Cornwall – the second day

Posted on 28/05/2025 by ainarsbl

This is about the second day in Cornwall. After the first day in Cornwall we went to the nearby local pub The Shire Inn for dinner before going to bed. It is about a 15-minute walk from the guest house we used for staying at night.

The atmosphere and service were good, the food and the local Cornish beer were also delicious – just like in a gastropub. The bill surprised me a bit though – they know how to use supposedly normal prices in such a way that at the end you get a bill what is at least ten pounds more than expected.

Minak Theatre

In the morning, right after breakfast, we went to an interesting place – an amphitheatre built in the rocks, where real performances are held often. This place was a real surprise we got in Cornwall.

The author and creator of the theatre idea was a local woman, Rowena Cade. The name Minak (meynek in the local language) means rocky place. The woman started creating theatre in the thirties of the last century.

Minack Theatre is located in the very south of the peninsula. You can see the theatre and the garden created around it (entrance fee 10 pounds), but in the afternoons and evenings there are live performances (performances do not take place every day though). The garden itself is worth a visit and the amphitheatre looks really impressive.

More information can be found on the theatre’s website.

Mount St. Michael

Mount St. Michael is an island in the sea near the coast, very similar to Mount Saint Michel in France. What both have in common is that during low tide you can walk from the land to the island on dry feet, but during high tide water separates the island from the mainland.

The difference is that the French counterpart has an abbey located on the island, while Cornwall has a castle on it, which is owned by the National Trust.

The place is interesting, worth a look if you are in that part of England. A few things to consider if you visit.

Finding a parking space for a car is quite problematic; the best option is to approach the castle as close as you can and wait for a parking space to become available. The nearby (recommended) long-term parking lots are usually occupied and you have to walk quite a distance to the island.

There are several types of entrance tickets: island and castle, island and garden and a combined ticket. Since we already visited a garden in the morning, we took a ticket only to the palace. The garden, by the way, could be viewed from the palace courtyard.

Ticket prices vary – for an adult, 14 pounds for entry to the palace, 10 pounds for entry to the garden, and a total ticket costs 24 pounds; for children aged 5 to 17, about half of that.

The end of the earth

As the name suggests, beyond the end of the earth there is only the sea. To be honest, we didn’t go to the very end of the earth, but we went to the nearby village of Sennen Cove. The only difference – parking spaces are cheaper, fewer people on the beach, more pleasant and restful feeling. The sea is the same, the beach and the surrounding views are the same. It was recommended by the locals and thanks to them for offering this option!

We spent a couple of hours on the beach, and even organized a picnic on the seashore before moving on.

St Ives

St Ives is a small pretty town and fishing port on the north side of the peninsula. Local internet marketers say St Ives is a shining jewel in Cornwall’s crown, one of the most valued in England. St Eves has been voted the best family holiday on the coast and one of the 10 best beaches in Europe.

In reality, I wouldn’t really say that. First, the beach is quite small, although the sand bar is wide. In any case, there was no special feeling of romance – just an expensive resort pretending to be posh.

Speaking of treasures – we booked a table in beach café to watch the sunset. Although we saw the prices while ordering snacks, after receiving the bill we understood why they mention gems describing this place – we must have had eaten quite a few of them.

The place (they call themselves a beach café, which is true) didn’t even have white tablecloths, but a piece of tuna the size of a piece of sushi was right there for £20. However, I have to admit that the taste of this mini dish was fantastic.

After dinner, we got lost in the city because we didn’t really remember where we had left the car. The town is located on a hill and if you take one street in the wrong direction you can get lost very quickly. However, we did not mind that accident as walking around the town was quite nice experience.

So the second day in Cornwall was spent and in the morning we planned to go back to Dorset, stopping for lunch on the seaside in Devon.

Cornwall

Posted on 27/05/2025 by ainarsbl

This time I will start with a short summary. We were planning to go to Cornwall for at least seven years. It didn’t happen because it was quite far from Scotland – travel costs also played serious role. While living in the south of England we couldn’t do it in the beginning because there were many other places to go.

We decided to go to Cornwall after listening to stories from others about how unique and beautiful it is. After the trip there, I can say one thing – the idea of visiting Cornwall could have been not the highest priority. Mainly because of associated costs. The cost of the trip was essentially at least the same as nice comfortable weekend in Rome. To be honest, the feeling and impressions after returning home from Rome were also better at the end.

The value you get for the money you spend plays significant role here and for me it would be in favour of Italy. Roughly speaking, everything in Cornwall was about half as expensive as it should be based on my travel experience in Europe. In short, the prices in remote places of Britain are inflated to the maximum and do not really meet expectations. In this case, the only exception might be the guest house where we stayed, although it was not cheap either.

About Cornwall in brief

Cornwall is a relatively large area in the very south-west of England. If you look at the map, it ends up with only water around it. For this reason, there is even a place called Lands End.

One peculiarity of Cornwall is that, unlike the rest of England, it has historically been a Celtic region. It can also be felt, for example, by many strange names of places or the way the locals pronounce them.

The territory of Cornwall is 3.56 thousand square kilometres, it is the 12th largest of 48 regions. More than 550 thousand people live there and it is only 40th in terms of population. The population density per square kilometre is only 160 people. The administrative centre of the region is Truro.

The Eden Project

The first place we visited was the Eden Project. It is a complex of gardens and greenhouses where plants from all over the world have been collected. You need about three to four hours to see everything. All in all, quite interesting, especially if you get to stand in line and climb up to the dome itself and look at the tropical world from above (the observation deck is open periodically and there are quite a lot of people who want to participate in this 5-minute dizzying attraction).

The entrance ticket costs around 35 pounds (around 40 euros) for adults (prices vary depending on the season) and 11 pounds for visitors aged 5 to 16. In essence, it is a ticket for a year, but it does not make much sense, because hardly anyone will want to drive that long way again during the same year. In my opinion, it would make sense to reduce the price for one visit (up to £20 per adult’s visit would be more appropriate price).

Accommodation

We booked a guest house in Cornwall a long time in advance, because during the high season the prices skyrocket, often the accommodation is simply not available. The main reason – those Britons who do not go overseas visit Cornwall and other similar regions of Britain.

As I said at the beginning, the price for this accommodation was reasonable in given circumstances – £245 for two nights in a two bedroom apartment with a fitted kitchen, living room, bathroom and a nice little private courtyard at the side of the house. The beds were comfortable, the hostess had left local eggs and ham in the fridge for breakfast, so I can definitely recommend this Church House guest house to other travellers (we booked this through Airbnb).

That’s it about our first day in Cornwall in 2022, you can also read about our second day in Cornwall.

Mainau Island in Germany

Posted on 03/02/2024 by ainarsbl

Sun, flowers, and spring

The next morning, after the usual grey April day in Riga, we were awakened by the rays of the sun – our break in Germany had begun exceptionally well! From the window we had a fantastic view towards vineyards and all kinds of flowering shrubs and trees; we felt like on a real spring holiday! We planned to visit Baden–Baden and at the end of our trip visit Mainau Island.

To enjoy these fantastic changes, immediately after breakfast we went for a walk around the town and without realizing it, reached the next town. The Easter morning service had just ended, the clock was approaching noon, and the local Germans were slowly gathering for family lunches at local pubs. Great tradition – in most cases, at least three generations of people gathered around the tables.

Before moving on to Mainau Island in Germany, after visiting the thermal pools and sauna complex in Baden-Baden, we walked around the city, which has both its unique charm and something special, such as the German order, which strangely coexists harmoniously with the Russian language heard in many places.

In the holiday complexes do not be surprised that you will be spoken in Russian, because some of the service staff came from Eastern Europe in the late eighties or early nineties. This short break in Germany was coming to an end and we had to move on.

Mainau Island

As I said before, this episode of a short break in Germany is from another journey. The island of Mainau is in a completely different corner of Germany we visited returning from Switzerland. The region around Konstanz did initially give an impression of a remote not that exciting area, however, the beautiful island successfully dispelled that first impression.

The description here is not a comprehensive one, because the island of Mainau must be enjoyed looking at it and the impressions gained are difficult to transfer in words. Here are some photos from the visit below.

Flowers all around

There is a botanical garden on the island and the visiting time was specially chosen for spring; all the spring flowers were blooming there. The island is not large; it is possible to walk around it in a couple of hours. However, it takes much more time because the created lawns, greenery and flower beds are admirable, and you can’t just walk without eating in one of the cafes during your visit.

At the beginning, the price for a visit to the island (adult ticket 17 euros, family ticket 34 euros) seemed to be quite high, however after visiting the exposition we realized that the work invested in creating and maintaining the island is huge and requires a lot of investment.

Tropical and butterfly houses

Among the gardens on the island are several buildings with shops and various expositions. The most outstanding is a tropical house with a huge collection of orchids – it is so beautiful! The other very special place is a butterfly house, where butterflies of various sizes and colours live in tropical jungle conditions.

Iceland

Posted on 20/12/2023 by ainarsbl

So far, we have only been in Iceland during the winter. And we love all about it – snow, ice, glaciers, wind, lava fields, geysers and especially sunny days and Northern Lights, which we have been lucky enough to enjoy.

Along with Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark, Iceland belongs to Europe’s Nordic region. Iceland is a volcanic island and lies on the border between Eurasian and North American Tectonic Plates. That makes Iceland a hotspot of many active volcanos.

The total area of Iceland is 102,775 square kilometres (39,682 square miles) making it No. 106 on the list of world’s countries by territory. The population of Iceland is around 346 thousand people and it is 176th in the world with a very low density of population – only 3.5 people per square kilometre.

Getting around

If you travel to Iceland, you may recognise that many tourist attractions are located almost like bus stops on your route. Of course, getting there may require hours and hours and, sometimes, traffic may be suspended for some days because of snowstorms, strong winds etc.

If some of the attractions you have booked are located off-road, for example, visiting ice caves, you will most probably be picked up by organisers somewhere in a parking space near a major road.

Another tip – you would normally pay a deposit for booking particular activities, for example, if you wish to enjoy dog sledging. These attractions may be cancelled due to weather conditions.

Most probably, you will not get another chance to do it again during this particular trip, although do not worry – organisers will make a refund relatively quickly.
So, always have a plan B to replace this kind of unpredicted events with other activities. Planning a trip to Iceland you may never rely on Iceland’s changing weather.

Golden Circle

Many people have heard about Blue Lagoon, which is a famous recreation facility near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik.

If you visit Iceland for just a few days, Blue Lagoon would most probably be one of your destinations. It is located some 50 kilometres from Reykjavik and 20 kilometres from Keflavik International Airport (keep this in mind when planning a trip).

You could also make the Golden Circle, which is a tourist route you may use to familiarise yourself with a very small but diverse part of the island. The length of the route is about 300 kilometres; it starts from Reykjavík and goes into central Iceland, before returning to Reykjavik.

This route may be booked as a guided tour or you can drive your own rented car. If you rent a car, the Golden Circle may even be a perfect trip for a day. You would visit three major locations – The Geysir Geothermal Area, Gullfoss Waterfall and Thingvellir National Park.

Outer circle

This is how I call it, perhaps there is another name for it, however, the idea is that if you keep on Route 1 from Reykjavik, you will return to Reykjavik after going all around Iceland.
This would be suitable if you have arrived in Iceland for more than just a couple of days, fancy some extreme feelings, rent a car and are willing to drive almost 1350 kilometres (850 miles).

Here you can also see a screenshot from Google Maps to get an idea of what I mean. There are many attractions along this route; just to name a few: Hvalfjörður Tunnel (part of Route 1), Akureyri (a small and nice town with public thermal bath facilities), Hverir Boiling mud pits – a fantastic natural phenomenon just on the side of Route 1.

Spring in Bohemia

Posted on 18/12/2023 by ainarsbl

At the very end of April, we went for a quick trip to the Czech Republic. Perhaps, the most famous destination of the Czech Republic is its capital Prague, however Nord-Eastern part of the country, the region of Bohemia, is very exciting and attractive because of the mountains and local traditions.

The whole Bohemian region covers about two-thirds of the Czech Republic. We had plans to visit a factory producing glass and crystal according to the old traditions, a local brewery (Czech beer has been always tasty and of high quality), spend some time hiking in the mountains near Adrspach and to find something else interesting in the area.

Camping near Trutnov

Before arrival, we found on the Internet and booked a camping Dolce Vita near the town of Trutnov (address: Dolce Vita, Oblanov 37, 54101 Trutnov, Czech Republic). Camping offers apartments in cottages located near a lake.

Camping is located about two kilometres away from the main road, however, it is easy to find it. The cottage itself was not very well maintained, however, the price was good for value and the surrounding area of camping is quiet and, as we found afterwards, very beautiful providing a relaxing atmosphere.

National Park Adrspach – Teplice Rocks

The next day after arrival, we went to the National Park Adrspach. Adrspach is a village in the Hradec Kralove region; the Giant and Eagle mountains of this region have been widely known from Roman times and even before. The village is divided into the administrative areas of Dolni Adrspach (Lower Adrspach) and Horni Adrspach (Upper Adrspach).

National Park Adrspach and the area around it is well known for Adrspach-Teplice Rocks (also, Adrspach Rock Town or Adrspasske skaly in Czech language). We planned the whole day to spend there.

Bohemian Paradise

As we had our pet (dog) with us, it was nice to find out that it is allowed to visit this site taking pets with you (ticked, however, should be purchased for your small companion too).
The rocks are really impressive! They are very popular for rock climbers; we saw some of them on the top of rocks. This area is among the most beautiful natural features of the Czech Republic, also called the Bohemian Paradise.

There is the main entrance near Teplice Rocks, although Rock Town in reality begins about two kilometres from the entrance. Before visiting Rock Town, we went to the nearby lake to enjoy the beautiful landscape around it. There are good trails everywhere in the park around the lake but in the rock town, most of the pathways are even covered with asphalt.

If you are not too lazy to climb up the hill using a steep rocky trail and wait a bit in a queue, there is a short but attractive boat trip available in the park (ticket should be purchased separately before boarding, although it is worth trying it).

Adrspach Rocks has the status of a national nature conservation area, and guided tours are available as well. An adult ticket for entrance costs about 2.5 euros, a child ticket half of it, and a family ticket (2+2) costs about 6 euros; entrance for a dog costs a bit more than 1 euro.

Dinner in a guesthouse

After a whole day spent in Adrspach, we went back to camping but before arrival enjoyed a nice supper in Trutnov. This was a very family-friendly restaurant in guesthouse Penzion Porici, which is located just outside of the town centre.

I can recommend this restaurant if you want to have a tasty meal without rushing in a quiet atmosphere. We even came back for the second time there and were completely satisfied again with their food and service delivery.

Abbotsbury Swannery

Posted on 08/12/2023 by ainarsbl

Visiting Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset

We have visited Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, England twice. The first time at the end of March and the second time at the beginning of May when new swans and other birds just had the first new babies born. Either of the visits were nice and we would go there again even just to have an amazing walk around and enjoy this peaceful relaxing place in the company of these amazing creatures.

birds nesting place — Birds nesting place

The Swannery was established by Benedictine Monks in the 11th century where they farmed the swans to produce food – how practical! They say that the Abbotsbury Swannery is home to the world’s only managed colony of nesting mute swans, although that is not the only thing you will find there. From the entrance gate, you will have to walk almost one kilometre (about 2,400 feet) to reach the colony of swans; free car parking is located in front of the entrance. On the way to Swannery, you will find other attractions such as a labyrinth and a small ricing arena where usage of pedal-driven means of transport are available free of charge.

Swannery

There is something else you benefit from visiting Abbotsbury Swannery – you may buy a ticket with a huge 25% discount to also enter another site located nearby – Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens. At the time we visited the Abbotsbury Swannery, there was an option to also enter another site designed very well for visitors with kids. However, this has been changed, hopefully temporarily, since the pandemic began in March 2020 (there still are some restrictions for visitors in 2020 due to the coronavirus).

Feeding swans

One of the most exciting things about Abbotsbury Swannery was feeding swans. At the time we visited the swannery, the feeding was at noon – keep this in mind when planning your trip and booking tickets.

It was allowed for volunteers, especially kids, to enter the feeding area and feed swans with the food they provided on-site. This process was long enough to take a lot of photos and shoot videos. All swans from the surrounding area were gathering together to get food. Before and after feeding you may walk around the territory using convenient paths and many other birds living in the area. There is also a small museum providing more information about swans and the history of the site.

Usual swannery opening times are from 10 am to 5 pm all week, with the last entry at 4 pm; online ticket price for an adult is £10, for a child £5. Be aware that dogs are not allowed to enter the swannery. The minimum time for the visit might be two to three hours, although you may spend even more time easily.

Abbotsbury subtropical gardens

After visiting the swannery, we went to Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, a site located two and a half kilometres away by car. And again, there is a huge free-of-charge car park across the road just in front of the entrance to the gardens.

abbotsbury tropical gardens — Abbotsbury tropical gardens

About the history you may read on their website, the information provided is comprehensive. Amazing place both for adults and children to enjoy. All I may add is that gardens are really beautiful, especially during spring. There is a viewpoint where you may observe the coastline and even see a bit of Abbotsbury Swannery; getting there is quite nice physical exercise though.

Opening times of the gardens are from 10 am to 5 pm all week, with the last entry at 4 pm. Advance ticket costs £10 for an adult and £5 for a person aged from five to fifteen; children up to five years enter free, buying tickets on-site would be more expensive. Good news – dogs are allowed to enter the gardens!

South of Norway

Posted on 02/12/2023 by ainarsbl

Arrival in Oslo

To have a short break in June, we went to Norway for a few days to look around and visit Norwegian fjords. After landing at Oslo airport, we picked up our pre-booked car from the airport car rental office and started our trip. We were lucky that instead of a smaller car, we were upgraded for free and got an excellent Volvo V40 – very nice welcome to Norway!

We were thinking about visiting the south of Norway for a long time and finally did it. And, here is the first tip – be prepared to pay for the toll road immediately after leaving the airport if you go to Oslo (there are other toll roads as well).

You can pass control points without paying (what we actually did without a previous intention), however, surveillance cameras are in operation and you will be detected and charged anyway.

The second tip – if you see a parking place for a charge somewhere in the middle of nowhere – make your best effort to find a place to pay for it to avoid penalty charges (still wondering how they managed to recognise that our car was in one of these places). So, visiting the south of Norway is not cheap, however, you may get charged even more if you are not careful enough.

The capital of Norway Oslo is the largest city of Norway. Its metropolitan area has a population of more than 1.4 million people. In addition to this, Oslo is the third largest city in Scandinavia and the most expensive city in the world (according to data from the last decades).

Stave church in Heddal

We didn’t have plans for Oslo and just went through it to reach our destination – the south-western coast of Norway. After a few hours of driving the first stop we made was to look at some old stave church in Heddal. A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction related to timber framing.

hedal church in norway — Hedal Church in Norway

The wall frames are filled with vertical planks. All of the surviving stave churches, except one, are in Norway (the remaining one is in Sweden). The church itself was an interesting, impressive wooden building and it really was worth to see it. I still remember the smell of the surrounding area – it was a very heavy smell of tar all around.

Camping in Norway

Camping rather than staying in a hotel saves a lot of money in such an expensive country as Norway. Almost everywhere in Norway is allowed wild camping (you should not even ask permission from a land owner if you stay on uncultivated land for a couple of nights), although we were travelling with a child and for that reason were not considering that option.

We decided to stay near the fjord. To find a campsite anywhere in Norway, you can use a multilingual camping portal. (there are some 13 languages available to choose from).

You may search by region, camping chain, city, attraction etc. At the time we were in Norway it was not that easy (we did not even have a booking in advance, relying on fortune), however finding campsites nowadays is much easier.

sheep on a road in norway — Sheep on a road in Norway

If you are travelling in July, the weather is good enough to stay in your own tent. There are comfortable bungalows available as well, though they are not cheap at all. But you know – there is nothing cheap in Norway, especially food. However, the emotions you get from visiting Norway and enjoying nature there are even more impressive than you could imagine before. There is another blog from this trip about fantastic Norwegian waterfalls and nature.

Around Switzerland

Posted on 20/11/2023 by ainarsbl

Autumn trip to Switzerland

This is one of the parts dedicated to our trip to Switzerland in early November. Almost immediately after crossing the German border towards Switzerland, we recognised the first mountains. It was while ago when we went to this trip and we enjoyed this beautiful landscape for the first time in our lives – that was so amazing!

However, we still had a way to go and the next short stop was near Geneva Lake. It was even more impressive – a huge lake on one side and mountains all around. The Autumn colours of trees made this landscape even more beautiful and enjoyable. During the next few days there were planned two different trips – one to the capital of Switzerland Bern, and another trip to the mountains (3000 metres above sea level!) to get an even more extreme experience.

mountains in switzerland — Mountains in Switzerland

As we had accommodation in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, it was interesting to visit Bern as it is located in the German-speaking part. The Old Town of Bern has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site since 1983. Sightseeing was really interesting.

We settled in the small sky resort Leysin. It was a bit surprise that there was no snow around on the top of the mountains. As it appeared later, that year was widely known for lacking snow. However, our goal was to travel around and this obstacle did not bother us much.

Visiting mountains

Another impressive experience was visiting Glacier Les Diablerets, located 3 kilometres above sea level. Cold wind, clouds above and below with impressive alpine landscapes around – beautiful and stunning!

It was very convenient and also interesting to have lunch in Botta Restaurant.

motorway in switzerland — Motorway in Switzerland

Coming down from the top, there was an incident – a mountain lift stopped over a deep gorge. Probably, it was caused by lack of electricity, who knows. The feeling was not the best one for five or even more minutes because a strong wind was swinging the cable car. Even a company of climbers started to be nervous after some time but fortunately, the problem was fixed soon after and we continued our way to the parking place.

The Italian part of Switzerland

Every trip should finish sooner or later. Because Switzerland has also an Italian-speaking part, we decided to visit it before coming home. After crossing mountains through the tunnels, it was another world again – road signs in Italian, cliffs around, and very high waterfalls coming from the cliffs.

After driving for a while, we reached Lugano. In the beginning, it was even difficult to adapt to the surrounding activity – people speaking, sports cars passing, loud ducks in the lake, and palm trees on the streets. But in general, it was a very nice place to enjoy life!

Late in the afternoon, after sightseeing in Lugano, our trip to Switzerland was almost over and we started our way back home. One last night we spent in Switzerland but on the next day, before arriving in Germany, we made a short stop in Lichtenstein.

It is a common thing that after visiting a beautiful place there is a wish to return again. We actually did that several times afterwards. For myself, the most fascinating thing was to see how the majesty of nature is combined with human creations. For example, highway viaducts over gorges, buildings on the edges of cliffs, very long mountain tunnels and simple asphalted mountain roads sometimes hang over an abyss.

Durmitor National Park

Posted on 16/11/2023 by ainarsbl

At the beginning of June, together with friends, we went to Montenegro (meaning Black Mountain) to visit Durmitor National Park and the Adriatic coast. It was exciting not only because we hadn’t been visiting this country before.

On June 3rd, 2006 Montenegrin Parliament declared independence of the country (previously it was a part of Yugoslavia and various incarnations). It was interesting to find out what people think and to see how a small country starts its independent living. Montenegro has a territory of less than 14 thousand square kilometres and a population of less than one million.

Arrival to Montenegro

To reach our destination, we crossed Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, and arrived in Montenegro from Serbia, crossing those days very recently established border control points. The first stop we made was at a petrol station soon after crossing the border and were really surprised about the cleanliness and order prevailing around.

Large rest area and surrounding landscapes let us to relax after a long trip through Serbia. It was late afternoon, however, we didn’t have a hotel booking, so after a short break we continued driving and had to find suitable accommodation before sunset.

Driving from Mojkovac to Zabljak, we found a convenient motel “Ravnjak” with separate bungalows (address: 18th kilometre of the road Mojkovac-Zabljak, phone: 084 472 144). The next morning we ordered a really excellent breakfast. In case you don’t need an apartment, it is worth stopping there even just to have lunch or dinner.

Visiting Durmitor National Park

Our next destination was Crno Jezero (Black Lake) located in Durmitor National Park about 25 kilometres from Tara Bridge and about 3 kilometres from Zabljak. Before arriving at Crno Jezero, we looked around the town of Zabljak which is the highest urban conglomerate in the Balkans (located 1450 metres above sea level).

Zabljak is surrounded by 23 mountain peaks over 2200 meters high. There are 18 glacial lakes in Durmitor National Park, however, Crno Jezero is the largest and the deepest of them.

It is situated at the feet of the mountain massive Medjed. Crno Jezero is formed by receding glaciers and it has 2 halves – Big Lake and Small Lake. There is a 3.5 kilometres long walking path around the lake (we used only some part of it).

There is a parking place near to the lake. About a kilometre before the lake, car traffic is prohibited, however, access to the lake is very convenient – trails are covered with asphalt. There is also a restaurant on the coast available. More than 3 hours we spent walking in this area, enjoying nature and the beautiful landscape around the lake before moving forward to other parts of Durmitor National Park.

Tara river canyon

We continued our trip and the first site to visit in Montenegro was a bridge across the Tara River (this bridge called Djurdevica Tara is a symbol of the Tara River). Tara River cuts the Tara River Canyon (Tara River Gorge) which is the longest canyon in Montenegro and Europe and the second longest in the world after Grand Canyon in the United States (Arizona).

It is 78 kilometres long (there are also sources mentioning that it is up to 82 kilometres long) and 1300 metres high at the deepest point.

The canyon also is a part of Durmitor National Park and it has been listed as a UNESCO Heritage Site since 1980. Tara Bridge was built between 1937 and 1940 (rebuilt in 1946 after the Second World War). The bridge is 365 metres long, has 5 arches and the largest span is 116 metres. The roadway stands 172 metres above the Tara River. For sure, this is one of the most interesting sites in Europe to be seen.

Off-road driving in the mountains

To have more fun, we decided to cross the mountains before going to the Adriatic coast. And we had a lot of fun and challenges! Mountain road was very challenging to drive because sometimes it was covered by melting snow. There were some sections covered by asphalt but some were not.

We even reached mountain pass Sedlo (1907 metres above sea level) and continued driving, however, a few kilometres before the crossroads we had to stop because heavy road machinery was still cleaning the road after the winter season (it was June 12th but the depth of snow covering road was still about 3 to 4 metres). We found out that at least one more day should be spent cleaning the whole section of the road to get to the crossroads.

After a short interview with the reporter of the local newspaper who was preparing an article about snow clearance work, we turned around to get back to our starting point to continue the trip to the capital of Montenegro Podgorica. Late in the afternoon, we reached the Adriatic coast and continued our trip to the next destination – Dobrota, a small town near Kotor.

We had booked a guest house there to stay for a week and enjoy our vacation on the sunny beaches of Montenegro, explore interesting places in the surrounding area and enjoy local food specialities..