Morning Stroll in Kotor, Montenegro

Arriving in the Bay of Kotor, it became obvious that claims of this being "the Fjords of the Mediterranean" were not hyperbole.

The black mountains rise majestically from the blue seas.

Kotor itself is another gorgeous city, uniquely different from Dubrovnik and the other ports we'd visited on this cruise, but just as enticing in its own way.

With an early arrival giving us a couple of hours before we would meet up with our tour, we wandered into town after a delicious full breakfast on board.  It would not have been a bad decision to find a table at one of the quaint sidewalk cafés that were setting up when we arrived to enjoy coffee and pastries or whatever constitutes a full breakfast in this exotic part of the world.

We wandered along the ancient city wall and then around the cobblestone streets.  Kotor is a village I can easily imagine as the setting for an old favorite song, Year of the Cat.  Appropriately, we encountered several cats, including one particularly friendly one that looked like our family cat Raja.

It would not be a bad place for Al Stewart's lyrics to play out:

"Well morning comes and you're still with her.  And the bus and the tourists are gone

"And you've thrown away your choice and lost your ticket, so you have to stay on."

It would be the perfect setting for a romance with lovers walking hand in hand, or an action movie with a chase scene across fragile tile rooftops.  Perhaps a spy movie.  Not surprisingly, several movies have been filmed in part in Montenegro.

In one of the most famous spy movies, Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, Montenegro is supposed to be the site of the big poker game, but oddly the Montenegro scenes were not filmed there.  Perhaps for the next remake, the city will be ready to strike a glamorous pose?

Growing up, I had the Cold War image of Yugoslavia --- like the rest of the Iron Curtain countries--- being a cold, gray place where unsmiling men in trench coats and fedoras spied on anyone who dared have a joyful thought so as to immediately snuff it out before it could spread.

In the 1990's, that image turned to a war torn region where religious fanatics clashed.

Of course, lovely Dubrovnik had already shown us how historic beauty could survive the Soviet Era, how the spark of humanity could not be permanently suppressed.

For some reason, I simultaneously had an impression that Montenegro might be some sort of luxurious playground for the "more equal" cronies of the tyrant Tito and their counterparts among Politburo overseers vacationing from Moscow.  Perhaps the lingering image came from a reference in some old Man From U.N.C.L.E. or Mission: Impossible episodes?  I believe it was before 2006, when Montenegro "appeared" in Casino Royale.

The resort image seems most in tune with what we found in Kotor and subsequently our Viator Tour by Private Driver to Perast, Budva and Sveti Stefan, which resulted in so many photos they require separate posts.

With many wonderful excursions from which to choose for the port of Kotor, we selected that particular one for one primary reason.  As Julie asked, when will we ever find another full-day private driver tour for two for less than $200?  Since then, excursion prices seem to have crept higher, as the world continues to re-awaken as if from a poisoned-apple slumber, but it is still a great value.

Was the tour as great as the private van tour we took in St. Petersburg 13 years ago that cost considerably more?  In terms of beauty, Montenegro more than held her own, but the tour itself was not nearly as informative.

Our driver was neither a professional guide nor knowledgeable about history, art and literature like our guide Sophia in St. Petersburg.

Instead, she was a woman trying to make ends meet by juggling a job carting tourists like Julie and me around for a daily paycheck with the tough task of raising two kids alone while her husband tries to establish a new life for the family as a trucker in the United States.  She was certainly interesting in her own way, as humans tend to be when given the chance, sharing how her family and countrymen struggled through Covid-19 shutdowns to the vital tourist industry.

She spoke about how her parents were of the older generation that lacked sufficient time to build nest eggs for retirement in the short period since the Soviet Union crumbled.  She said they longed for the old days of a "more powerful" Yugoslavia, which was surprising to me.

Perhaps they were part of the ruling class, but more likely worked for a state-run seaside resort where their salaries weren't much but paychecks were steady and retirement assured.  Unfortunately, those gray men in trench coats seem to have received preferable treatment during the transition from socialism, becoming oligarchs who vacation in Cyprus while working people struggle.

Whatever those struggles may be for different families, the coast of Montenegro is a lovely place to live, at least during the warmer seasons.

On this morning, Julie and I relished the pleasant morning weather as we strolled around the village that was just waking up.  As you can see from the photos, it was quite a treat to walk off our floating resort ahead of the throngs and savor this ancient town stained rich with history and character.