Monday October 23, 2023
Hi Folks! Well the word of today is WOW!! If you ever get the chance, go to Kotor. And go via cruise ship and be on the top deck in the early morning hours as your cruise ship slowly navigates thru various islands to sail into the Bay of Kotor. It is magical!
For a historical perspective, the country of Montenegro is very young only gaining its independence in 2006. Like Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, Montenegro was once part of Yugoslavia. They always allied closely with Serbia but when Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic lost his political clout, they decided to go on their own.
Kotor the town is butted up against a steep cliff, cradled by the sea, naturally sheltered by its deep fjord position and watched over by imposing fortifications. An earthquake in 1979 caused a lot of damage to the town and they just recently fully recovered from it. It is another walled city with some of its walls built high into the mountainside.
Our excursion today was a scenic bus tour around the whole area. We started off driving high into the mountains behind Kotor on a road with over 25 switchbacks that were not for the faint of heart! When we got to the top, we had a snack of this smoked ham and cheese and had one of the most beautiful views looking down on Kotor. The rest of the excursion was touring the surrounding area. It was all breathtaking!
After the excursion we walked around the Old Town within the walls. It was fun getting “lost” knowing we could always find our way out.
After that we went back to the boat and got ready to go to dinner. We were planning to eat in the dining room but decided to try the Polo grill specialty restaurant to see if they have any last minute openings. They did have one if we shared with another couple. We said yes and they were the nicest people to have dinner with. They were from Houston, Texas and this was their second Oceania cruise.
The food was really good snd there was plenty of it! I of course got my lobster (surf and turf) and Kathy got a veal dish. The chocolate cake was decadent! We were planning to go to the show but we enjoyed their company so much we stayed at the restaurant talking until 10:30 PM!
After dinner we listened to the piano player, pulled a few slots and headed off to bed. We were supposed to go to Korcula, Croatia tomorrow and we were both excited to go there since neither of us have ever been. But the Captain announced tonight that winds will be very high there tomorrow and so we can’t tender so we’re going to Dubrovnik, Croatia instead. We both love Dubrovnik so we were OK with it!
Happy Monday to all!
PS: I didn’t have time to get wifi while in port to upload pictures so I’ll try posting them tomorrow.
The Wandering Italian 