Montenegro

After Croatia, we sailed to the port of Kotor in Montenegro. Montenegro is a mountainous country with two main sources of revenue, both based on tourism. The first is skiing in the northern parts and the second is cruising in the southern part, along with hiking and other outdoor activities. The natives of Montenegro are among the world's tallest people, on average, apparently.

One interesting tidbit had to do with their memories of Yugoslavia. In Croatia, people seem generally happy with the current capitalist economy. In Yugoslavia, apparently the government handed out apartments to people in the right jobs. So many of the educated had their own apartments. Real estate is expensive in these places because the area is hilly and there is limited land for building. Those who had apartments are reasonably wealthy as a result. Others, who did not, are finding themselves locked out of the real estate market. Our guide in Croatia told us this matter-of-factly and said, in general, that Croatians are happier now. The Yugoslav government did not invest a lot in Croatia, I believe.

On the other hand, in Montenegro, our guide told us the same thing with respect to the real estate. But she was wistful for the old days and said that most Montenegro citizens preferred the Yugoslavian state. Now, of course, both of these are single data points but I thought the difference in perspective was interesting.

Anyway, Kotor was interesting to me because it was the first time we had to be ferried via lifeboat to the shore. The port is small, there were multiple cruise ships, and therefore we had no berth to dock. I love watching the minutiae of the ship operations. I always watched the undocking and docking if I could. This time we had a lifeboat just under our balcony and so I had a nice view of how they were lowered and then raised, before we left. The one under my balcony was the first one out and the last one in so I had ample time to hang out over the railing and watch.

Kotor is a tiny place, relatively speaking. This was our first view of the town. It is an old walled town. We had chosen to take a trip up into the mountains via a scenic Serpentine drive with 25 switchbacks and then a visit to the house of the only king of Montenegro. We planned to explore the town on our own when we got back.

As we climbed higher and higher into the mountains, the views got better and better. This is the bay of Kotor from various heights. These were all taken from a bus so there are some reflections.

After the drive, we had lunch at a little inn in a village. We were now higher up in the mountains and it was definitely a little on the cool side.

Roses at the inn.

We passed the house where he was born.

The royal palace is really a large house with many adjacent buildings - churches, tombs, etc. The interesting thing about it is that it is completely untouched since the kingdom ended peacefully after World War I. The king had many daughters and they were all married in to various royal families in Europe so he was well connected. The furnishings are really beautiful and the house is well preserved but photographs were not allowed.

I did take a photo of this dog who was having a lovely lazy day in the sun.

After the palace, we drove back to Kotor via a more modern highway. We still got some lovely views.

Here's an example of a switchback.

And a 'Where's Waldo' type of photo. Can you spot the fortress?

Once we got back, we didn't go to the ship. We headed into town. This is the entrance to the walled town. There is a lovely carving on the wall.

More carving on the gate.

The clock tower. Kotor is known for its cats and I saw a lot of them in town. But none of them would pose for their portraits.

It is a pretty little quaint town.  This building below is now a posh hotel, apparently. But it used to be a residence of the royal family. They were a Grand Duchy before they were a Kingdom.

Lovely architecture.

There are a number of churches in town.

With icons and beautiful chandeliers.

After wandering through the town, we headed back to the ship.

From the lifeboat, closer in above and then as we got further away.

Finally, I ran out during dinner to catch this beauty of a sunset.

The rest of our trip was in Greece. We went to Corfu, then to Olympia before disembarking in Piraeus and spending 4 days in Athens on our own. I may have to split some of those days into multiple posts as there is so much to see in Greece.

Dubrovnik and Mostar

A quick note before the actual post: I actually started this in January before I left for India. My expectation was that I'd be able to write the rest of the posts on my trip there. However, I found that I really couldn't write very well on my iPad. The Blogger site wouldn't scroll on the iPad. So my apologies for the long silence. I expect to finish this series this week and go on to what I saw in India.

Our next stop was Dubrovnik. I really wanted to see Dubrovnik but one of the other tours available was to Bosnia-Herzegovina to see the Old Bridge at Mostar. The bridge is called the Stari Most and it was destroyed during the Balkan wars. However, it has been rebuilt and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I also wanted to see some of the countryside in the region. So we left the ship early on a 3 hour one-way trip to Mostar. Plus there were 3 cruise ships in port and I expected Dubrovnik to be completely packed with people during the day.

You can see one of the other ships in this photo.

We were berthed outside the main port under this beautiful bridge.

Isn't that gorgeous?

We boarded a little van because there were only a few of us going to Mostar.

We drove along Croatia's beautiful coast. It is studded with islands and there are both government and private ferries going back and forth. Many of them are uninhabited so people go there for the day. In the photo above you can see oyster beds (I think) in the water.

We stopped for a coffee and restroom break along the way. The view from the restaurant was lovely.

We got off the van on a street that looked pretty normal.

But right around the corner is a building that has not been rebuilt. Our guide said that some people who left during the war haven't come back. Or, if they have, they can't afford to rebuild so there are many buildings like this.

But a lot of other areas have been rebuilt and we walked through construction as well as rebuilt areas.

We walked first to a Turkish home that has been maintained in its original condition as a museum. This area was ruled by the Ottoman Turks for a long time and the root cause of the war was the religious differences between the Roman Catholics (Croats), the Serbian Orthodox Christians (Serbs) and the Muslims (Bosnians).

The patio of the Turkish house had a lovely fountain.

The kitchen is off to the left of this photo with the main house to the right. The kitchen was separate to keep heat away from the house as well cooking odors.

There is a lovely balcony above. Most of the living areas were on the upper floor.

That is the kitchen.

One of the downstairs rooms with carpets on the floor.

Out in the deck area, there was a loom.

And a skein winder (or maybe a charkha type spinning wheel) with some balls of yarn. We weren't allowed to touch anything and the guide wasn't very knowledgeable about fiber crafts so I didn't get a good look at the wheel to see whether it actually was a wheel or not.

A bedroom.

The living room had gorgeous views of the river.

Looking down at the patio from the deck. You can see the crowd. There were 4 or 5 groups there to see the house and only a few people could go upstairs as the rooms were small. So we had to wait in the patio and then go up, look around, and come back down a really narrow staircase without taking too much time. That allowed the next group to go up.

Some of the interior photos of the house.

Old photos on the walls.

A light fixture.

A beautifully carved door.

Some of the objects on the walls.

A lovely little table.

We then walked to a mosque and took a quick look inside. The view of the bridge is very good from this mosque.

A couple of views of the inside of the mosque.

Our first view of the famous Stari Most.

Looking down river from the mosque.

The other side of the river. There were some churches there. The river was apparently a delineation line between the Christians and the Muslims, which is why the bridge was destroyed. Our guide said that many families were ripped apart as so many had married into other religions. But during the war, it didn't matter. It was a chilling reminder of how much pain and death is caused by religion and history.

Looking up at the mosque.

A reflection of a mosque in the river.

Looking at our side of the river.

From the mosque, we walked through some crowded streets to the bridge. This the bridge. It was really crowded.

I walked across it and back.

Then we had some time to shop. I wasn't interested so I photographed cats, and buildings.

The town is very hilly.

A few more buildings.

We then went back to our van and started driving back to the ship. On the way we stopped at a small village where we climbed to the top of a tower. It was a good way to stretch one's legs. The tower was ruined but interesting because it had lovely views.

Views from the tower.

One view of the buildings at the base of the tower.

Up on the top!

Some photos on the way up.

Looking down on the other side.

We then drove back to the ship. The two of us decided to go into Dubrovnik because the ship wasn't sailing till 10 pm. The following are photos of the walled town of Dubrovnik after dark. People go into the old town for dinner so the streets are filled with people. But I have no idea what many of the buildings are.

This is one of the gates to the old town. There is a bridge leading up to it. The bus from our ship dropped us off at the entrance to the bridge. Once you cross the bridge, you have to down some stairs and then out into the old town.

Part of the wall surrounding the old town. Dubrovnik was under siege during the war and many people died defending it.

There are two fountains in Dubrovnik. This is the Big Onofrio's fountain which still works. The Wikipedia article linked earlier has a lot about the history and about the engineer who built the aqueducts and fountains.

The water spouts are beautifully carved.

The streets are lined with white marble and it had rained earlier. They were slippery but reflected the light beautifully.

Al fresco dining in some of the alleys and streets and plazas.

This is where I am ignorant. This is one of the churches but i don't remember which one. Google tells me it is St. Blaise's church.

The clock tower.

Next to it is this lovely building, which I believe is one of the palaces. There is a museum inside which had a memorial to the people who died defending Dubrovnik.

This is the Little Onofrio's fountain.

This is the facade of the Cathedral (thank you Google!)

We climbed up one of the walls, to the point where it was lit and populated. This is a view of the street below from a vantage point up there.

We spent about an hour wandering around Dubrovnik and then caught the bus back to the ship. Our fellow travelers told us that it had rained during the day, it was packed with tourists, and that our night visit was probably much more pleasant. However, we missed the guided tour. This is part of the world where the Game of Thrones is filmed so there are a LOT of tourists.

Our next stop is Montenegro.