We arose to two more cruise ships outside the harbor and their shuttle boats this morning. Interestingly though, Ann just said that if I ever considered living in Dubrovnik she would sign the deed of purchase for the house too. I think Ann likes this town.

This is our most adventuresome day of our trip. Today we head south in the car into the country of Montenegro. Ann was wary when I suggested we go to Slovenia and Croatia but assuaged her fears by reading about the countries online in personal blogs and travel diaries. Going to Bosnia was not her first choice of places to visit but we had to go through the former war-torn country for a little ways to get to Dubrovnik.

Ann never did come to grips with Montenegro. First it was not in our line of travel and second she read nothing favorable about it. Such minor details were of no consequence to me, the pictures of Kotor and it’s fjord like bay were too much to pass up being so close (within 30 miles).

After a morning visit to the outstanding little town of Cavtat, Croatia for two coffees and a magnificent bay so picturesque you thought Kodak assembled it piece by piece, we headed to Montenegro. We have literally flown through all border crossings to the extent that the Canadian crossing at Blaine now seems punitive. Well, not anymore. The crossing from Croatia to Montenegro consisted of a line of fifteen cars. It took over 45 minutes to get through. And were we ever scrutinized. Car documents checked against passports, etc.

We got through the checkpoint and drove toward Kotor. The best I can relate Montenegro to is communist East Germany in 1971 when we drove through getting from Denmark to Czechoslovakia. Crossing the border was as great a change as crossing from south of San Diego to Tijuana. Montenegro was so depressing even driving along the bay I could feel the car rusting like all cars we passed. I suggested to Ann that maybe we turn around and return to Cavtat. No dissension from her. Fortunately this time there were no cars in line at the border and the same guard I had spoken to 35 minutes ago waved us on saying Hrallight, hrallight, in guttural CroatioEnglish.

In Cavtat we lunched, walked around the town and then around a peninsula of scenic splendor back to our car. All in all Cavtat is a winner. Ann would live there in a second if it were not directly on the glide path of the Dubrovnik Airport some two miles away.

This evening we ate dinner early, 7:30, because for some reason both of us were exhausted. At dinner we realized it was a loss of adrenalin since our vacation ended this evening. Tomorrow we begin our mad dash across Europe to Geneva then home. We will use car, ship, car, plane and car and be home in three days.

Tonight Ljiljana Jorgensen dropped by (our landlady). We asked about her house during the bombardment on Dubrovnik by the Serbians in 1991. This was her parent’s house built by them in 1964. She returned from Denmark in 1995 to reclaim the house after the war and found it a bombed out shell with five refugee families living here. She had to pay them to leave. With no assistance from the government she has rebuilt the house and three apartments that she rents. The renovation is not complete yet (there are still bullet holes in our apartment). That may be why this huge two bedroom apartment cost us only $75 a night. The view from our window is better than any hotel in town. She has recently been offered over $2,500,000 for the property. I dare not think what the rental cost will be when she is finished with the renovation. I just know I probably could not afford to stay here then.

Lesson for Day 41: It is nice when “end of vacation” and “ready to get home” coincide.