J39 – 1/25/2006

Our first purely Montenegrin stage was delightful:  a blue sky and a few degrees above freezing with no wind once we got past Kotor.  With the cold wave that has descended upon all of Europe we aren’t complaining.  The Montenegrins say that it is rare for them to have cold weather so we are very fortunate.

The scenery is splendid and like many of you  (from what you say in your e-messages), we are getting a good geography lesson.  In 2003, the Republic of Yugoslavia became Serbia and Montenegro, and the 2 countries became equal in the federation. The capital is Belgrade. However, the two countries have different currencies: the dinar for Serbia and the euro for Montenegro.  So we have no currency problem.  In this full fledged country in the same day you can go skiing and swimming.  Montenegro is in fact known for it ski resorts and our guide book tells us that the coast after Budva, where we are staying this evening, is very popular with movie stars: Johnny Depp has a villa on the Sveti Stefan peninsula, near the residence that belonged to Marshal Tito.  So we have discovered a country not well known in France and which offers much to attract tourists.

All this has not enabled us to forget that Serge’s right leg is giving him trouble.  He is suffering a cruralgia type of pain and for the first two hours he was alternating running and walking.  He said he got a bit of relief when he was climbing.  And there is a lot of climbing because after Budva the 15 km coastal road to Centinje climbs from sea level to an altitude of 820 meters.