Cycling around Boka Kotorska / Bay of Kotor Montenegro | RECUMBENT TRIKE vlog | Steintrikes Wild One
Good morning! So, we start today downhill, and you can assume that we will finish it on the same steep... But uphill. See you! Yeah, we will go with that ferry across. We start our today's morning ride on the ferry, and then we will go all around the inner part of the Kotor bay. We will soon reach Verige, which is the narrowest part of the Kotor bay, and once we are on the other side we will know we are close to our destination, to get home.
We are arriving to our first destination, the city of Risan. Ivana is also here with five seconds late. We are arriving to our second destination, the village of Perast, which I think is the pearl of the Kotor bay. You will see. And the best part - check it out - it's forbidden for cars. As you can see, the town of Perast is completely built in stone, and actually it is one of the, maybe the only one, the only place in Kotor bay that is completely preserved and highly protected.
So if you want to build a new house, or restore an old house, you are only allowed to do it if you do it in stone. It is also famous for the two islands that we can see. The left one is St. George, which is a monastery, and it's not allowed to go there without a special permit, and the one on the right is called Our Lady of the Rock, and it is an artificial island built in, I think in the 15th century, when two Venetian soldiers found the Holy Mary painting on a rock that was located there, and then the locals brought rocks with their boats and threw it on that place and build an island with a church on it. And today you can go there by boat and visit the church, and see the painting that was found and many other sailor-related things. Also, somewhere in August there is one day, I think on the 10th or 12th of August, when you can see many little boats going to the island and still throwing rocks to maintain the island on its place.
Along the coast there are these little cafes and restaurants where we usually like to stop for a coffee, but today we decided to continue all the way to Kotor and have our coffee there. And breakfast probably. Here we are on the square of the St. Nicholas church in Perast. It was built in its present form in 1616, but there was also an older church in its place. This bell tower is 55 meters high, which is the highest church tower on the Adriatic coast. Every second comment on Serbian is "Ležiš, a ideš!" Everyone is commenting that this is a true Montenegrin's life - you are lying and you are moving.
Maybe we should mention that the Montenegrins are famous in jokes that they like to relax a lot and lead a relaxed life. From this central point in the bay, we can also see the narrowest part, Verige, which is approximately where we started this morning. And this part was obviously a very strategic point through history, because the one who controlled it controlled the whole entrance to the bay from the water, from the sea.
Verige means a chain, because there were chains lifted on this place which would stop the boats from entering, and they were only lowered to release the ally boats. And we're back on the road. As you can see there is only one road in this part, so it is a shared road for all the cars, buses, trucks, and so on, that want to pass here. That is the main reason why we decided to leave the kids with their grandparents and go alone, because it's not... Because we don't think it's safe enough. The nature here is so beautiful, but also very savage.
We have some bicycle path, so we use it . But the main reason why I start to film again is because I think that these walls in front of us are the walls of Kotor. The main gate of Kotor. Bikes are not allowed. When you enter Kotor, the old town of Kotor, you reach this main square with the clock tower. And then you can go on.
It's not allowed to enter Kotor by bike, so we had to leave our trikes on the entrance. But we still did enter and came for a breakfast. And I know you're wondering how we left our trikes unattended, so we'll show you that when we get back to them.
Kotor was for a long time a Venetian city, governed by Venice, and it was also in different times taken over by the Ottoman empire, and then Hungarians, Italy and so on, but for the longest time, almost four centuries, it was a Venetian city. So its main architecture reminds many Mediterranean towns with these narrow stone streets. These little streets take you from one little square to the other, and make a very nice morning walk, or an afternoon walk. There is also... If you're into it, there is also a nice hike up the mountains along the walls of the old fortress, fortress of Kotor, which takes a few hours to climb.
And few more if you're wearing SPD shoes! Yeah, we'll probably do it another day, but without the trikes. There are also some cargo trikes! They are allowed. And here we arrive to the other church of Kotor. It is an Orthodox church of St. Nicholas. From the other side.
So here they are, safe and sound. We usually lock them somewhere where there are a lot of people, with a big chain lock, as you can see, so it would be very hard to take them both at the same time. And here is a Tourist info point, so a place where there are usually a lot of people who would guard our trikes. The old town of Kotor is a fortified medieval town which is very well preserved, as we can see. Up there in the mountain you can see the walls of the fortress, where you can go for a hike if you're up for it.
All the way to the top! The streets of Kotor are very busy, so I think it was a good call not to take the kids with us. We are so close to the sea on the right, that is almost as if one of the wheels was in the water. This side of the bay has only one lane which is used for both directions, so all the cars, and even buses sometimes pass here, have to be extremely careful, and when they see a wider spot, like this one, go to the side and wait for the others to pass.
On the other hand, there is less traffic down here, because there is one tunnel that goes through the mountain on the left side, which connects Kotor to Tivat, which is the next biggest town, just after our destination, Lepetane. So people who want to avoid this part they can just take the tunnel and get through. But if you want to go to any of these small nice places along the coast, you have to take the this downer route and enjoy the slow life. As you can see, the surrounding mountains are very steep, and consequently the sea is very deep in the middle.
They say that this is the southernmost fjord that exists, similar to the fjords in Norway. Let's see... Do you see maybe one turtle climbing up? That's my wife! No surrender! It's so hot! Aller! Aller! Aller!
2021-08-10 08:18
