We last visited Montenegro on our "Grand Tour" in 2008 (see blogs passim). It sits at the south east tip of what used to be Tito's Yugoslavia. Facing the Adriatic Sea with Serbia on its shoulders, Kosovo on its back and Albania at its feet. There is lots of interest today but also a long and fascinating history. But more of that later, let me tell you how we got here this time. I suppose if anyone's to blame it is Wizzair. This is Hungary's answer to Ryanair only concentrating on Eastern Europe. It is remarkably cheap, especially if you join their discount club (one off payment of £30). We saved this on our first flight, the return tickets from Luton to Budapest. Once in Budapest you have access to the their hub. We booked single tickets to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro as we had other plans for the return. All this meant an overnight stay in Budapest, so we thought it would be nice to throw in a Danube cruise as well. So here is a picture of our hotel.
Actually the Danube cruised past us as the ship was securely tied up to the bank with magnificent views of the centre of the city. Directly across the river you will recognise the House of Parliament, the architecture of which is inspired by the UK buildings on the Thames. On our side are the Buda hills with the Royal Palace, old castle and other civic buildings. In middle distance is the Gellert Hill on top of which is the Liberation Monument commemorating the liberation of Budapest by the Russian army in 1945. Ironically it depicts a woman holding a palm leaf aloft with two statues representing progress and the battle with evil. It is a rare survivor with nearly all other Soviet vainglorious erections in the former satellites now confined to history. This picture is at the extreme end of the camera zoom hence the quality leaves a little to be desired.
A night time view of the Parliament.
The Royal Palace, National Gallery and Buda Hill.
They do like their chess in Budapest, not only are there some very strong players here but the city hosts world class events. This is the huge set on the sun deck of our ship, but can anyone spot the schoolboy howler?
What the Soviets did bequeath to Budapest is the excellent public transport system, investment in which has continued. We used the tramcars to ride round to the commercial centre where we enjoyed an al fresco eggs Benedict breakfast. Next we did some fantasy shopping at the various outlets for the world's luxury brands. Trying to calculate the price of a Rolex watch in forints requires the use of both fingers and toes. However 900 of them buys you a ticket on the nonstop shuttle bus to the airport which we duly did, to catch our flight to Podgorica. We lashed out £80 on a Hyundai i20 for 9 days which is about what the taxi would have been to get us to the apartment. Here is a picture of our little car and companion for the next nine days.
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