Kotor, Montenegro

Saturday 17th May

I’m a day behind with my travel blog because we spent so much time in Kotor and I was pooped yesterday afternoon.

I hope I remember it all.

First, I forgot to mention that the guide in Corfu didn’t explain how to get from the bus to the ship and I joined a line (it’s what you do when you’re tired), thinking it was the correct one. Luckily Glenys noticed the small sign and saved me from a Fast Ferry trip to Albania. That would have been interesting.

As I’ve been here once before I know the journey to the port was really lovely so I got up early to see it. The water was calm and the air still. Sadly we were following another ship so we had its (her?) wake to deal with. 10 years ago, my last visit, things were very peaceful, with great areas of nothingness. Now, 10 years on, things have changed. Clusters of house dot the hills and there was a vast concrete block like structure that we decided was an hotel. There was another concrete block that we thought might have been a manufacturing plant. Prime position on the shore with brilliant views. I mean, why not?

We signed up for another free tour, figuring eventually we’d get a good one. Sadly this one wasn’t it. I won’t go into detail but our guide told us all about the many restaurants, cafes and wine bars that Kotor boasted. After a while I turned off the head set and shortly after that Glenys and I melted into the town square and did our own tour.

I had noticed these man made structures along the bay but I had to Google it because the guide was busy telling us what wine went with what food so didn’t explain anything about them.

I discovered that the tunnels were built during WW2 and housed submarines. You can visit them but the boat and speed boat tours don’t like to go there as they aren’t that interesting. 🙄

Mind you, the speed boat tours zipped around the bay each playing their own un-cha music so I appreciate that the average age of the speed boat operators was under 21 and I guess their interest in history and WW2 wasn’t high.

I loved this bench at the entrance to Kotor Old Town but I wasn’t game to try and sit on it as I would’ve needed a ladder.

The following pictures are from the old town Kotor

The following are a few pics at the port

Kotor was one of our favourite spots to visit. The town is very clean and, although there were 4 large cruise ships in port, the afternoon was quiet and easy to get around.

I have noticed the most popular souvenir is something with a cat on it. They are everywhere! Real cats and images of cats. Shame I don’t like cats…

We’ve been wanting to try the “famed” afternoon tea on the ship so we arrived at the afternoon tea cafe (not its real name) expecting fanfare, trumpets and streamers. Didn’t get that but did get a nice cup of tea. The platter of scones, cakes and sandwiches that everyone was raving about was a bit “snoup” as my Granny would have said. Scone (singular), a teaspoon of jam and a teaspoon of cream, a cucumber sandwich (slice of bread with cucumber so not really a sandwich in the accepted sense), a sandwich with some weird brown cheese (made the mistake of having that before. Won’t do it again) and a lime green macaroon (pistachio or broccoli flavour, not sure which but didn’t want to try). Anyway, the afternoon tea gave us the opportunity to continue with our Weirdo Watching activities which is always entertaining. I faced where they came from and Glenys faced where they went so we got a front and back view and compared notes later that evening.

Forgot to mention the laundry incident of yesterday afternoon. I wrote a little story entitled “My Beautiful Laundrette or, a laundry sheet shared is a laundry sheet lost” but it was a bit long so I didn’t post it. Here’s an excerpt….

I was having a whale of a time in the laundrette when a grumpy American woman (most of them on this ship seem grumpy) came in and harrumphed because all the dryers were being used.

“I need a dryerrrrrrr (they really pronounce their ‘r’s). Ma clothes are all wet (rising inflection on final word so it sounds like a question)”

Never one to refuse a challenge I said “are they?” referring to the, obvious, question about the state of her clothes.

I received a glare in reply.

Finally a dryer became available and she bundled her wet clothes (yes, they were wet) into the dryer but then spent rather a long time trying to work out how to get the dryer working. It was apparent that she had never had to do such manual labour. I offered to help

“you just push this button to start it”.

“But whhhhaaayyyyyyyyy?” she wailed.

What does one say to that? The dryer needs electricity to work?

Another laundrette attendee helped and they had a lengthy discussion about the benefits of a long drying period with a lower heat over a shorter drying period with a higher heat. I got involved with some very helpful, I thought, comments about polyester instead of cotton but I received further glares.

Grumpy, complaining lady finally decided that shorter drying cycle on cool temp (ain’t never gonna work, lady) was her choice and, as she left she gave me yet another glare and an over the top thank you to the other lady who had helped/not helped. I even received a very angry glare and a sniff when she got to the door and couldn’t open it. I helped, of course.

The end to this story is I was left in the laundrette with no witnesses so I changed the drying temperature and the length of cycle on her dryer. I hope she wasn’t drying anything that might shrink…

Word to the wise, don’t mess with the little people.

Tomorrow is Dubrovnik. Let’s hope it hasn’t changed much from my last visit.

C