Saturday 27 April 2024
Highlights: Mostar Old Bridge, The Bay of Kotor, Exploring Kotor Old Town.

A later start was the plan for today to allow two new tour members to join us Susanna and Steve (after Dubai floods cause major delay) and Rich and Cynthia to catch up after staying in Sarajevo due to ill health.

This meant that after breakfast we could go back to Mostar old city and explore again but this time with the sun rising. The Old Bridge was effectively empty making for a different experience.

After walking around this unique city Darby and myself enjoyed morning ice cream as a farewell to Bosnia. We left Mostar at 11.00 am.

The trip to the border was uneventful. We did stop for strawberries and later at a petrol station for last chance to use our Bosnian Marks.

Leaving Bosnia and entering Montenegro only took 25 minutes and like that we where in a new country at 2.20 pm. Close to our detsination we got to see the gorgeous Bay of Kotor. It did still take until around 4 pm to get to Kotor Old Town, this was due to slow traffic driving around the stunning coast.

We had paid for a local guide to take us around the Kotor Old Town. The town has been fortified since the early Middle Ages, when the Romans built a fortress the 535 AD. The Town nearly destroyed by earthquakes in 1563 and 1667. As a result most structure date from 1668 onwards.

Our tour start at the Sea Gate and then moved inside to the main square called Armoury Square. In this square the Clock Tower dominated.

Our guide explained how weathly a number of the residents became which is why there are some many grand buildings.

The Cathedral of Kotor is a Church that has gotten a littl smaller over the yearsdue to earthquakes. A dome was removed before it could collapse.

We also visited the Orthodox Church of St Nicolas and later the Town Well (no longer used).

We finished with a walk on the fortress wall. I noticed a lot of well looked after street cats in this town. We finished the day with our first full group dinner together with 16 tour members.