cycling journey, I have frequently been thinking that a beautiful area looks for example like Marlborough Sounds, Queenstown or the volcanic plateau in New Zealand. However, when we came over the 1,050 meter pass and approached the Kotor serpentine in Montenegro, I can honestly say that beat New Zealand.
Kotor is a medieval fortified city in the Bay of Kotor on Montenegro's Adriatic coast. Our accommodation was within the old city. We had to walk our bikes through the narrow, winding streets, past a few old churches and then chain them to an old gate inside our hostel, built in the 1300s.
Montenegro is a very beautiful country. It is more lush and green compared to neighbouring Albania, and our legs will tell you it certainly has mountains.
Montenegro is also a small country with a population of just over 600,000 people. Podgorica is the capital and Montenegro's largest city with about 185,000 people. Everything is very quiet - and that is very fortunate for Max the turtle. We came across Max as he was nearly across a pedestrian crossing in the centre of Podgorica. I have never seen a turtle crossing a pedestrian crossing in the centre of a capital city before. Maiken wasn't sure if he was going to be safe, so she carried him to safety after we had finished laughing.
Finally, as usual, the stats:
Total distance cycled: 152km
Number of flat tyres: 0
Number of rainy days: 0
Longest day: 80km
Highest temperature: 28°c
Lowest temperature: 8°c