Early the next morning our ship set sail for a short
cruise to Albania. We docked in Saranda
and then traveled overland to the ruins of Butrint. Butrint is located on the southwest coast of
Albania. The site has been occupied
since at least the 8th Century BC.
By the 4th Century BC a walled settlement was established and
the city became a successful cult site.
Until the 6th C BC it remained a small Roman port. Its later medieval history was turbulent as
the town was involved first in the power struggles between Byzantium and
successive Norman, Angevin and Venetian sites and later caught in the conflict
between Venice and the Ottoman Turks. As
described by UNESCO, Butrint has been inhabited since prehistoric times, has
been a Greek colony, a roman city and a bishopric. Following a period of prosperity under
Byzantine administration, it was briefly occupied by the Venetians, and then
abandoned in the late Middle Ages. Today’s
ruins are an amalgam of monuments representing a span of over 2000 years from
the Hellenistic temple buildings of the 4th Century BC to the
Ottoman defenses created in the early 19th Century.
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| Beach at Saranda |
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| Sunset on the Adriatic Sea |
After lunch the MV Athena set sail for Kotor,
Montenegro. It will be an 18 hour
cruise, but the weather conditions are good and it should be a smooth sail. We were supposed to cruise into Kotor during
the morning so we could see the beauty of this bay that has been named one of
the most beautiful bays in the world.
However, there was a large Costa cruise ship that was coming into Kotor
this morning, so our Captain had to speed up so we would beat the Costa ship
into the dock. Otherwise, the Costa ship
would have blocked our access to the dock.
Kotor is a beautiful walled city – outside of
Dubrovnik, perhaps the most beautiful on the Dalmatian Coast. The wall that
surrounds the city also goes up the mountain ending at the Castel St. John, and
Illyrian fort that sits on top of the mountain.
Halfway up the path to the fortress is the Church of Our Lady Remedy,
built in 1518.
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| Church of Our Lady of Remedy |
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| City Walls of Kotor |
We started our day with a walk through the main part
of the city, visiting the town’s clock tower with the Pyramid of Shame located
at its base, the Maritime Museum, the Church of St. Maria (dedicated to the
victims of the black plague), and the Church Square. The Pyramid of Shame was where convicts were
tied or executed. In the Church Square
was St Lucas, a 12th Century church that until the 17th
century had been a Roman Catholic Church and today is a Greek Orthodox Church. Also in the square was St. Nicholas, a 20th
Century Byzantine Church. The town has
many palaces (not for kings, but homes where the wealthy lived since the Middle
Ages). They are still inhabited today –
some with shops and some with families.
The town is also home to many cats, and they even have their own museum. The cats belong to the city and all the
restaurants feed them. They also have a green
(farmers) market located just outside the city walls. We visited it and sampled the prosciutto ham
and cheeses that they are famous for – the cheese was excellent.
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| Clock Tower |
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| One of the Palaces inside the city |
The next morning (we overnighted in Kotor) we took a
bus ride over 25 hair-raising hair-pin turns up the mountain on our way
Cetinje, the palace of King Nikola and nestled at the foot of Mount Lovcen and
encircled by steep hills. When we
reached the top of the mountain we stopped for a photo opportunity and
panoramic views of Kotor and the bay. We
then stopped in the village of Njegusi to sample the local smoked ham, cheese,
beer and wine. I almost didn’t make it
to the next stop – I got locked in the bathroom. After about 15 minutes, one of the workers at
the restaurant was able to get the door open with a key. After that I was afraid to lock any bathroom
door. At Cetinje, we toured the palace
and had a chance to walk around the small town. King Nikola, the last monarch
of Montenegro, ruled from 1860-1910. Cetinje
is also the official residence of the President of Montenegro.
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| 25 Hairpin Turns |
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| View of Kotor from top of Mountain |
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| View of Kotor from Mountain |
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| Rest Stop in Njegusi |
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| Town of Cetinje |
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| Church where King Nikola is buried |
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| Monastery at Cetinje |
In the afternoon, we once again boarded our buses
for a 30 minute drive to Perast, a small fishing village, known for the Baroque
“Our Lady of the Rocks” shrine on a man-made inland. Legend has it that this island was made by
sailors and villagers on the rock where a painting of Madonna and Child was
found by two fishermen. The island was
made by throwing tons of rocks into the water until a small island was formed. They then built a small Roman Catholic Church
there in 1452. We took a small boat out
to the island and had a tour of the church.
Arriving on the island, we all had to take our small rocks (which we had
collected on the trip to Cetinje) and throw them into the water by the side of
the island. This was our symbolic way of
helping to keep the island alive. Inside,
over the altar, was the painting that had been found. The church is also a shrine to the sailors in
that area, and in the past, sailors gratified that they had returned safely from
a voyage, would donate small silver plaques (called voltives) in appreciation
for returning back from the sea.
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