Podgorica is Montenegro's capital, and you could drive past it without knowing, because it has few of the old stones and picture-book bays that fill the coast. It lies in a broad plain where the Morača and Ribnica rivers meet, about thirty kilometres from the shore of Lake Skadar, with mountains circling it. About a hundred and forty thousand people live here, nearly a quarter of the country, and it is a young, busy place of cafes and traffic.
The city has been through several names and wars. Under the Ottomans it was a fortress town, and in the Second World War it was heavily bombed, so little of the old city remains apart from a clock tower and a few Ottoman remnants near the river. From 1946 to 1992 it was called Titograd, after Tito, and the Millennium Bridge, a cable-stayed span over the Morača opened in 2005, is its modern symbol. The Ribnica ruins and the confluence are a pleasant walk.
The real reason to use Podgorica is its position. Lake Skadar, the largest lake in the Balkans, is a short ride south, with marshes full of pelicans, herons and water lilies, and the old village of Rijeka Crnojevića. West lies the road to the coast, and north the dramatic Morača canyon, a gorge with cliff walls and a road clinging to the side, which leads toward the mountains and Durmitor. The Ostrog monastery, built into a cliff face, is a major pilgrimage site, about fifty kilometres away.
Fuel is available in the city and along every main road, and parking is not difficult. Summers are hot, with temperatures above thirty-five degrees, and winter brings rain and mountain snow. Eat grilled meats, cheese and kajmak, and the local Vranac red wine. Cafe life runs late into the evening, and a stroll along the river after a day of mountain roads is a quiet, comfortable ending.