Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia

On Monday our arrival to Kotor Montenegro involved passing through a narrow strait at dawn, into the Bay of Kotor. The city of Kotor is a UNESCO world heritage walled city, with very narrow streets. We were lucky enough to be able to tie up at the dock; the Celebrity Constellation ship was anchored in the bay, and had to use tenders to get to town. We entered through the sea gate, into the square of arms. Our first stop was at the Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, where we viewed the treasury, with silverwork and paintings. We had pizza in the square near the Cathedral. We continued to St. Nicholas's church, where two singers chanted beautifully to advertise their CDs, fundraising to support their choir. The orthodox church was decorated with four huge paintings of the four evangelists, sent as a gift from Moscow.

We then visited the Maritime museum, which helped us get a sense of the history of Kotor. We thought of visiting the cat museum, but satisfied ourselves with buying a T-shirt and earrings from a cat themed store. The town is known for cats, and we saw quite a few. As a world heritage site, it was full of tourists. Richard considered hiking up the side of the mountain on the old fortification, but thought better of it. Dinner was with our OLLI group from Fort Collins.

Alex and his unique instrument, 
on the streets of Kotor

Tuesday we were in Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik suffered extensive damage during the Yugoslav “Homeland War”. We saw some shell holes and a map of the city marked with damage. From the ship, we took a shuttle bus to the Pile gate of the old city. We started with the Franciscan monastery, which included perhaps the oldest pharmacy in Europe. Compared to Kotor or Corfu, the streets seemed wide, although there were a lot of people. We visited the market, where we were told to have lunch at the Arsenal restaurant, which had clean restrooms and a toilet seat.. We had a corner table overlooking the square, so the people watching was good. We visited the St. Blasius church, which had an impressive collection of silver reliquaries. St. Blasius (St. Blaise) is the patron saint of the city. Then we headed back to the bus stop, and back to the ship. Another day, another UNESCO world heritage site. ;-)

Street scene in Dubrovnik

Sandi at Dubrovnik gate

St Donatus church and Cathedral tower in Zadar

Wednesday morning it was raining and blowing. We were wondering if we even wanted to go ashore in Zadar. But the rain let up by 10 am, when we docked in old town. There was a stiff wind blowing us away from the dock; there was a tug pushing our ship towards the dock. Due to the wind, there were many large hawsers (rope) tying the boat to the dock. The dock was near a lovely promenade next to the sea. The sea organ there uses the force of the waves to play tones; we and others enjoyed sitting and listening. We visited the cathedral dedicated to St. Anastasia. They sent us down the street to a religious articles store, where Sandi bought a small medal for her bracelet. Sandi had some challenges communicating with the clerk there, a reminder that away from tourist spots, English may not be widely spoken. Sandi stepped into a clothing store, where she was accosted by two women who were good salespersons; she bought a couple of tops for 50 euros. The square called the Forum had some ruins and columns. We had lunch at La Bruchetta restaurant. By the time lunch was over the weather was fairly nice. The town was a pleasant surprise, beautiful and not too many people. We got back to the ship around 2:30, and hung out at the restaurant near the pool deck, watching the boats go by.

Thursday we arrived in Koper Slovenia. The city is light on historical monuments, and is not a UNESCO world heritage site, ;-) We enjoyed our visit. The cruise port is right next to the old town, with a working container port across the water from our ship. Koper is the only commercial port in Slovenia. The cathedral is large and impressive; we found some temporary decorations, including angels with first names on them. We visited the history museum, where we learned how Koper was under Roman Rule, Venitian Rule, Austrian Rule, Napoleonic Rule, and some that we forgot. The local language is Slovenian, but Italian and English are widely spoken. In the tourist office, the young man said that Slovenia has only 2 million people, so they have to learn English. We had a pizza-salad at Capra restaurant in the Grand Hotel. The town has many narrow streets, but only a tiny remnant of a city wall. Sandi bought a bracelet at a rock shop in town. It started to rain about 2 PM, so we headed back to the ship.