Kotor, Montenegro
In the 15th century when the Venetian sailors first sailed into Kotor Bay and saw the craggy limestone peaks with pine forest-clad slopes, they named their new colony Monte Negro, “Black Mountain.”
It was still dark at 6:00 a.m., when the pilot came aboard to guide us into the Kotor Fjord (Boka Bay), but more than a few intrepid guests were atop the “Monkey Deck” to witness dawn breaking over the towering mountains that surround Europe’s southern-most fjord. Boka Bay consists of a series of four wide bays linked together by very narrow channels. The Illyrians, the Bronze Age civilization that occupied the central Balkan region, settled around the shores of the Kotor Bay 4000 years ago and remained in their hilltop forts until the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century BC. The town of Cattaro (Kotor) was founded at the southeastern end of Boka Bay by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century AD. The area surrounding the bay sought the protection of the Venetian Republic in the early 15th century rather than be subsumed by the Ottoman Empire.
Under the Venetians, Cattaro served as a transshipment point for agricultural products produced in the hinterland, as well as being a major arms trading center. The French forces of Napoleon took over from the Venetians in 1797, but following the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Boka Bay was handed over to the Austrians who used it as a major naval base. Today, the bay continues in its traditional role of being a maritime access point for the hinterland of Montenegro, the smallest state within the former Yugoslav federation.
After landing astern of our sister ship, Sea Cloud II, we boarded our coaches for a short trip down the north coast of the bay to visit Perast, a small town that is a virtual “open-air museum” of Venetian Baroque architecture with its mostly deserted 16 palaces and 12 former churches and chapels. As the morning mist burned off, local tenders ferried us out to Gospa od Skrpjela, a tiny chapel that appeared to be floating in the middle of the bay. Over the past 400 years “Our Lady of the Rocks” has been richly endowed with silver votive plaques depicting ships from the mothers and wives of the many local seafarers who crewed merchant and naval ships for the Venetians and Austrians. The stunning scenery, mirror-calm sea, sunny skies and early fall colors made for a perfect morning. On our return to Kotor, we took a walking tour of the lower walled town, finishing off at the Orthodox church just ahead of a large wedding party.
With much fanfare, the Sea Cloud II sailed out of the fjord just as we returned to our ship for lunch. In the afternoon, the majority of the guests opted for a driving excursion to the interior mountain village of Njegusi to sample Montenegro’s famous smoked hams and local cheeses. To say the route was dramatic would be an understatement! Up, up, up we went around the 25 serpentine switchback turns of the narrow road that lead to the top of the pass at 930 meters. The view (and the ham) was worth every torturous turn both up and down! The sun was setting and the twinkling lights of the mountain villages were just being lit as the Sea Cloud made its way out of the fjord and back to the Adriatic.
