Kotor

Arrived at Kotor, Montenegro around 8am having negotiated the channel into the bay. A very mountainous region on a rainy morning. Kotor (Cattaro) is in the southern region of Montenegro (Crna Gora) on the Balkan peninsula. Montenegro is about 85% mountains with a population around 630,000. The capital is Podgorica which is in the interior. Tourism and wine are the main sources of income. Kotor at the end of the bay is a UNESCO world heritage walled city surrounded by mountains with a population of 13,300. It is mostly of Venetian influenced architecture. Today’s tour started at 9:45am and consisted of 22 participants. Our local tour guide was Rajan (pronounced Ryan). It started with a 45 minute walk around the old city. This consists of many squares, narrow alleyways and various churches, both Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Following the city tour we boarded a boat and headed back down the bay for 15 minutes to Prcaj which is a village of about 11,000. A short walk took us to the old St Nicholas complex with the Franciscan monastery and church built around 1735. On the way we passed the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin church which is under renovation. After refreshments in the monastery which included Rakai, we proceeded in to the church. Here we listened to 20 minutes of classical music performed by 3 young lady flautists. They were professional music teachers and very good. Another 5 minutes boat ride took us to a local waterside restaurant for lunch. Seafood served including prawns, sea bass, calamari, cuttlefish ink risotto, spaghetti along with salads and of course more wine. Lunch concluded with a rain downpour for our boat ride back to Kotor.