Kotor, Montenegro
The 13-mile fjord-like entrance to the port of Kotor is a spectacular contrast between the Dalmatian Coast and the Dinaric alpine mountains soaring up into the mists. The Panorama negotiated the narrow (300 meters wide) straits guarded by the town of Perast (and in the times of pirates blocked by a chain), then circled in deference to Gospod od Skrpjela.
Our Lady of the Rocks is a church dedicated to mariners that was built on an island formed by dropping rocks from boats. We anchored next to the walled Old Town of Kotor and rode a bus back to Perast to take a boat out to the island. Gospod od Skrpjela is a beautiful little church with a museum of votive offerings given in thanks by sailors for their safe return. Perhaps the most striking votive is a hand embroidered portrait of the Madonna and Child by a wife who was waiting for over 25 years for her husband to return from sea. She used Japanese and Chinese silk as well as gold and silver thread and even her own hair. We returned to Perast to visit the Church of St. Nicholas and the Maritime Museum. Because of its strategic importance, Perast received special privileges from the Venetian Empire including tax free trade.
Once back in Kotor our guides Vuk and Miro gave us a walking tour of the Old Town including visits to the Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to St Trifon, the patron saint of Kotor, and the Eastern Orthodox church of St. Luke. Like Dubrovnik, Kotor was damaged in the 1667 earthquake but as a UNESCO site it has had the resources to reconstruct the more severely damaged sites. Saturday is Market Day and just outside the city walls were stalls filled with fruits and vegetables, including ripe red tomatoes bigger than a softball. The villagers from the mountains come down on Market Day with a vast variety of cheeses (cow, sheep and goat) and the smoked meat products for which Montenegro is renowned.
After lunch, our bus driver Marko drove us up Mt. Lovcen on a road with 25 serpentine switchbacks. The road is barely wide enough for a bus, so there is an elaborate ritual of who has to yield when two vehicles meet on this road that connects Kotor with the highway to the capital of Podgorica. Growing out the limestone karst are the dark pine trees for which Montenegro received name from the Ventetian for “Black Mountain” (Crna Gora).
Our destination was the mountaintop village of Njegusi for a sampling of smoked ham, cheese and honey wine. We then split into two groups. One visited Bosko's smokehouse to learn how the local “prsut” is prepared, first by salting, then drying in the mix of mountain and sea air, and finally smoked with oak wood for 3 months. Bosko also gave us samples of his homemade wine, rakija (grappa, or grape brandy), cheese and honey. The others went orchid hunting with Sharon in the meadows of the village.
Once back in the harbor we gathered for a wine tasting from the Milina-Bire winery in Korcula and cheese with walnuts from the Kotor farmers market while Michelle and Sharon briefed us on our upcoming visit to Albania. After dinner we gathered on deck to admire the illuminated walls leading up 1350 steps to the fortress of St. Giovanni that guards the Old Town and harbor.
