It’s been a long time since I have visited the Budva Riviera. A day trip to the coast on a beautiful sunny day in February was a good occasion to see what is going on there. The Budva Riviera is a 35 km long strip along the Adriatic Coast with 12.5 km of beaches and […]
LIFE IN CUBA: CHANGE COMES SLOWLY
When we started our round trip through Cuba, I was very curious. Would I really find a communist, poor and backward country or has life changed for the Cuban people since Raoul Castro has taken over the power from his brother Fidel? In the last few years, the situation in Cuba has become complicated. […]
THE VILLAGE OF UTRG: BIRTH PLACE OF A NATIONAL HERO AND AN ORTHODOX SAINT
All over Montenegro you can find war monuments, commemorative plaques, busts …. Some of them remind us of battles against the Turks, but most memorials refer to World War II. They are especially numerous in the central part of the country. In search of such “red star” memorials, we made a trip to the village […]
PODGORICA: THE NICKNAMES OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
When I take a taxi downtown to go home, I never mention my exact street address. I just say: „Preko Morače (across the Morača river), Vektra building, in front of the CKB bank“. The taxi driver does not ask any questions, for him – and for many other inhabitants of Podgorica – this is a […]
ŽABLJAK CRNOJEVIĆA, A HIDDEN TREASURE
After a few weeks of rain, we took advantage of the first sunny day in January to make a trip to the medieval fortified town of Žabljak Crnojevića, once capital of the Crnojević dynasty. This beautiful place is situated on a hill near Skadar Lake, at a distance of only 15 km (a 20 minutes […]
ON CUBA’S ROADS
We are just back from a round trip in Cuba by car. What a country! Full of culture, music, history and passion, full of contradictions and not easy to understand. With endless sugar cane and tobacco fields, tropical jungles, beautiful mountains and long white sandy beaches. With 1950s nostalgia and monuments of Fidel Castro’s revolution. […]
WAR MONUMENTS IN MONTENEGRO
The former Yugoslavia is dotted with monuments that were built in Tito’s spirit. So is Montenegro. Many friends and relatives from the Netherlands have asked me about the meaning of numerous concrete ‘forks’, ‘wings’, ‘stars’ or social-realistic sculptures they have seen. Can you believe that there are 1,700 war memorials, monuments and memorial plaques in […]
BUTTERFLIES IN MONTENEGRO
Since several years, tour operators from the European Union have been trying to attract customers with special wishes. People are no longer interested in spending their holidays on the beach – they want to be active and to experience something new. Hiking and biking is popular, but also theme tours with a special topic: orchids, […]
LAKE SKADAR: THE MILLS AND BRIDGES OF POSELJANI
Last weekend the weather was sunny and we thought it a good idea to make a walking tour to the village of Poseljani. With its authentic architecture, stone mills and arched bridges, this village is a secret treasure in the central part of Montenegro. It is situated in the hidden, narrow valley of the Seljani […]
GRAHOVO, WITNESS OF A TURBULENT PAST
Traveling from Podgorica (or Nikšić) to the Bay of Kotor has become much easier by the new highway Žabljak-Risan. The road has been under construction for a long time, but now it is an excellent highway passing through untouched nature, crossing the Grahovo plain (Grahovsko polje) and winding down towards the Bay of Boka Kotorska, […]