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| Bay of Kotor |
Actually, we call it Montenegro, too, us Turistas Americanas, although "Crna Gora" is the translation of Montenegro, "Black Mountain" into Serbo-Croatian from Italian (I'm guessing those wily Venetians had a little something to do with a Slavic country having an Italian name).
The main tourist sight to see in Montenegro/Crna Gora is the Bay of Kotor.
So we saw it. Here we are, bayside, at a popular local photo point.
Also popular with cruise ship tourists, too.
The first "all tourists must do" thing that we did was to take a speedboat out to the Our Lady of the Rocks from the docks in the bayside town of Perast.
Popular with tourists of all ages!
And away we go.
The boat ride is very brief.
And soon we are on the island on which the orthodox church sits.
An on which yachts are docked. This is the church.
Exterior, of course, but you probably figured that out.
Artsy framed shot of a sailboat docked on the church island.
And this, and I'm guessing you would figure this out also without prompting, is a shot of the church interior.
Ceiling:
Votive candles. A bargain at one-half of a euro a piece.
Montenegro uses the euro for its currency for some reason. I guess they really don't need a reason. But whether you call it Montenegro, or Crna Gora, or Mountain of Black, it is not an E.U. member state. It might be at some point in the near future.
But it's not now. Above is the art photography contest entrant, with the blue of the kayak, the blue of the Bay of Kotor, and the blue of the Our Lady domes, all together in a single frame.
Well, all good things come to an end. The speedboat operator gave us 30 minutes on the Our Lady of the Rocks Island and we got 35. Time to head to the exits and motor back to town.
In the foreground is Saint George Island, which houses a Catholic Church. Or once did. I'm not sure, it's not open to the public as is the orthodox island.
Next stop: the City of Kotor. And the cruise ships are in town.
But this is not peak season, so that one mega-ship is all alone.
The old city walls can be seen in this picture. It is a long steep hike up the walls to the top of the hill. Which is not black at all. It's more Monte-beige than Montenegro, if you want my opinion.
And what's for lunch? For me, it was cevapcici! I love cevapcici.
Refueled, it now was time to enter the city walls.
First stop was the Katedrala Svetog Tripuna, or Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, the Catholic Cathedral in orthodox Kotor City.
Interior. Simple.
This is the view of the square from the second floor balcony.
Time's a-wastin'. Another church. Did not go in.
And then it was time to exit the walls for the drive back to Dubrovnik. Nice juxtaposition of the ancient city walls and big ol' palm trees.
Twenty-nine countries now visited with Montenegro becoming the latest.
And then we were back in Dubrovnik for the night.
Laku noć, Little Onofrio's Fountain. Laku noć.
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