Kotor, Montenegro

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Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of just over 13,000.

The port of Kotor is surrounded by an impressive city wall built by the Venetians and their influence remains predominant in the city's architecture. The Bay of Kotor, has been called the southern-most fjord in Europe, but it is a ria, a submerged river canyon. It cannot be called a fjord since it wasn’t formed by glacial erosion (a technicality if you ask me). With the overhanging limestone cliffs, Kotor and its surrounding area form an impressive and picturesque Mediterranean landscape.

In recent years, Kotor has seen a steady increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ship. Visitors are attracted both by the natural beauty of the Gulf of Kotor and by the old town of Kotor

We walked 5 minutes from the ship to the Medieval walled town. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Sight and dates back to 12^th century.

It was going to be another day of climbing. Yesterday's Wall Walk was going to look like a stroll compared to what we had in store for us, but feeling no aches and pains, we decided we would tackle the 1500 steps on the ancient stone pathway to the top of the hill above the city where remains of the old fortress still stand. We decided that we would tackle the climb in the morning, before the heat of the day was upon us.The walk is quite demanding and on the way up, you pass many shrines and monuments. We also passed many locals who were entrepreneurial, selling bottles of water to the climbers who forgot to take enough with them.

On our way up, we acknowledged how that they would never allow people to walk this path back in Canada. There would have to be handrails and safety walls at a certain height for the walkers' safety. Here, we walked along paths of loose stone and dirt while walking along the edge of cliffs. There was only one way up and down, so you needed to mind your footing when passing other climbers. It was very cool.

The climb up took 75 minutes(with many stops along the way to catch our breath) but we were rewarded with an incredible view. The mountains, calm waters with the cruise ship waiting for us, and the old city encouraged us to make my camera work overtime. The descent took 30 minutes. We needed to negoiate our steps carefully as the rocks and paths were worn over the years and proved to be slippery at times. It was a pretty spectacular thing to be able to do.

Once we were back on the ground, we grabbed some lunch and then wandered the old city.

The nice thing about Kotor is that they didn't seem to be advanced when it came to being "tourist-savvy". The number of souveniers available were minimal. There were fridge magnets and post cards, but they had very few t-shirts and the like for tourists to buy... There were none of those, "Someone I know went to Kotor and all I go is this stupid t-shirt" souveniers. You know what I mean.

Next stop, Corfu.

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Comments

[Michael]

Pics
Beautiful scenery, but next time instead of laying down taking a picture sideways ... try it right side up ;-)