All Around Mountainous Kotor

Rather than make a stop right on the coast, we made our way into the port of Kotor, through what is one of the most beautiful bays in the world, Boka Bay or Bay of Kotor.  At 28 km (17 miles) this is the biggest gulf in the Adriatic Sea.  It takes over an hour to get from the sea to port and looked like traveling a fjord but it is actually a submerged river canyon.  

Besides the beautiful mountains and water there were islands and small villages along our way, plus a whole lot of lovely little churches.

We were one of three ships in port that Kotor welcomed that day, you see the old walls as soon as you get to the dock.

We were one of the ships who had to anchor out in the bay so it was tendering to the dock for us.  Rather than the ship tenders we loaded into a local water taxi to make the quick ride to shore.

One of the main sights here is the San Giovanni fortress (aka Kotor Fortress) that towers above the city.  It was built beginning in the 9th century through the 15th century to protect against invaders on the site of the original Illyrian fort of 2200 years ago.  You can climb to see the ruins if you are ready for a workout as there are somewhere between 1355-1385 steps to climb.  There are supposed to be places to stop and catch your breath, but that was way more stairs than we wanted to climb, even for the amazing views.  

One of those stops, about 300 steps up, is the 16th century Church of our Lady of Remedy.

With the Montenegro and Kotor flags flying in the overcast sky we met our guide, Nick, and with a group of ten others we followed him onto our bus (not the one above!) and began our journey.

This photo give you just a small idea of the switchbacks that we took up the mountainside

to get to this scenic viewpoint.  The road was fairly narrow at some spots and we were glad we had a experienced and cautious driver.

We could see the lay of the land and the way we had come in, just like on the map at the beginning of this post.  And there far below us was Serenade.  You can see it was a pretty busy place with all the little boats rushing around as well.

There is a "goat trail" that you can take down the mountain from here, or climb up it if you like, that does its own switchbacks to the bottom.  Nick said it takes about an hour and a half to hike down, it's got to be significantly more than that to climb up that steep mountain.

Once up in the mountains we stopped at a small town called Njegusi that is famous for its smoked ham and cheese.

There were little outdoor shops, many with handmade goods or local spirits, honey, ham & cheese for sale.  Tourism is the life blood of Montenegro as they don't have any large industries in this small country.  You could get a taster ham and cheese sandwich with a bottle of Coke for €5, a little over $5.  It was delicious stuff and I had already bought some of each based on a sample at one of the shops.  They'll make a great quick breakfast on busy mornings when I don't want to go out to get something before leaving on a tour.

The painting on the left is of a man in traditional Montenegrin dress.  While things are changing slowly in the country, the men still have the last say and rule in most families, women are secondary.  Nick said that is gradually changing with influences from Western countries and Australia.  The instrument pictured on the right is a traditional one that had strings made from horse hair.  Supposedly you only play sad songs on it.

One of the pretty mountain valleys

that we crossed through on our way to Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro.

This capital location was an isolated one.  Montenegro for many years was worried about Ottoman invasions from the south so this capital was set up here.  This is the Serbian Orthodox Court Church, built in 1890 on the site of a 15th century monastery.

Across from the church now is the current monastery.

There are some different kinds of roofs on the buildings here, like this one pictured at left, many of them are metal because the weather can be harsh here.  Also shown is a nice painting on the wall of another.

Here is the museum of King Nicholas 1, the one and only king of Montenegro who began to bring the country out of obscurity and westernize it in the late 19th century.  He married young, and his wife, Milena, was barely a teenager, only 13 when they wed.  They had 10 children and five of their daughters married European royalty.  Unfortunately his reign didn't last long and following WW1 the country was absorbed into Serbia, then what became Yugoslavia.  Montenegro was still part of Serbia after the Balkan, or Home War, as they call it in this part of the world, only getting their independence in 2006.

While in Cetinje we found a market so we could get a pastry at their bakery.  Karl also found this snack there that he said tastes like peanut butter Cheetos.  I think I'll pass on that one!  But my mushroom filled pastry was good as was his cherry pie!

There are lots of what look like small fortresses along the hills in Montenegro.  Most of them were built as defensive positions during WW1.  We came down out of the mountains to the seaside resort city of Budva (boodwah) to visit its old walled city.

There were dozens of sun lovers on the beaches, or scurrying away from them as it began to rain.  The sand here is quite coarse and we didn't get close enough to dip a toe in the water but with all the people out in it it couldn't have been too bad.

There were lots of lovely hydrangeas here and in Kotor in lots of different colors.

As we walked over to the old town we passed this restaurant that had an outside booth in this old car, kind of unique.

I put these outdoor metal lights in here because to me they kind of represented the country, it wanted to be interesting, and it was, but it was also a bit shabby in many ways, a little rusty and rough around the edges.  They are working on it and hopefully things will get better.  This is another place where the wages don't keep pace with the cost of living, generational family living is the norm to be able to make ends meet for most.

These are the Old Town walls of Budva that date from the 4th to the 17th century and the opening on the right is the main gate.  The Venetian Lion in the photo on the left dates back to the days of the Venetian Republic, 14th to late 17th centuries.

There are still some 200 residents that still live in Old Town Budva, but as in other ancient cities they grow fewer all the time with the influx of shops, restaurants and boutique hotels.

An old stone entry on the left and on the right is Christian sign that was placed on the outside of a house for protection against evil.

Just a fun sign.

Down below the floor of a shop are these stones that date back to 200 B.C. during Roman times, so random to have a clothing store above the site.

To the left here is the small Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist next to the Bishop's Palace on the right.  The church was built sometime between the 7th and 12th centuries.

The Citadel is the medieval fortress built here in 1425.

Notice the different colors of stone used for the construction of this later Serbian Orthodox Church, that's one way you can tell its newer construction.

It also had this nice mosaic detail above the door, no photos from inside as they weren't allowed.

Time for a selfie along the seaside in Old Town Budva.

This street sign had me doing a double take!

There are lots of new hotel properties under construction in Budva, so the resort business must be good here.  Hopefully more tourists will give the economy a boost.

We motored back to Kotor where most of the group went back to the ship, including Karl, but I went with Nick and our friends, the Heithoffs, to do a little tour around Old Town or Stari Grad.  On the left is the Sea Gate where we entered and not far down the street is the clock tower, easy points of reference if you get lost wandering.   

The same 1667 earthquake that damaged Dubrovnik was felt in Kotor as well, where it did extensive damage.  Despite that this walled Venetian town is still considered one of the best-preserved medieval towns in the Mediterranean. It was founded by the Romans over 2000 years ago and called Acruvium by them.  It's a combination of ancient and old, the house on the left was built during Napoleonic times, note the smooth exterior rather than stone.

Our guide Nick is there on the right in the narrow street photo, explaining to us how not to get lost.  We then suddenly ducked behind a doorway into this typical small Venetian courtyard.  These were always placed in the middle of the family palace to give the residents privacy.  There are still around 600 people who live within Old Town Kotor among the rooms of its palaces.

More Venetian architecture, storage would have been on ground level, living on the next and the kitchens on the top.  This one is the Pima Family Palace circa the 17th century.

Notice the iron rod in the upper right of this photo.  if you scroll back to the last picture you'll see that there are four of them across the front of the building.  There is a metal cable that runs through the structure with a loop on either end that a rod runs through to keep it in place.  These cables were to hold the structure together in the event of an earthquake.  Since this building survived that 1667 earthquake I'd say they worked pretty well.

The Buca Family Palace was kept in the family from the 13th through 18th centuries.  Note the balcony on this one.  It had to be reconstructed after the big quake.

You see cats and cat souvenirs EVERYWHERE in Montenegro.  They love them because they have always done such a good job at keeping the rats out of buildings and ships.  There are places around town where you can get food to feed them if you'd like.  Any cat that's found that's not spayed or neutered can be taken to the vet and have that surgery done for free.  Every cat I saw was fat and happy.

These fun cat drawings were for sale in Njegusi.

I put this sign in here to show that they also use the Cyrillic alphabet in Montenegro., see "Pharmacy" in that alphabet on the left.

The most recognized church in Old Town would be St. Tryphon’s Cathedral or Kotor Cathedral with its double tower.  First built around 1166 earthquakes have destroyed this church several times and each time it was rebuilt in whatever the current architectural style was. It is one of only two Catholic cathedrals in Montenegro.  Notice that the tops of the two bell towers are different from one another.

Another view of the Kotor Fortress towering above the city.

Just one of the old cat ornaments on a roof.

One of the oldest churches in the country is St. Luka’s Church located in Piazza Greca.   It has a simple but lovely interior.

Of course before I left I had to get some gelato for the day.  These flavors were Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate.  Neither was outstanding but they tasted good on a warm afternoon as I sat on a bench in the sun, licking my ice cream and people watching.  It was another good stop!