Catching Up - The Montenegro Trip

I've pretty much finished what I'm going to do for now with the photos from Elesa's and my "birthday trip" to Montenegro a few weeks ago. If you are interested in seeing the photos that made the final cut, they can be seen in their entirety HERE (slideshow of 49 photos).

I still have a number of photos to do from Ron and Carole's visit, and a massive amount from our 3 day trip with them to Plitvice. the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and the Mostar region of Herzegovina....I'm noticing more and more that I could use a fast computer ... that the 768 MBytes of RAM I have isn't a lot when using Photoshop CS2.

Tree Among Ruins - Kotor, Montenegro (Crna Gora)

St Stefan (Sveti Stefan)

The mystery island (now peninsula) of St Stefan (Sveti Stefan), juts out into the Adriatic just down Montenegro's coast a few miles from Budva. Once an exclusive resort, now shuttered for "renovations", the rumors fly as to what is going on. "The Russians bought it" "The Japanese bought it" "The Mafia bought it" "The Chinese bought it" "SPECTRE bought it"

We stopped at the overlook and took a few photos before heading back...besides the traffic jam, and another couple tourists with a guide (he said Japanese), no one paid us any mind, which probably eliminates the SPECTRE notion at least.

St Stefan - Montenegro
Sveti Stefan - Crna Gora

Perast

While we were in Montenegro, we took a drive around the Bay of Kotor, with a bit of a stop at the old town of Kotor itself (more on that later). Near Kotor is a small town called Perast. Just off the shore a bit in the bay stands two islands, one, Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela), is man made. The Abbey of St George has trees and such...each island is very different looking despite being only meters apart..

This first photo is an illustration of my lack of patience, It is a stitch of 7 photos to make the panoramic. The final stitch is probably over 20,000 pixels wide. I was too impatient to get out the tripod, but I did much better than I did in my previous attempts. Unfortunately, I don't know how to present the photo so you can see it wider than 1024 pixels... even clicking on it and looking at the "large" version, you will only see something that is like 1/25 or so of the final photo and it is hard to see the details of the town.

The photos of the individual islands are panoramic crops of single frames taken from the Perast side of the bay.

Perast - Montenegro
Our Lady of the Rocks and Island of Saint George



Our Lady of the Rocks (Gospa od Škrpjela) - Perast, Montenegro



Island of Saint George (Ostrvo Sveti Đorđe) - Perast, Montenegro

Herceg Novi

Last weekend, in honor of Elesa's birthday and in anticipation of mine, we drove to Montenegro (Crna Gora - "Black Mountain") and stayed a couple of nights in Herceg Novi on the Bay of Kotor...said to be the southern most fjord in Europe. It was a peaceful trip and the area is quite beautiful. The weather isn't real warm yet and outside of a bunch of people from a cruise ship in Kotor itself, there were no crowds at all. Here are a few of the photos from Herceg Novi.


Herceg Novi - Montenegro
The Sea Fortress (Forte Mare) of the Old Town Rises Above the Sea and Boats




St. Michael The Archangel Church - Herceg Novi
Sv. Arhandjela Mihaila - Stari Grad Herceg Novi




Bell Tower, St. Leopold Church. - Herceg Novi
Crkva Sv Leopolda.




Old Town - Herceg Novi, Montenegro
Stari Grad - Herceg Novi, Crna Gora

Took a Little Trip

In honor of Elesa's birthday and in anticipation of mine, Elesa and I took a few days and went to the Montenegrin Coast/Bay of Kotor (Boka Kotorska). We just got back this evening, so more photos will be forthcoming. In the meantime, here is a shot I took while climbing to the top of the fortifications and walls above the old town of Kotor (another UNESCO World Heritage Site to add to my list)...my legs still hurt. Elesa. being of sounder mind, is somewhere in the triangle of the old city between my feet.

Jeff's Feet - Kotor, Montenegro (Crna Gora)