Kotor -- September 7

We got up early with the hopes of checking out Dubrovnik without the crowds, but even at 7:30am there were many tourists milling about . We grabbed some cappuccino before returning to the hotel to pack up, check out, and head back to the bus station. The bus station is a good distance from the Old Town, and our cab driver was a bit nuts and we nearly collided with several cars en route!

Upon arriving at the bus station we waited about 30 min before our bus arrived. We boarded the comfortable bus for the trip down to Kotor. We chatted with a friendly Canadian who was doing missionary work in Albania and was returning there from some time spent in Poland. The view from the bus was terrific – with amazing views of Dubrovnik against the crystal clear Adriatic. They call Dubrovnik the "Pearl of the Adriatic", and we believe that name is very appropriate.

About 1 hour into the journey we reached the Montenegro border. About 45 minutes of passport control later, we were officially in the country of Montenegro! The border crossing was painless – we didn't have to leave the bus and we got stamps in our passport! Our first city of mention in Montenegro was Herceg Novi . Nothing much to look at, and it became clear how prettified Croatia is compared to humble Montenegro. As we progressed beyond Herceg Novi, however, the beautiful Bay of Kotor appeared out our bus window and we were treated to impressive views of the near vertical cliffs rising right out of the bay. In many ways the Bay of Kotor does resemble the fjords of Norway – although from what we hear the geological processes which shaped the Bay of Kotor are not the glacial forces responsible for those fjords.

The bus went around the entire bay affording wonderful views. The brooding peaks rising up almost vertically from the bay provided a stunning backdrop to the blue and emerald waters of the Bay or Kotor. Riding through the village of Perast was particularly enchanting as we could see the 2 picturesque islands in the bay. We’ll be sure to make a visit there during our stay. Around 1pm we arrived at Kotor bus station. Craig called Drazan from D&Sons Apartments who met us at the Old Gate and quickly brought us to our very nice apartment . Kotor is quite confusing to navigate at first due to the jumble of streets, but it is very compact and pretty soon it is easy to navigate around.

We checked out the Main Gate before entering the main square which afforded fine views of the Clock Tower. Continuing our stroll we soon came upon the very unique St. Tryphon’s Cathedral as well as the Serbian Orthodox Churches at St. Luke’s Square. After lunch we decided it was time for our usual “hike to the top”. Kotor has probably the most amazing fortification walls we’ve ever seen. They aren’t as massively thick as Dubrovnik’s, but they climb up the side of the very steep hills and zigzag at incredible angles. For 2 euro we gained access to these walls and started our climb way up above the town of Kotor.

Drazen warned that “only if you are in good condition” should you attempt this climb. We decided to give it a try – we could always walk back down if things got too tough . Well the first half wasn’t too bad. We scrambled up a path that was basically stone steps to the incredibly lofty positioned Church of our Lady of Remedy. The church was built by those who survived the plague in the 14th century. The views from this vantage point were amazing and had we known these views were going to be the best, we would have stopped here and headed back to sea level. But we didn’t know that, so we continued the arduous climb for another 30 minutes or so to the very top – here is the Castle of St John – an Illyrian fort. The views across the Bay of Kotor were breathtaking, but we were so high up that Kotor seemed like just a little triangle way down below.

The walk down was equally hard on the knees, and upon reaching the apartment we rested for a bit and headed out for dinner. Afterwards we found a café in one of the little squares and just spent several hours drinking wine (Vranac is excellent) and watching the local Kotorians dance to 80’s disco music in the square. They have some pretty interesting dance moves….