To Novi Pazar then Kotor

Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Novi Pazar, Serbia
Monday 8th July: Belgrade to Novi Pazar 
Another change in plans in consideration of the distance to cover to get to Dubrovnik in 3 days saw us to skip a visit to Nis - ono of Serbia’s largest cities, and instead go across to Novi Pazar for 2 nights. In hindsight it’s possible that this might have been done better, but once were were on the way it was a done deal.
Driving out of Belgrade to cover today’s 500km + was pretty painless to start as we had maximised the chance to have another good value hotel breakfast and leave getting out of the city till after peak traffic time, though the city is apparently prone to constant congestion so maybe we just got lucky. 
Once on the road it was first a excellent freeway and cranking the car up to 130km (well nearly, I find that sitting on 120 is comfortable and the additional speed is useful to keep for overtaking to keep out of the way of the Mercedes, Audi’s and BMWs rocketing down the left hand lane) took a while! 
Once we turned off the freeway the roads were pretty good and as the level of traffic dropped were quite comfortable apart from the challenge of constantly changing speed limits for no apparent reason sometimes (sometimes 3 times in 400 m) and single lane sections with trucks to pass or faster cars right behind, then making risky overtaking moves! As often a I could I chose to pull over and let fast, pushy cars pass.
Still, the kms ticked over with just a few stops to stretch, pick up a toll ticket and later pay the toll several times. One memorable stop was at a small, nice looking cafe (which was a highlight as some of the towns we had been through did not appeal to me as stopping points) where the coffee was fantastic Turkish coffee - which certainly provided a required boost. 
The most memorable part of the trip was then a very long downhill drive following the Ibar river nearly 100kms from Komaron to Novi Pazar through incredibly steep mountains along a busy, twisty road (oh to have been on a motorbike not driving a car). I enjoyed the scenery and the challenge of staying on the road and up with the traffic - fortunately safely.
Soon we arrived at Novi Pazar, the outskirts of which looked like a large, continuous truck and yard and car park, before morphing into the town. The GPS led me through narrow (very), winding (very) and busy (extremely) streets to the booked apartment, including alongside a busy market and through the town centre.  
On arrival the only option was to park on a handy footpath (normal here) before finding a couple of fellows who called our host, who then cleared a parking spot and showed us the apartment. Once unpacked we ventured into the town centre to try to get bearings and find a map. 
While all was well that ended well and as we learnt more about Novi Pazar we appreciated it much more and understood the context of what we were seeing, our first impressions reflected a lack of knowledge and unreal expectations that had been built up from such good experiences in our other stops... what we found here included minimal English speaking (this is not a complaint, it is Serbia after all), the high level of Muslim population (Around 80%) meaning that the main restaurants do not sell wine (shock, horror, but the supermarket did), no tourist information centre, lots of construction and badly maintained infrastructure, traffic chaos (but it works), narrow streets and minimal signage....
Still, we experienced some very helpful people, found dinner, raided the wine section of the supermarket and slept very well with fabulous double glazing keeping out most of the multiple daily calls to prayer.
8,198 steps around town and a long drive!
Tuesday 9th July: Novi Pazar
After breakfast in the apartment we set out to see if we could find a guide to show us the notable, UNESCO listed heritage sites, having had little luck finding maps or other useful information about the actual town. I had unsuccessfully tried emailing a travel agency who could not help, but eventually we found a helpful travel agency who put us in touch with the only registered guide in Novi Pazar, Irfan. We met up with him and over a coffee negotiated a fee and arrangements for him to take us to the sites we were interested in. In the meantime he gave us a potted history of the town and we agreed we would meet later in the day for the tour. 
Enough to say that after a wander around town looking at people and things, a yummy lunch of cevapi (again) and a short rest, we met with Ifan and he proceeded to see the 4 sites...for accuracy’s sake I have included others’ descriptions below and my pics show what I saw.
In summary, we wanted to see ‘Stari Ras and Sopoćani, which is four separate components located in the Raška region of southern Serbia: Sopoćani Monastery, Djurdjevi Stupovi Monastery, Holy Apostles St Peter and St Paul Church (St Peter’s Church), and the archaeological site of the Medieval Town of Ras. The impressive collection of three ecclesiastical monuments dating from the 10th to the 13th centuries show birth of artistic activity in medieval Serbia, which attained the highest standards in the art and culture of the Byzantine Empire and the regions of Central and Southeastern Europe. The unique architectural complex of the structures in Stari Ras (Old Ras), situated at a crossroad of eastern and western influences, show the period from 12th to the early 14th centuries when the ancient town was the first capital of the Serbian state.
The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is a Serbian Orthodox church, the oldest intact church in Serbia and one of the oldest ones in the region, situated on a hill of Ras, was founded in the 4th century while additions were made in the 7th and 9th centuries, after which it served as the ecclesiastical seat of the Serbian church, and as the baptismal church and state council site of the Nemanjić dynasty, until the last years of the 12th century. It is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.
Monastery Saint Georges on the top of a prominent elevation covered with woods was erected in ca. 1170 as an endowment of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, dedicated to St. George; it is known as the "Tracts of St. George", often incorrectly as "Pillars of St. George". The monastery is exceptional not only for its position and significance it had according to medieval chronicles and manuscripts, but also for its particular architecture. It was named after the church dedicated to St George and its two former bell towers, two high towers – pillars. Namely, according to Stefan the First-Crowned, Nemanja had built this church to commemorate his gratitude to St. George for saving him from dungeons-caves where he was put by his brothers.
The Sopoćani monastery, an endowment of King Stefan Uroš I of Serbia, was built from 1259 to 1270, near the source of the Raška River in the region of Ras, the centre of the Serbian medieval state. It is a designated World Heritage Site, added in 1979 with Stari Ras.Frescoes in the Sopoćani monastery, which was named after the old Slavic word for spring, are world famous masterpieces of art, are well preserved thanks to their quality and they represent some of the greatest achievements of the monumental wall painting in Serbia. 
We also saw the crumbling ruins of Old Pazar the town site before Novi (new) Pazar was established adjacent to a nice restaurant where we stopped for coffee at the end of our tour with Ifan when a storm hit and the the heavens opened. He dropped us back to the apartment where we waited for the storm to clear before heading into the main part of town for dinner as the rain cleared. 
13,937 step, 14 floors and 10 km
Wednesday 10th July: Novi Pazar to Kotor, Montenegro 
This was always going to be a long day but several factors made it worse than expected.
350 km is not that far, but when google maps between two major centres (Novi Pazar and Kotor, Montenegro) tells you that it will take 5 hours 30 mins and the map looks like a very squiggly line, you could expect that it will be slow, busy and maybe hazardous. 
Well, it was all that and more - and with the car GPS taking us on several waste of time deviations, a fuel stop, a lunch stop and several stops to admire the view, to say nothing of the nearly constant rain which was at times torrential (and no where to pull over) it was 12/10 challenging. Though I was pretty pleased with my driving skills and that I got us through the day safely despite quite a few unnecessary kms... 
On arrival in Kotor, where the weather had cleared, the next challenge was to navigate a serious traffic jam, find the apartment (easy) and park the car (not easy given the marrow, busy street and one parking spot on the pavement that required tricky manoeuvring and patient other drivers - which they were)!
Finding our host and checking in was easy but overcoming the disappointment of facing yet another several levels of stairs (4) to the apartment wasn’t . ... but we quickly dropped small bags, walked down to the waterfront, enjoyed a yummy seafood dinner with several wines, and then slept well!
3,123 steps, 16 floors, 2.2 km
Other Entries

Comments

Sally
2019-07-14

Great entry again Mum! And pics. Sounds so interesting - and your driving skills are certainly getting a work out! X

2025-02-15

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank