Day 19 – Kotor (Wednesday 1st May 2024)

The drive was Niksic was very pedestrian when compared to what we had witnessed the day before. Nothing to see here. Move along! Our destination was the Montenegrin town of Kotor just a couple of hours away from Niksic.

Kotor is an ancient city that sits at the top of an enchanting Y-shaped bay on the Adriatic coast, not very far from the border with Croatia. The whole of this side of the Adriatic coastline was once, and for a very long time during the middle part of the previous millennium, the dominion of what was then a world super-power – the Venetians. That influence is still seen today in the region’s architecture, cuisine and customs. I, and I suspect many of my travelling companions, had never heard of Kotor before this trip was booked. One or two of them actually “fessed up” to that when we were there and, like me, had done no research about the town when we did learn it was on the itinerary. Well, you’ll get no pleasant surprises when you arrive if you know everything before you get there. Right?

The bus came over a rise in the road as we started our decent into Kotor. Immediately the mundane road from Niksic was forgotten and the Montenegrin WOW!’s of yesterday resumed. Our first glimpse of Kotor Bay was simply stunning. From our very high vantage point we were presented with a panorama that no one expected. Incredibly tall mountains plunged into the a flat, deep blue sea. Two little islands, one with a church, sat in the middle of the arm. Along the coastline clusters of terra-cotta roofed houses sat on a narrow strip of land by the shoreline or, more often, clung to the sides of the mountains above the sea. The vista reminded me of my first view of Lago Maggiore, north of Milan. Except that this is the sea, not a freshwater lake. I think it was the narrowness of the waterway before us and the close proximity of the mountains and the villages across the other side that fooled me into thinking we were by a lake.

Down the hill to the shoreline we came and then passed through a seemingly never-ending string of villages until we reached Kotor. Our accommodation was a little way out of the old town, which was a really good thing. It kept us away from the crowds and afforded us a very nice walk along the promenade by the bay into town – which we were to do numerous times over the next couple of days. This is the best accommodation to date – a very large room, a balcony through French doors and Venetian shutters and desk to sit at! Shortly after we settled into our new digs the group took a walk into the old town led by Ivana. From sea-level the mountains are even more dramatic, towering over us in every direction. The bay was busy with boats of all shapes and sizes plying their trade across the calm waters or moored by the dock looking for customers with whom to share this glorious part of the world. At the head of the bay was moored at HUGE cruise ship, literally docked outside the main gate through the walls of the old town. A taxi driver we travelled with later in the day reckoned it was carrying about 4000 passengers and 1000 staff – that’s at least twice the size of most Australian small country towns! No need to say that it dominated the skyline in that part of town.

 

With a brief introduction to Kotor from Ivana she led us to a little restaurant hidden away in the labyrinth of streets, lanes and squares that are so typical of “old towns”. I love to explore these places, always eager to see what surprises await around the next corner. Our long table was setup in the lane-way which afforded an opportunity for a few cats to join us for lunch. A bit gross you might think but no, not at all. Cats hold a esteemed place in the life of Kotor. The privilege they have to wander the streets, invite themselves into houses, shops and restaurants or lie in the warm sun wherever they care to is a privilege earned centuries ago. At the height of Venetian power in this region Kotor, in its sheltered bay, was a hub for trade between East and West. Traders and their ships from around the world congregated here. As with every ship that ever sailed, particularly in those days, rodents were always aboard as undocumented passengers. During this period while the rest of Europe was in the grip of the Black Plague - for my younger readers, a pandemic that made COVID look like nothing more than a sniffle and runny nose. Historians believe that the Black Plague was spread by fleas transported across the world by rats. While an estimated 50 million people perished (more than half of Europe's population at the time) none were lost in Kotor thanks to the city’s cats who kept the visiting rats under control. Cats wander the streets everywhere here – a real feature of the town’s landscape. Rest assured, like any self-respecting tourist town the local government and the local traders squeeze every bit of value they can out of the contribution cats have made, and continue to make, to Kotor’s prosperity.

After lunch we all went our separate ways for the rest of the day. Kerry and I visited the Cat Museum (of course) and then headed over to walk the city walls. Before we got started on that we bumped into Rob and together decided to visit the newly opened (2023) gondola ride up to the top of Lovćen, a 1750m high mountain directly above the above the town. Without a doubt, this is the most spectacular gondola ride we have even undertaken. The 2200m ride offers breathtaking views of the whole of the region. On a perfect, sunny day we took in uninterrupted views for as far as the eye could see, all the way across the bay and the mountains to the Adriatic Sea. Those Montenegrin WOW! moments were back! Rob shouted us a coffee in the cafe at the top so we could drink in the view for a little longer.

By the time we got to the shoreline it was well past “beer o’clock” so we stopped at a bar right on the waterside for refreshments and then chose a different, but similarly placed, restaurant for dinner to cap off an outstanding day.