20 June
Day Trip to Montenegro
We set off early for Montenegro, armed with our passports - or at least some of us did. We drove along more of the spectacular coast, but on the wrong side of the bus for photos.
We did stop for this panoramic view over Dubrovnik.
Just before the border, our tour manager realised she had forgotten her passport, so we had a problem. Her passport was retrieved from her hotel room by the hotel management and sent to the border post in a taxi, and we waited just across the border until it arrived and she could join us. Then we were off again towards our first stop, Kotor.
Kotor lies on what is called a fiord, with steep sides and a narrow but deep inlet from the sea. (I believe it is actually a drowned river canyon - a ria). Inside, it is shaped rather like a butterfly, and it would be quite a long drive right round. However, we were able to take a small car ferry across the narrowest part, which saved us the drive all the way around.
We were also able to get out of the bus and take some photos, and it was much cooler with the breeze from the water, though I had to stand in the shade.
We drove on to Kotor, which is a charming town and which I liked a great deal more than Dubrovnik. It's smaller for a start, and not such a rip-off. Like Dubrovnik, it is surrounded by walls, 15th century in this case, though many of the fortifications are a great deal older. You can walk the walls - 4.5 km - but it was far too hot and involves a great deal of climbing, as they stretch up to the top of the St. John Mountain that backs the city.
We entered by the Sea Gate, sometimes called the Maritime Gate. I don't know if you can read the date above it, but it commemorates the end of the Second World War, which ended in Kotor in 1944.
The Gate leads directly into Clock Tower square, surrounded by Venetian style buildings.
Kotor was part of the a province of the Venetian Republic from 1420 to 1797. Four centuries of Venetian domination have given the city the typical Venetian architecture you see inside, as well as the walls.
Like Dubrovnik, the exteriors of the buildings are protected and can't be changed, and some of them date from the 15th century. Most were modified or even rebuilt in the 18th century, after an earthquake in 1780.
Quite close to this was the Cathedral. Saint Tryphon Cathedral was originally built in 1166, as you may be able to see from the date carved on the front of it. It celebrated its 850th anniversary in 2016, hence the other date carved on the front. It was apparently built on the same site where an older church, built in 809 AD, already existed. The remains of the saint were kept here after being brought from Constantinople.
We wanted to go inside for a quick look, but there was a charge for it and we only had a minute or two, so it didn't seem worth while. So I don't know if the remains of the saint are still there,
We did go inside the much smaller Orthodox Church of St Luca, built in 1195 by tradesman Mauro Caccafrangi and his wife Bona.
After our tour, we also paid a visit to the maritime museum, housed in another beautiful old building. Kotor's history as a naval power is housed in this early-18th-century palace. There is quite a collection of paintings, uniforms, weapons, furniture and models of ships.
The rooms themselves are interesting, with wooden ceilings and shutters, and a balcony overlooking a small central garden.
We didn't have long in the town, and I would have preferred to stay much longer, but we were scheduled to visit the church of Our Lady of the Rocks, so we had to leave.
Our Lady of the Rocks is one of the two islets off the coast of the town of Perast in the Bay of Kotor. Parast, pictured below, is a tiny place where you can catch a boat across to the church.
On the way to the church, you pass another small island which looks much more attractive. Unfortunately, you can't go ashore there, as it is privately owned and houses a Benedictine monastery.
The island on which the church is situated is extremely flat and bare, because it is entirely man made. It was originally a rock sticking up out of the water, but in 1452 two fishermen found an icon of the Virgin Mary on the rock, so it was decided to build and island there with a church on it.
The island was made by sinking boats and then piling up rocks, and our guide told us that it took 200 years to complete, though the first known church was built in 1452. The present Church was built in 1632 and modified in 1722.
The church is small inside, but the walls and ceiling are completely covered with paintings, all done by one man. The church contains 68 paintings by a 17th-century baroque artist from Perast. There is also an icon (painted around 1452) of Our Lady of the Rocks, by a painter from Kotor.
One section of the walls inside the church, half way up, is completely covered with plates of silver - votive offerings to the Virgin Mary in thanks for survival at sea.
There is also a small museum attached to the church, which houses more of the offerings, and also some historical artefacts and some bones of the earliest inhabitants of the land nearby. The bones are 2500 years old. Amongst the other artefacts from these early times was this stone quern for grinding grain into flour.
It is 2000 years old.
Another artefact is the embroidery of the Virgin Mary, done by a local woman. It took her 25 years while her husband was away, and when she ran out of embroidery thread, she used her own hair. So some of the angels have brown hair, and ones embroidered later have white hair.
We returned by boat to the coach, which then took us back to Dubrovnik. On the way, we were on the correct side of the bus for taking photos, so this is a typical view of this part of the coast.
The hillsides are steep and covered in trees, and there are little towns built of pale beige stone, small harbours for a few boats and sometimes tiny crescent shaped beaches. The deep blue sea is sprinkled with little humpy islands and small boats sew seams of white wake across the otherwise unruffled surface.
It was a very hot day indeed, and we were hot and sweaty. We were glad to get back to the hotel for a cool shower and dress for our farewell dinner. Then it was packing and bed; it's a 6 am start tomorrow, as we leave early for the airport. I was far too tired to post anything, and it will need to wait for another day.
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