10/27–Kotor

It’s a beautiful day and a beautiful sail into Kotor Bay.  We love this place, it is so pretty, little towns rising from the shores of the bay and creeping up into the hills.  It’s so lovely.

Just gorgeous!

We get tender #4 again, and are in town fairly quickly, not as quick as the Villefranche tenders, but still no issue.  Our plans today are to climb up to the Kotor fortresses and Castle of St. John, which sits atop the wall that rings the city and the cliffs of the Hill of St. John – so we’ve got no real time challenges today.

Off the tender, we fight our way through the gauntlet of tour vendors and through the gate into the old town.  We head straight to the back wall of Kotor, underneath the arch behind the church of St. Maria of the River (which we will visit after our climb),  snapping pictures of the town buildings and narrow little lanes on the way to the stairs up to the fortress.

3 euros each for the exertion!  It’s worth it though.  1350 steps that wind up and up and up around 1300 feet above Kotor. The scenery is spectacular.  The climb our afternoon gym! The first 20 minutes get us past the guy sitting on the steps selling water and soda (very smart!) and finally to the bastion of St. Rocco and the church of Our Lady of the Health, which is supposedly 1/2 way up. 

People were there selling water as well.  Enterprising – and talk about great exercise every day getting up there with a cooler full of drinks.  Unless there is some other way up we don’t know…hmmmm….

At any rate, upward we trek.  Through the fortifications and walls toward our next stopping point,  the little fortress and Cartarini tower. 

Our exertions are reward with fantastic views over the town and down into the bay.

We scramble up these steep stairs and into the little fortress on a plateau beneath the main fortress for more great views – and a well needed water break (we brought our own from the ship btw).

The last part of the climb is sort of scary – lots of areas without a wall along the stairs, so nothing to stop you from toppling over – but we make it to the top and congratulate ourselves with our water – and walking through the castle of St. John overlooking the town.