We are making our final cruise segment before getting to Venice. We stopped at Kotor (Montenegro) where we had never been and found this to be a beautiful port. The cruise ship views on the way in and out of the port are not to be missed. Unfortunately, we could not dock at this port and had to take a tender to shore. We were fortunate to get a priority tender due to our frequent cruising status and were off on the second tender. When we arrived, we decided to see what else was being offered and decided to take a taxi tour to some of the nearby sights. We had a private two and a half hour tour for just ourselves in a large van for only 70 euros. We first went to a small town along the water called Perast. This was a nice quiet town but not too much too see there except for the beautiful views. From this small town we took a small water taxi out to a tiny island where the Abbey of St. George which we took photos from the boat. There was another tiny island about a few hundred feet away that had a 15th century church called Our Lady of the Rock where we spent about 10 minutes taking some pictures there before heading back in the water taxi. Interestingly, this was a church for the sailors and the island was created by scuttled ships. Our water taxi then took us to an overlook high on a hilltop to see the city of Kotor. What a beautiful view. From there we went down to the old city to spend our last few hours before going back on the ship. We decided we were a little hungry and thirsty so we found a small pizza restaurant in one of the town squares. We had a delicious pizza along with some beer and cider for a very reasonable price. The old city was very nice and we could have spent some more time just walking around. If we would have had another 2 hours we would have walked the walls around the city which go up very high and provide some excellent views of the city. Next time we will be sure to do this.
Our next stop was Dubrovnik (Croatia) where we had our Distinctive Voyage excursion set up. This was another cruise where we were hosting a group of 47 passengers in this program. It was our third Distinctive Voyage cruise out of the five cruises we were taking on this long trip. We split up into two separate buses to make smaller groups. The first stop was the Old Town which is about a 15-20 minute drive from the port. Dubrovnik is a little bigger than some of the other ports we had been visiting and this “Old Town” was not walkable from the port. We had a nice visit to the Old Town and learned a lot about the history of the city. The most fascinating part of the history of this city was very recent, back in 1991, when Croatia was attacked by Serbia and Montenegro. The guides were very young at the time but both remembered the war very well and all the people who died during that timeframe. There are still some buildings you can see where the roofs have been destroyed during the bombings. It seemed strange to see such recent destruction from a time only 25 years ago during our life time. For anyone familiar with Game of Thrones, the Old Town of Dubrovnik was “King’s Landing” from the Games of Thrones. They shut down certain areas of the town when they are filming the show. After our visit in the Old Town we went on to the small town of Civtat. This was a nice quiet tourist town which had an old church on top of a hill. We saw a water polo practice area in the ocean there and learned that this sport was extremely popular in this country. They had won gold and silver medals in the most recent Olympics in water polo. Our final stop on this tour was out in the countryside where we had an opportunity to see some old mills. We were given a demonstration on the mill operations and how the mills used the small river in the valley to provide power. One mill made flour and we were shown how the old stone wheels ground the wheat into flour. The other mill had wooden hammers powered by the water to pound wool clothing to soften it and make it wearable. They showed us the old wool rain coats made by this process and they weighed about 15-20 pounds because of the thick material used. At one time this city’s main business was agriculture with crops grown in all of the surrounding valleys. Now the city has reverted to tourism and most of the farms have closed down because those businesses were not nearly as profitable as the tourism business. Now fresh produce is not readily available and the local market runs out of vegetables and fruit around 10 AM every morning. When we got back to the port we took a short walk outside to see what was around and saw some very interesting small cruise ships in the port that only have around 15 or 20 very small cabins. These cruise ships do 7 night cruises around the islands in the Adriatic Sea for around $1000-2000 per person. It might be a nice thing to try sometime. The water there is crystal clear and very clean.
Our last stop before Venice was Split, Croatia. Once again we had never been there and were pleasantly surprised on what the city had to offer. The palace area and historical city are very close to the port and in easy walking distance. There were a large numbers of vendors set up in tents all around the area. The market place was extremely colorful with different types of flowers and fresh fruits. The Diocletian Palace was built in the 4th century by the Romans and contains the Cathedral of St. Domnius which is the most prominent visual building in Split. The historic city which lies just outside the palace contains many stores for shopping and restaurants. It is all very picturesque. We started walking back to the ship but decided to check out one of the beaches near the port. The beach was only about a 10-15 minute walk from the ship but it was tucked away in a very nice area. It wasn’t your typical sandy beach but most of the areas to sunbathe were areas with a concrete surface. There was some sand in a small portion of the beach but it wasn’t your real fine sand of a nice beach. It was very crowded though with the nice warm temperatures.
Our last stop of the cruise will be Venice where we will go on to Milan for a couple of days to visit our niece and take a trip to Lake Como before flying back to Peachtree City.
Sharon & Greg
Our next stop was Dubrovnik (Croatia) where we had our Distinctive Voyage excursion set up. This was another cruise where we were hosting a group of 47 passengers in this program. It was our third Distinctive Voyage cruise out of the five cruises we were taking on this long trip. We split up into two separate buses to make smaller groups. The first stop was the Old Town which is about a 15-20 minute drive from the port. Dubrovnik is a little bigger than some of the other ports we had been visiting and this “Old Town” was not walkable from the port. We had a nice visit to the Old Town and learned a lot about the history of the city. The most fascinating part of the history of this city was very recent, back in 1991, when Croatia was attacked by Serbia and Montenegro. The guides were very young at the time but both remembered the war very well and all the people who died during that timeframe. There are still some buildings you can see where the roofs have been destroyed during the bombings. It seemed strange to see such recent destruction from a time only 25 years ago during our life time. For anyone familiar with Game of Thrones, the Old Town of Dubrovnik was “King’s Landing” from the Games of Thrones. They shut down certain areas of the town when they are filming the show. After our visit in the Old Town we went on to the small town of Civtat. This was a nice quiet tourist town which had an old church on top of a hill. We saw a water polo practice area in the ocean there and learned that this sport was extremely popular in this country. They had won gold and silver medals in the most recent Olympics in water polo. Our final stop on this tour was out in the countryside where we had an opportunity to see some old mills. We were given a demonstration on the mill operations and how the mills used the small river in the valley to provide power. One mill made flour and we were shown how the old stone wheels ground the wheat into flour. The other mill had wooden hammers powered by the water to pound wool clothing to soften it and make it wearable. They showed us the old wool rain coats made by this process and they weighed about 15-20 pounds because of the thick material used. At one time this city’s main business was agriculture with crops grown in all of the surrounding valleys. Now the city has reverted to tourism and most of the farms have closed down because those businesses were not nearly as profitable as the tourism business. Now fresh produce is not readily available and the local market runs out of vegetables and fruit around 10 AM every morning. When we got back to the port we took a short walk outside to see what was around and saw some very interesting small cruise ships in the port that only have around 15 or 20 very small cabins. These cruise ships do 7 night cruises around the islands in the Adriatic Sea for around $1000-2000 per person. It might be a nice thing to try sometime. The water there is crystal clear and very clean.
Our last stop before Venice was Split, Croatia. Once again we had never been there and were pleasantly surprised on what the city had to offer. The palace area and historical city are very close to the port and in easy walking distance. There were a large numbers of vendors set up in tents all around the area. The market place was extremely colorful with different types of flowers and fresh fruits. The Diocletian Palace was built in the 4th century by the Romans and contains the Cathedral of St. Domnius which is the most prominent visual building in Split. The historic city which lies just outside the palace contains many stores for shopping and restaurants. It is all very picturesque. We started walking back to the ship but decided to check out one of the beaches near the port. The beach was only about a 10-15 minute walk from the ship but it was tucked away in a very nice area. It wasn’t your typical sandy beach but most of the areas to sunbathe were areas with a concrete surface. There was some sand in a small portion of the beach but it wasn’t your real fine sand of a nice beach. It was very crowded though with the nice warm temperatures.
Our last stop of the cruise will be Venice where we will go on to Milan for a couple of days to visit our niece and take a trip to Lake Como before flying back to Peachtree City.
Sharon & Greg
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