Trips

Tues., 6/5/18 - Dubrovnik and Kotor, Montenegro

Today we took a one-day tour to Kotor, Montenegro. We crossed the border from Croatia, which is in the EU but does not use the Euro, into Montenegro, which is not in the EU but uses the Euro. Montenegro is small and decided to use German marks as their currency after the break-up of Yugoslavia. When Germany changed to the Euro, so did Montenegro. Montenegro means “black mountain” because of all of its evergreen forests. The country is Christian Orthodox.

We arrived at Perast on the Bay of Kotor and boarded a small private boat for the short trip to the man-made island of Our Lady of the Rocks. On it stands the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rocks with a small museum of silver “ex vita” for prayers for sailors. There is also a room full of items - irons, a typewriter, etc. - donated by sailors’ wives for Our Lady to bring their seamen home alive. It took 250 years of dropping stones in the bay to create the island. The island next to it is the natural island of St. George.

Flag of Montenegro	License Plate
Bay of Kotor	Fish farm in the Bay
St. George Island on the left and Our Lady of the Rocks on the right	Perast
Mainland (Perast) behind us	Church of Our Lady of the Rocks
Church of Our Lady of the Rocks	Church door
Ceiling	Stuff in the small museum
Through the gate	Stuff in the small museum
Our boat returned us to the end of the bay to the walled medieval town of Kotor. Our local guide walked us through the cobbled streets to look at old palaces, now shops and apartments, and several churches. An earthquake in 1667 destroyed the entire town but it was rebuilt. We looked at the 1602 clock tower and Pilar of Shame. St. Triphon's Cathedral was rebuilt in the 9th and again in the 12th c and opened in 2016 after the 1979 earthquake destroyed it again. The 12th c. Catholic Orthodox St. Luke and Russian Orthodox St. Nicholas stand on the same square.
Sailboat race on the Bay of Kotor	Church of Our Lady of the Rocks with lines waiting to enter
Church of Our Lady of the Rocks	Perast from the Bay
Perast from the Bay	Ancient walls above the city
Approaching Kotor from the Bay	Ancient walls above the city
Nifty yacht	Flying the flag of the British West Indies
Venetian Lion of St. Mark	Entrance to the Old Town
Old building	Cathedral of Saint Tryphon
Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas	Church of St. Nicholas
Outside the walls we sampled five kinds of cheese and six kinds of ham as an OAT “learning and discovery” event. It was at the open farmers' market. Marge and I sat and ate pizza for lunch and went back to the farmers’ market to buy a beautiful tomato, a nectarine, and a banana to eat as part of our dinner.	Mushrooms
Meat and Cheese	Meat and Cheese
Market	Market
Market	Our bus picked us up and took the ferry boat back across the bay and back to the border. It took a little longer to cross in this direction because it is a more strict EU crossing. They make it harder to get into the EU than out. While we waited, a car from Albania was made to turn around and not cross because they did not have a “letter of invitation” by someone in the EU.
Venetian Fortifications	I think this means "Emergency Exit"
	Ferry terminal
Ferry boat	Back in Dubrovnik, we walked along our waterfront and then ate dinner in our room.

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