Today we were sailing into Kotor. It’s a sail in not to be missed.
We were up just around 7am to watch the scenery slide by with the beautiful slow-motion you only get from a ship. It is such a relaxing view and unfortunately, unless you’ve done it, it’s impossible to describe. This year, I was on the lookout for the camouflaged submarine pens on the side of the fjord (I missed them two years ago). Yes, it is a fjord and yes, there are submarine pens. Some were built by the Germans in WW2 and some by Yugoslavia in the late 20th century. Allegedly they are no longer used. That’s one top left. Google Kotor Submarine Pens for some amazing accounts.
Further in to the fjord there are more picturesque views of little islands, churches and waterside villages. It’s remarkable scenery which looks very like the west coast of Scotland. I often wonder what it would be like to take a leisurely cruise up the west coast. A couple of hours later we reached Kotor.
We’d been there two years ago and knew it was a maze inside the walls. What we weren’t prepared for was the way it had expanded internally with cafés taking over spaces in squares and piazzas that created bottle necks with so many visitors crowding in trying to get the best angle for photos or the ubiquitous selfie. Ok, I’ll admit it, I’ve taken a few selfie shots of us this holiday, but when you see people making idiot faces with ‘surprised’ looks on their faces as they search for the shutter button on the phone, you begin to wonder about the future of the human race. Thankfully a lot of them are americans and not really part of the race, more simply onlookers.
We wandered the shops and found junk, tat and also a few interesting articles or quality artwork too. I liked the sign middle bottom. We had a coffee under cover in one of the squares and were about to leave when there was a cloudburst and the rain came thumping down. It had tried to rain earlier, but it was only a half-hearted attempt, this was the real thing. We decided to leave it for a few minutes more.
When the shower passed and the sun came out, we headed out through the walls and found the pond where the blue dragonflies circle almost endlessly and spent a fruitless quarter of an hour trying to snap one. We both came close a couple of times, but no cigar.
Further down there was a market. The outside stalls were full of fruit and the ones under cover were for fish. The fruit especially looked amazing. Not at all like the sanitised articles our supermarkets have.
I got one sketch done of a clock tower while Scamp went
for a walk, trying to find the Christmas shop. After we met up again we went for lunch in another wee cafe with canvas umbrellas giving protection from the sun this time, not the rain. When we were fed and watered, we went to find the Christmas shop and got two Christmas decorations and another salt ‘n’ pepper set.
Too soon it was time to go back the the ship for a last dinner. Didn’t even get to dance tonight, because some eejit was doing the worst dad-dancing I’ve ever seen. The bloke last week was funny and interesting. This one was just stupid. He was english.
Back to the cabin to complete the packing and then put the cases out to be taken away ready for tomorrow.