Travelling to Kotor

A six AM alarm today as we had a ferry to catch. I drank a coffee while getting ready and finishing packing. We'd booked a taxi for seven but when we left the hotel at five to, it was already there. Our helpful and friendly driver, a young woman, loaded our bags and drove us to the port in no time. So we were there taking photos by the catamaran almost an hour before departure!

We were able to board soon after 7.30, stowed our luggage in the area for Dubrovnik baggage and found seats together. I had one by the window and got some good photos of Split as we left. But soon after it became splashed with water droplets, spoiling my view.

I bought an espresso from the snack bar, and some mini oat cookies for breakfast. When we docked at a small town on Brac, Milna, a large group of Americans boarded, names prominently displayed around their necks. I was glad I'd got my coffee before them.

We stopped again in Hvar where a lot of people got off, including the American tour group. But more boarded, and again in Korcula, so it was pretty full by the time we reached Dubrovnik, a little late, around one o'clock. There was some chaos as people fetched cases from the various points they had been stowed, and ours of course were the most buried as we'd boarded first!

Our friend Malena, who had stayed overnight in Dubrovnik, met us off the ship and we all went for lunch at a restaurant across the road from the port, with friendly service and good salads.

Then we crossed back to wait for our pre-booked transfer. Our driver Bozo turned up on time and looked after us well on the journey, stopping a couple of times at viewpoints. The first of these was at a spot with great views back to the old city of Dubrovnik.

At the border he took all our passports into firstly the Croatian office and then the Montenegrin. We’d heard there could be significant delays at this crossing, but we were through pretty quickly.

We made a further stop at a viewpoint over Kotor Bay, looking towards Perast where we were due to visit the following day (but didn’t – explanation in my next post!)

We got to Kotor around five. Bozo had to park outside the old city, so we dragged our cases the last hundred metres or so into the main square to our hotel, Hotel Vardar. There we found plenty of other VTers gathering outside. We went to check before joining them and learned we’d all been upgraded to superior rooms with wonderful views over the square below, the Square of Arms.

The we went back outside to join the others. There were lots of greetings, news to exchange and so on, and we also paid our organiser Val for the different events and meals.

I had a beer with some friends and later about ten of us went for dinner at a nearby restaurant). It was fun catching up with everyone, but I didn't stay out late as it had been a long day. However I made sure to take a few night shots of the view of the old town from my bedroom window before going to bed.