Kotor. Ascent to the fortress of St. John in a roundabout way
And it all started so: The first trip to Montenegro of skeptical freeloaders : ) Bijela, Herceg- New
Somehow we are going through the expanses of Montenegro... The ones planned for today were thoroughly examined, but it was only the middle of the day.
Husband:
- And let's go to Kotor, what did you plan there?
- Climb up the fortress. I said timidly
- Fortress - so the fortress, I hope, chose the highest one.
- Naturally.
Before climbing the fortress of St. John in Kotor, you need to “stop” once and think about why you need it. But I needed!
I took advantage of numerous tips from the Internet to climb the free trail, not so much because of the money (the cost of the official entrance to the stairs to the fortress is 3 euros), but because of the convenience. This ancient road connecting Kotor and Cetinje.
It is flat without steps, the height is gained gradually, so it is very convenient to walk, especially if you are not in a hurry, and even take something with you for a picnic. The beginning of this road is at Vodovod (across the bridge from the North Gate of the Old City), in the MAPS application. ME this point is marked as "The beginning of the free trail, stairs are better. "
The beginning of the ascent
So, and I strongly recommend that you take this route. It is very picturesque in itself, with wonderful views.
I repeat, the road is very comfortable.
But sometimes you get tired of winding, in some places you can cut off, so to speak. True, then hands may still be needed : )
You can meet locals. This uncle from afar has already begun to repeat "But the photo. " I had to become paparazzi, well, I couldn't miss this colorful couple : )
But there are those who pose with great pleasure
And at some point there were so many “photo models” that, I confess, I had to run, they are very horny : ))
This building has a fork:
To the left there is a road to Negushi (but this is a way for trained tourists, it’s a long way) and further to Cetinje, according to Internet sources, it’s 12 km in a straight line from Kotor to Cetinje through the mountains, but we need to go to the right.
Here we saw a pretty church of St. George, unfortunately abandoned.
The ruins of a settlement. They don't look sad at all. It seems that the walls are folded or laid out quite recently. In any case, they are clearly being looked after.
This village is surrounded by rocks on three sides, resulting in a hollow. I tried to go down there, but my prudent husband prevented my attempts
And now the cherished hole is within easy reach. Eh, it's been a long time since we climbed through the holes in the fences, let's remember our youth : )). In fact, this passage in the wall is quite official. It is marked in red with a white sign, which means it is a hiking trail
I would like to note that only a few people, moreover, Russian speakers, met (or rather, overtook us) tourists on this trail. And I met one girl of Asian appearance, who crawled out of this hole in the wall. As it turned out later, there were not just a lot of conquerors of the fortress, but a lot, and only a few freeloaders and lazy people use this path : ))
Having penetrated the Fortress through the hole, it became clear that, in fact, there was still more sawing and sawing to the Fortress itself. In this picture I tried to convey the height difference
We climbed in, took pictures and… we had to run back down : ))
In addition, having entered the fortress, we went out on the sunny side, although it was something around 18.00, but the sun was scorching mercilessly.
We came out of the shadows both literally and figuratively : )) Here, perhaps, it would be worth stopping at this height, but I was already carried away, I had a goal : ))
Of course, we climbed to the very top. I cannot formulate why it was necessary. By and large, nothing. But there was some kind of childish joy, from the fact that we crawled to the top, a feeling of victory or something. Delight in the realization of heights. Well, the views! Forgive all the pain of scraping
And after all, it would be nice if there were single schizos, whom you don’t feed with bread, just let them climb somewhere, there were just crowds of schizos, and even whole families, and with kids... Nah, I wouldn’t drag my own , here before that manhole - yes. Maybe I'll do that on my next trip.
Climbing the fortress was interesting, but crowds of climbers like us terribly interfere with each other.
And this is the same church we passed by
The descent was very difficult. The weariness that had accumulated during the day was already evident. And towards the bottom, all the new conquerors of the Fortress were coming and going. Some asked if it was still far - far away, do not rush, you will still have time to get tired ...
This shot was taken near the walls of the chapel of the Salvation of the Virgin
The chapel was built by the inhabitants of Kotor in gratitude for the salvation from the plague in 1572. Unfortunately, I did not manage to somehow decently photograph this church. A brisk trade in souvenirs and drinks is developed on its steps.
And there are plenty of resting conquerors of the fortress.
And now the roofs, a little more and there will be a flat surface ...
But no, and again steps
Husband, by the way, never even got indignant, did not complain, honestly took pictures of me, carried a backpack with water supplies. In general, a real companion))) He just said: “Now I understand why the fortress was never conquered, it’s just that there were no crazy tourists before ...”
I planned this event for the whole day: from early morning to the Fortress, and then wander around the old city. But the suddenly adjusted plan left us without walkers around the city, so there were no forces for this anymore.
Nothing, we'll leave it for next time. . .
Continuation of our adventures
"Montenegro. Inland. . . Or" A mad dog a hundred miles is not a detour "
"Montenegro. Along the Adriatic coast. Lustica peninsula. Ulcinj"
Montenegro. A little about popular tourist places: Blue Cave, Mamula Fortress, Perast
