The Undiscovered Country - Kotor, Montenegro

Melon Man greets us for lunch
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This will be a short entry but an amazing day has just transpired in my life. It is a day that I'll never forget!!!

After breakfast, we attended a talk by Grace Fielder titled: "A Language is Born: The Rise & Fall of Serbo-Croatian".

...a day I'll never forget

Around 10 a.m. I went out on the top deck to watch our entry into the fjord. I decided to join a couple of other ladies in the net off the bow of the ship. Wow! It's like a giant hammock in which you can look down on the sea as the clipper is sailing. I stayed in the net about 2 1/2 hours! until the crew was ready to drop anchor at Kotor (I think I've found a new favorite place on the Royal Clipper).

The ships tender goes ashore with our arrival documents
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This is the first time that our ship has ever come into this port and the people of Montenegro gave us an amazing welcome which I now understand is a tradition here the first time a ship visits. The ship parades around circling all the towns in the bay. All the bell towers in the town of Perast at our entry into Boka Kotorska (Bay of Kotor), rang bells in greeting with many people waving from shore and also some standing at their open windows waving white sheets in welcome -- "Goosebumps and tears".

Wild flowers on the path to the Fortress of St. John above Kotor stari grad
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After docking, we were led on a walking tour of old Kotor behind the old city walls. We visited the Maritime Museum and the 12th century Cathedral of St. Tripun. Our guide spent a lot of time explaining some of their history also.... was very interesting.

My response to this place is that it is really very beautiful. The natural setting with the deep fjord (caused by tectonic activity not glacier activity) and the steep mountains are gorgeous.

Gary wanted to climb the mountain to where the old city wall completes it's ring around the city to get a panaramic picture of Kotor and Boka Kotorska. Unfortunately, there were over 1360 ( the # I found out later... ) stairs up the mountain past old ruins of buildings. It was beautiful but my feet are killing me :-). We stayed about an hour there before heading back down.

Bonnie at the Fortress of St. John
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There were many mountain goats feeding on the hillside and they didn't move when we came by, in fact they pretty much just ignored us.

Three and a half hours after we left to hike the mountain, we returned and had dinner at a cute little restaurant on the water. The food was simple but delicious. We returned on the next to last tender back to the ship at 11 p.m. with Erla and Grace who had been in the old town scouting for National Geographic for future trips here. They are both such nice, friendly people and are really adding much to our trip.

Kotor stari grad (old town) from the top of the fortress
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Kotor is a place that would be nice to return to someday to visit again.....