After last night's excess, we woke up this morning not having prepared at all for our imminent departure. Nothing was packed. The room was in chaos, like a teenager's bedroom.

But first, breakfast.

I hadn't eaten my aubergine & tomato stacks last night mostly because there wasn't an oven in the kitchen and I couldn't think out of the box. However, this morning in a moment of clarity, I cooked them in a frying pan over a low heat, with an ill fitting lid, sealed with kitchen foil.  

They took over half an hour to properly cook, but they were worth the wait, utterly delicious. Although they were a little strange eating them for breakfast.

Whilst breakfast was slowly cooking we spent the time shoving everything into our suitcase.

Packed and fed we only had to do the dishes before we were ready to leave.

Just as I was keeping the pans I noticed there was a small leak beneath the sink. I went to tighten the waste pipe connection but the whole thing came loose in my hand! Dirty water was spilling everywhere. My language was attrocious.

Thankfully I managed to re-attach it but it was still dripping. I mentioned it to Stipo as we left the apartmentbut he didn't seem that bothered about it.

Originally we had planned to visit Cetinje this morning, a town and former royal capital, up in the moutains. By all accounts it was known for its palaces and museums. However, Stipo's wife told us that she heard the road to Cetinje was closed.

So we had to come up with a Plan B. What we decided wasn't that exciting. Drive to Tivat, have lunch, then head to the airport. That was it.

On the way we pulled over when we saw a hipermarket. We had collected for the grandshildren a few snacks and sweets along the way that had funny sounding names, like "Bonko", "Josh!" or "Pardon".

So we decided to increase the stash and pop inside the supermarket .

We found a packet of Noblice. "You can't give knob lice to your grandchildren" snorted Julie. She was right.

Although we still bought some for our own amusement.

Back in the car we continued on our way to Tivat. After a week of historic old towns it felt strange driving into a city that didn't really have one.

We found a multi-story car park then set off on foot.

A strong smell of coffee lured us into the first cafe. It was called City Hall and on the front of its menu it had an image of a building similar to the White House. I wondered where it was before quickly realising that this kind of monumental building didn't exist in Tivat.  The city hall was all concrete, steel and glass, looking more like a shopping centre. 

We decided to head towards the marina of Porto Montenegro. There would have been a port here since ships were invented but during the 19th century the Austro-Hungarian Empire developed a large arsenal for its navy. It transformed the town.  

Walking along the Pine waterfront the sun was dazzling, blinding us, reflecting brightly from pale paving stones. Neither of us had brought our sunglasses.

We came across the Clock Tower, quite possibly the oldest building in the area! (Although there was a 17th century Bucha Palace somewhere)

We continued walking along the waterfront, reaching a jetty with a large crane at the end of it, a throwback to the port's ship building past. 

Today, it has reinvented itself as the place to park up your super-yatch. We walked up and down jetty No.1, admiring the billionaires favourite mode of transport.

Eventhough we're not remotely interested in that lifestyle, we couldn't help but find them impressive. 

It wasn't all multi-million pound yatchs. There were other jetties, full of regular run of the mill £100K plus sail boats.

Our stroll along the front was interpupted when the marina cut inland. Here we came across Restaurant Al Posto Guisto. It was perfect timing for lunch, so we sat outside, on the corner, overlooking the aquatic square. 

I had gnocchi with a goronzola sauce as my choice. When it arrived I was more than concerned. The potato dumplngs were larger than usual, and the sauce looked very creamy. But when I tasted it, I was so pleased. The gnocchi were soft pillows of loveliness as they should be, and the blue cheese tang cut throught the cream to make the sauce delicious.

Julie opted for the fish dish, which was several fillets of Sea Bream, served on a smear of garlic mash with crispy tempura cavolo nero. It was served in an artistic style, setting itself up to be fine dining. Fortunately it deliered. Julie really enjoyed it. 

After lunch it was time to return to the car. We passed this sign pointing to the four corners of the world, with several cities and their distances from Tivat. Apparently we were heading in the direction of Kenya, Jordan, Romania or Macedonia. A few destinations for our future travels!

We drove to the airport, dropping off the car with Europcar before walking to the terminal. Our flight wasn't until 5pm this evening, so we were too early to check in.

We sat outside the teminal at Cafenegro, listening to the thunder crack in the distance. It wasn't helping Julie's anxiety. She resorted to nail chewing and a glass of wine to calm herself.

Then we heard the flight was to be delayed by an hour, which extended Julie's misery.

Eventually it was time to check in our suitcase and go through security.

A strange thing happened when we got our passports checked. After having mine stamped and waved on, the border officer then recalled me back to the desk. I don't know what he was looking for. He didn't explain why he needed a second look at my passport. It was now my turn to feel a bit anxious.

Anyway, thankfully he waved me on for a second time.

At 6:40pm we took off. The grey skies and thunder had lifted and we were soon above the clouds and seeing nothing but blue skies.

With a three hour flight and the hour difference we landed 8:40pm in Manchester.

I had hoped to quickly find a pub to watch a football match, but the flight delay had made it impossible.

Thankfully on the shuttle bus back to the car park I checked scores on my phone and Manchester United were beating Ajax 2-0. It stayed that way and United won the Europa League final for the first time.