Life is Good!: 3 countries in 2 days?

The last 2 days we have had a driver with minivan and 4 tourists (us plus 2 others) to visit Montenegro, Bay of Kotor and today Bosnia-Herzogovina and territory claimed by Serbs but not officially.

Welcom to Kotor sign - what a beautiful historic town without war damage and in spite of heavy rain in the morning we ended the day having lunch in the sun on a beach!

On the way we visited a shrine called Our Lady of the Rocks - very famous as a visitor site. Hundreds of years ago a sailor "saw" a picture of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and threw a rock in that place and told others. All sailing ships and others starting throwing a rock in this spot and soon an island was raised up from the water. Then a church and chapel where services and weddings are held. Croatia is 90% Catholic now but it was not always that way.

Sasha the boat driver and Josco our daily driver and guide getting us onto the little motorboat to get us to the island:

This was a church in Kotor where brides put their bouquets instead of throwing them to the attendants as they do in the USA. Lots of weddings so these have to be removed and replaced frequently.

In the museum on Our Lady of the Rocks are the many varied mementos left to the church. Some are very touching, some are sad but all have a lot of meaning. There were shipwrecks and there are mementos from the ships.

One woman starting a very fine needlepoint project in honor of her husband and after many many years and at times having to use her own hair as thread it was completed and donated on her husband's death. She was nearly blind when she finished so the inscription at the bottom was a little curved and was felt with her hands to get it right.

A guy just watching the main square in Kotor Montonegro. He appeared very relaxed.

The "Pillar of Shame" and they seem to be all over in this area including Dubrovnik. If you did something wrong you had to stand at the pillar as the townspeople looked at you, knew who you were and what you did and it was shameful and you did not commit that misdeed again. That would not work in this day and age.

Overlooking Budva, Montenegro. This is an abandoned lot with the best view of the bay and beach.

We really lucked out as these two young ladies were in the minivan with us, are from the US but have been working in London for a few years. It was so much fun and they asked us to join them for lunch. This is what I like about planning my own trips - impromptu meetups!

Ross likes to touch the waters of places we visit however he wasn't paying attention too well and instead of dipping a finger a wave came halfway up his shins so his walk was a little "squishy" for a while. Pillar of Shame for this man!!!

Dropped off at the gate at 7pm and we see a wedding party bus and they were dropping colored fireworks which apparently are not legal but nobody seemed to care. I have a feeling the party went on all night.

Today - Sunday 15 May 2017 - another 11 hour minivan trip with the same company and this is the fancy newer Dubrovnik Bridge we crossed on our way to Montenegro (another very small country). We crossed a bridge very similar to this in France called the Millau Viaduct and also one in Portugal. I believe designed by the same person.

Ston, Montenegro, famous for salt flats, sea salt and of course another Pillar of Shame!

The guy selling sea salt and like a lot of other Croats, smoking.

Ston oysters are famous and they are fresh and raw and you are supposed to just suck them down whole off the shell but I used a fork and chewed it and it was ok!

The toilet - I do have a toilet fascination and this was at the restaurant. I think it is something to do with the sink drain but looks quite complicated.

Haven't a clue what this says!

Entering Bosnia-Herzogovina. There was a horrible war here in the 1990s where much was bombed and many people killed, left homeless and a main hospital was bombed so some of the people who survived a bombing of their home did not survive the hospital bombing in Mostor (city).

A mosque in Ston, Montenegro - I was alone in it, photos were allowed.

There were many copies of the Koran around for people who wanted to pray.

View of Mostar. This bridge was initially a chain bridge in the 1400s, destroyed by massive earthquake in 1667 and rebuilt and then again bombed and totally destroyed in the 1990s war where much of the city was totally destroyed. There were still many buildings with lots of bullet holes and only remains left. Much has been rebuilt with $ help from other countries.

Building in the background had no roof.

The bridge from below. The unemployment rate in Bosnia-Herzogovina is 45% so people will do almost anything to earn including training to jump from this bridge when they get to the amount of 35 euros from tourists. We missed the guy who jumped today but in highest tourist season there may be 15 per day and noone has died except one drunk illegal jumper.

Today's tour was with a couple from California and it was fun to have lunch with them and chat on the day trip.

We ordered the "National Plate for Two" and got a whole pile of food and it was all delicious - tasted way better than it looked and we nearly cleaned the plate. So......ice cream for dinner tonight.

Restaurant in Mostar.

There are Muslim mosques, Orthodox and Catholic churches side by side all over here.

Just a reminder of the war in a little shop on the main Mostar shopping street.

And on the drive on the rural roads we saw a lot of land mine signs and it is very sobering to think the poor sheep and agriculture farmers live with this on a daily basis. Our guide told us a farmer was killed just last week as he was plowing his land.