A walk around the top of the wall gave
us magnificent views of the harbor, the
islands off the mainland, the tiled rooftops
and quaint gardens within, and the tram
to the top of the nearby mountain. From
this mountaintop, the Croats held the
Serbian forces at bay in the early 1990’s
and kept the city from falling into
Serbian hands.
Fresh well-prepared seafood is plentiful
at the local restaurants, and there are
plenty of shops in which to pick up
souvenirs, jewelry, artwork or just browse
at our leisure.
The next day, we were able to go by
bus to Montenegro just a few hours south
along a well maintained and popular road-
way which took us through one border
crossing checkpoint. Montenegro’s scenic
coastline is dotted with historic cities but
our destinations, the Bay of Kotor, the
ancient village of Perast and the medieval
walled town of Kotor, were by far the
most stunningly beautiful. Near Perast, we
visited the Lady of the Rock shrine. The
shrine, which sits on a man-made island,
is of great local religious significance, and
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is filled with artifacts, paintings and local
memorabilia. From there, we went by boat
across the Bay of Kotor to the popular
tourist destination of Kotor’s Stari Grad or
Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
filled with ancient churches, former aristo-
cratic mansions, charming restaurants and
quaint shops lining its cobbled streets.
Our local guide was living proof that
Montenegro is home to some of the tallest
men in the world,and his good looks won
the admiration of all the women in the
group. He provided us with a very good
history of the town, its historic buildings,
and tales about the local celebrities. After
a delicious lunch highlighting exquisite
local seafood, a few of us took the trail up
to the top of the mountain and enjoyed
stupendous views overlooking the Bay.
The next destination, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, was the most historically
impactful because of the struggles and
atrocities suffered in the recent Serbian
War (1991-1995) (Google uses the term
Yugoslav Wars and the dates (1991-1999).
We traveled by bus up the coastline,
through the border crossing checkpoint,
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
along the very brief section of Adriatic
shoreline within Bosnia, and then inland
towards our ultimate destination of
Sarajevo. We made two stops, one in Blagaj
to see the impressive spring that comes out
of the mountain to create the Buna River,
and the other in Mostar to see the Old
Town and the 16th Century Bridge that
was destroyed in 1993 during the breakup
of Yugoslavia. The bridge is a scenic won-
der and has been beautifully restored as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Sarajevo flourished for centuries as a
multicultural haven where Muslims, Serbs,
Croats, Turks, Jews and others co-existed.
It is well known as the host city for the
1984 Olympics, but also for the chaos it
experienced in the three-and-a-half years
it was surrounded and under siege by
Serbian army troops in the Yugoslav Wars
of the early 1990’s. The signs of war are
still prevalent in the bullet-riddled build-
ings, and the mortar-marred sidewalks,
buildings and pavement. In the historic
area of Sarajevo, some of the mortar shell-
ing sites where people were killed are
marked with red paint to remind tourists
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