World Cruise Day 81/152 - Kotor, Montenegro - Follow Me to Montenegro

Cruise day: 81/152

Ports days: 29
Sea days: 52
Countries: 14
Continents: 4
Ports: 21

 

This morning, we awoke to beautiful views as we sailed into the channels en route to Kotor, Montenegro.  First, let's start with last night...

Unbeknownst to most passengers, we had turned 180-degrees last night and started heading back toward Corfu, Greece.  One of the officers joked that Captain Olav had left his wallet in Corfu and was going back to retrieve it.  In truth, we had time to kill and the captain was just lining us up for our entry into the narrow channels into Kotor.

How interesting is the approach?  It turns out - very interesting.

To get a better idea of where Montenegro is, check out this map.

Montenegro is surrounded by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea

Our sail-in was lovely with the area resembling fjords, even though they are not.  Fjords like those we sailed through in Chile were carved out by glacial movement. These were formed by tectonic plates colliding and heaving the mountains up. That in no way detracts from their beauty. It was, however, 30-degrees Fahrenheit and there's no getting around the fact that it is cold! Lucky for us, there was little wind and before the day was out, the temps were in the upper 50s, and with the unrestricted sunshine, it was wonderful.

Once docked, we had a view from our balcony that can certainly be described as, "it doesn't suck."

Our morning excursion was a walking tour through the old town of Kotor. Our guide explained that if you list all the countries in Europe, you also get a list of countries that at some point, ruled Montenegro.  Their history is rich with occupations by most countries in Europe.

The entry gate to the old town - the date (21-XI-1944 or June 21, 1944) marked the end of WWII for Montenegro

Inside the walls, it opens up to a square with lots of narrow streets heading in all directions with shops, churches, and eateries

We could get a better view of the church up on the hill from the square

The monument in front of the clock tower was used to dispense justice back in the day - criminals were chained to it and exposed to ridicule by all who walked by

It is incredible seeing buildings this old - this cathedral was built in 1166 and celebrated its 850th anniversary in 2016

The walk through the old city was very nice.  Shopkeepers were friendly and welcoming, and a little quirky.

The roadway is paved with beautiful pink and white marble

We visited the maritime museum and viewed some of the displays.

This water pump is hundreds of years old and still can deliver water

This church was built in 1195 and houses the remains of over 3,000 souls that perished in the black plague - their bodies were burned and interred under the church

This is a Serbian orthodox church and a sore spot among the Montenegrins as Serbia took over the country and eliminated much of their history and culture

The priest doesn't look like a lot of fun...

Kotor seems to have a thing about cats as evidenced by a cat statue, a cat shop, and a park where people feed cats.

Arlona walked up the hill to the church and then joined me on the ship

After our morning tour, we turned around and headed back out on a bus tour around Montenegro. We headed up into the mountains down a crazy-twisty road with 25 switchbacks to our first stop at a scenic overlook. This old road was essentially a one-lane road with two-way traffic.  What that means is that when opposing traffic meets, someone has to back up to where the road is wider and the other can pass by.  There are no rules, so each meeting is, shall we say, interesting.  We had a couple of those on the way up.  One time, a car we met chose to back up.  Another time, we backed up in the bus to allow a cement truck to pass.

This is a yacht owned by a Russian Oligarch who moved it to Montenegro to hide it.  Montenegro will not allow it to dock.

Part of the switchbacks that were designed to remember the letter "M"

There was still a fair amount of snow here and Arlona decided to play

She tried to hit me, but I was too quick

We stopped for a break and a sandwich.  Many of the locals cure their own prosciutto.  We enjoyed a prosciutto and cheese sandwich on fresh sourdough bread and the drink of our choice. Afterward, we took a brief look around and headed on.

Our next stop was in the municipality of Cetinje for a stop at the King Nikolas Museum.

A church built on the ruins of an old castle

A monastery

Here is the King Nikolas Museum.  Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside. Many chose to ignore that, but I opted to follow the rules.

A transformer that was gifted to the King to provide electricity

I have no idea what this snake sculpture is all about

We drove by the Montenegro Riviera where there are many resorts and beaches.

When we got back to the ship, the sun was providing some excellent lighting on the church and monastary that are built into the hill near the harbor.

Viking held a sail-away party on the Aquavit deck on deck #7 aft.  We opted not to attend for a couple of reasons.  First, it was cold outside.  Second, we sailed out after sunset, so there simply wasn't much to see.  Instead, we ate dinner in the World Cafe.  Eventually, we were joined by friends, and we sat and talked and laughed for two hours.

Tonight's show featured a very entertaining piano player.  We chose to watch from the comfort of our stateroom.  That sounded like a good plan, except the Viking Star's less-than-stellar audio-visual system kept hanging and stopping the video playback.  This has nothing to do with the internet as it is all contained right here on the ship.  It is a little disappointing.  We eventually stopped watching as it simply would not play.  Sad.  Ultimately, it came back, but we missed several minutes of the performance.

On a more positive note, the internet seems to have improved and hasn't gone completely down for an entire day.  I can't remember the last time that was true.  Let's say that I am very cautiously optimistic.

Tomorrow, we arrive bright and early in Split, Croatia.  We'll be touring the Krka waterfalls & town of Skradin.