Day 65~ Kotor, Montenegro, or Follow That Cat!

Half of the fun of travel is the aesthetic of lostness. ~ Ray Bradbury

We may not be seeing Norway on this trip, but the DH got a chance to sail into a honkin’ big fjord this morning. Kotor is located at the far end of an extensive inland waterway called Boka Bay (I’m thinking “boka” is related to the Italian word “boca” which means mouth.) Here’s a relief map of the area we found at the Maritime Museum.

That’s Kotor at the farthest southeastern tip of the fjord. Our waiter Raj told us that 4 times out of 5, this port has to be cancelled, because it there’s the least bit of rough seas, there’s not enough room for a big cruise ship to maneuver. This is the view of the black mountains, from which Montenegro takes its name, from Deck 10. If you look carefully, you’ll be able to make out the mountain top fortress and ancient defensive walls climbing this sheer slope. It’s an amazing feat of medieval engineering!

Fortunately, the Pacific Princess is petite as cruise ships go and we slipped alongside the old town area of Kotor with no problems. The walls you saw snaking up the mountain stretch all the way down to the sea and around the crooked lanes of the ancient town. This was our destination for today.

After sitting out on the balcony for the sail in, I remembered why I packed a bunch of sweaters! I even dug out my wool poncho from the suitcase under our bed! The temperature struggled to reach 60 degrees F in the afternoon and the morning was quite brisk. The DH said it felt like northern Minnesota in fall. It put me in the mind of an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote:  Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. (Yes, I know it’s technically early spring here, but we recently had summer as we rounded Australia and sweltered through Southeast Asia and the Middle East, so my seasonal clock is completely off.)

We’d had a tour booked through Princess, but when we realized how close the old town was from our berth, we cancelled, deciding there was no point in riding a bus for an hour and a half each way to see another medieval town when a perfectly good one was sitting on our doorstep. (BTW, if you want a refund for a previously booked excursion you need to cancel 24-48 hours in advance, which we did.) So after breakfast, we ran the gauntlet of taxi drivers hawking private tours and walked over to the sea gate to enter the walled town.

Our first point of interest was this “Cone of Shame” at the base of an old clock tower. Residents who broke the rules were required to stand before it, acknowledging their errors. Evidently, shame was effective to coerce folks into good behavior during the Middle Ages. There were no remnants of stocks or a pillory, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one was used.

We had a map of the town, but it was of little use since the town is a higgledy-piggledy mess of lanes with no street names. We knew the general direction of the St. Tryphon Cathedral that was our destination, and by following our noses, we managed to walk right to it. (FYI, there was a charge of 2.50 Euros each for us to enter)

Originally consecrated in 1166, the cathedral suffered a terrible earthquake in recent years that destroyed the south tower. It was rebuilt to match the remaining tower and reopened in 2016. While we were in the sanctuary, a tour group came in and wandered about for about ten minutes, their voices echoing up into the gothic arched ceiling and phone cameras clicking. We slid into a pew and waited for the stillness that had reigned before their arrival to return. Sacred spaces fascinate me and I love to linger to join my prayers to the thousands of others that have been lifted up from there in the past.

Our next stop was the Maritime Museum (4 euro entrance fee, but well worth it). But we weren’t sure which of the myriad lanes spoking away from the cathedral we needed to take to reach it. We weren’t too concerned, however. Because we were in a walled town, if we reached the wall, all we had to do was walk along it to find our way out of the maze of streets. Then I spied a black that that seemed to know where it was going, so I said to the DH, “Let’s just follow that cat.”

Not only did the cat know where it was going, it seemed to know where we wanted to go. It led us through several narrow ways that opened into a wider courtyard directly in front of the door of the Maritime Museum that was housed in the 17^th century Grgurina Palace.

Oh, Captain, my Captain!

I expected to see a collection of ships in a bottle but the three stories of displays included the parlor furniture from a number of medieval homes of wealthy families were set up to recreate the spaces. There were a number of fascinating paintings—one of Catherine the Great!—and in one room they had even put down an original inlaid wood floor from a 15^th century palace.

Our next destination was the 18^th century Church of St. Nicolaus and the very ancient (circa 1085 AD) Church of St. Luke. We weren’t allowed to enter St. Luke’s, but the Church of St. Nicolaus was open and it was filled with elaborate silver embossed icons.

Outside of the church we were approached by a mother and her little girl asking for money. We’d just put our last euro in the St. Nicolas poor box. But if we’d have given them something, we’d have likely been inundated by the many other people holding out empty cups that had gathered while we were inside the church.

We had expected to see beggars in India and we did. We were surprised to see them here because the town of Kotor looked so well-kept and prosperous. Later, we learned from our port expert that the influx of refugees into Mediterranean countries has created an underclass of people who don’t speak the local language and aren’t employable. We’ve been warned to be on alert for pickpockets, especially during our upcoming call at Venice. We always dress simply when we leave the ship and wear no jewelry. Both of us even leave our wedding rings in our cabin safe. There’s no need to tempt someone.  

The old town that had been fairly deserted when we arrived began to fill up. So we made our way through the growing crowds back to the sea gate (this time without a feline escort!) and across the street to the Pacific Princess.     

Our sail away was beautiful and we couldn’t resist taking a pic of these two small islands near one of the choke points in the fjord.

Between the two of us, we took over 200 pics of Kotor. Actually, that’s our usual average per port. I’d love to share more of them with you, but uploading a single picture can take several precious internet minutes. (I’ve burned through 1630 minutes on my shipboard account and pilfered about half that from the DH’s!) Once we get home to our internet that flows by the gallon, I plan to go back through the blog adding to each day’s post.

For now, I want to give you a heads up that we have nearly used up our allotted minutes for this segment and may not get more till Venice on April 1^st. So if I miss a few days till then, please don’t fret. We’re continuing to have adventures and I’m still writing. Once we have more minutes, I’ll publish several posts at once.

In the meantime, we’ll visit Zadar, Croatia on March 29^th , Ancona, Italy on the 30^th, and Koper, Slovenia on the 31^st before we reach Venice on Easter Sunday! It’s a whirlwind of a schedule.

Pray for us… ;-)