A visit to Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea

A day trip to Montenegro which is located on the Adriatic Sea was a most on my list and I booked a tour to go there.   I was lucky the pickup was right across the street from my hotel, so I was able to have breakfast before I left, in spite of the early departure.  The bus was  pretty full  but because  I was early I managed to get a seat near the front which always when you are trying to get off and on. I met a woman from Kildare Ireland who was originally from Aughagower which is just a couple miles from where my mother was born In Gorthbawn, County Mayo Ireland.

pretty town of Perast

Our lady of the Rock

inside the church

Our first stop was a visit to Perast where we took a boat across the Boka Kororska (Bay of Kotor)  to visit the church of Gospa od Skrpjela (Our Lady of the Rock) on the islet. The church was built in 1630 built by Fishermen from Perast, legend has it the that two fishermen were sailing the Bay one was crippled  saw a shipwreck and spotted an icon of Madonna and Child  and he took it of the.  In the morning he was no longer crippled and the icon was gone. and vowed that at that spot to build to build a church. The church was dedicated to this icon of the Holy Mother of God,  protector of sailors and fisherman, who enter the church and pray.  The altar inside was made of marble which is by Antonio Kapelano a sculptor from Gena.  After visiting the church and the inlet we returned to the boat and back on the bus.

Our Lady of the Rock

Icon by Lovro Marinov Dobricevic on the altar

Perast as seen from lady of the Rock

Next up was the UNESCO-protected town of Kotor we first had a guided tour of the town and the guide was quite informative  and then we had several hours on our own. Kotor is one of the best preserved medieval old towns in the Adriatic. The Clock Tower is one of the symbols of Kotor it is in the square across from the main gate it was built in 1602. There was an earthquake in 1667 and the tower inclined towards the sea and at one point they attempted to put it back upright but in 1979 another earthquake hit and it returned to the same position. It is built partly in Baroque style and also part Gothic. Below is the Pillar of Shame, used for punishment of an accused person by placing them in front so the citizens would know their offence. Another church of interest is Church of Sveti Luka (St Luke's) it is both Roman and Byzantine style. It was once a Catholic school but later because of the wars and arrival of Orthodox people it was given to them for use. It represents harmonious co-existence of Catholic and Orthodox people, it has two altars representing each faith.

I wandered up and down many little alleyways and then,  I went to search of the cat museum that our tour guide told us about but sadly it was closed.  I ran into a woman feeding a cat she was on a cruise and had cat food with her because she had seen cats in Dubrovnik and wanted to be sure she had food if she ran across any more.  Kotor also has ancient  city walls and a climb up to St John's fortress  was recommended by the guide but I did not feel I had enough time the although the view from the top is reportedly incredible and there are a mix of ramparts gates and churches and I was satisfied to view from below and zoom  in with my lens.

St Luke's 1195

St Nicholas

 

the Clock Tower

St Tryphon Cathedral 1166

I finally decided I  was hungry nothing in the restaurants appealed to me and I walked back to a little shopping center that I had seen from the bus. There were several small eating places and a grocery store I walked in there and spotted just what I wanted chicken, potato wedge and coke, I walked over to the bay found a spot and sat and enjoyed my lunch then I walked along the water before returning to the pickup spot for the bus. We then drove back to Perast where we boarded a ferry across the bay this was a shortcut that took 40 miles off of the drive we were allowed to get off the bus but and stand on the ferry but the trip was about 10 mins.  All in all it was a good day and the one thing that did surprise me was that the boarder security did not check out passports or even get on the bus. 

Church of Our Lady of Remedy on the city walls

The walls and fortress

  

The Ancient wallled city of Dubrovnik, Croatia

My first view of the old town as seen from the bus

I had a few hours before my taxi arrived so I walked around near my hotel until it was time to go to the airport and fly to Dubrovnik.  I had read up on this walled town so I was looking forward to visiting it. I caught a shuttle bus at the airport and I knew the bus station was close enough to my hotel to walk. It was raining  lightly when I arrived at from bus station. Luckily it was about a 15 min walk from the bus station to the hotel Petra and someone showed me the quickest way to walk which was past the cruise ships.  I took a nap, still exhausted from the time change and then it stopped raining so I walked near the hotel.

Pile Gate

I woke up early and after breakfast caught the bus to Dubrovnik which left right across the road from my hotel.  The bus dropped me off by Pile Gate the entrance to the old town.  I started exploring the town by 9 am it was not too crowded yet and thankfully not to hot at the moment.  I  stopped in St Blaise church, then I climbed a lot of stairs and visited the church of St Ignatius considered the most representative Baroque example on the whole Croatian coast.  I then wandered some alleyways and then back down the stairs and walked to the port. It was quite lovely as the sun was shining and there were boats in the harbor. I  decided to take a glass bottom boat ride and as I was waiting to ask about it I was suddenly surprised to see wait for it Yellow Submarine, I was excited  about that.  I said to girl selling tickets hard to pass up the Yellow submarine since I am a Beatles fan and then she pointed to her John Lennon t-shirt she said my dad is a huge fan so I grew up listening to the Beatles, she was young and it was nice to hear.  She then told me that it was hard to climb on and sit on top but I could go below. She was selling tickets for both so I knew she was being truthful. I have since seen a review where someone said it was hot and smelly so  I am glad I choose the glass bottom boat ride instead.The ride was about an hour and it was nice to see the old town from the water as far as glass bottom it was closed until we got to a spot and he opened the "shutter" and we could view the bottom the guide said at one time you would have seen a lot of fish but that has not happened for many years.

St Blaise

up to St Ignatius

St Ignatius Church the stairs up ended and the church began

We all live in a Yellow Submarine

along the shore

Pile Gate as seen from boat

I saw some people holding signs for a walking tour but by now it was getting pretty hot and I asked if there were any later and he said the next one was 5.30; apparently they stop them for a few hours because of the heat. I decided to go inside the Assumption Cathedral, it was built on the site of former Cathedrals the money to build the basilica was partly contributed by Richard the Lionheart as a votive for having survived a shipwreck near the Island of Lokrum. It was almost pretty much destroyed by the earthquake of 1667 and was rebuilt in Baroque style.   By 2 pm it was quite hot (I found out later it was 90 degrees) and I tried to avoid the sun and that was not easy to do I walked into a church I had already been in and sat down at one point while in the church I felt very strange and had to sit I awhile I think I was dehydrated I had to keep from passing out.  After when  I felt better and drank some more water I  went back out and avoided direct sun until the shade came. Luckily the sun dropped enough to make walking in some shade possible.  I saw some ice cream and decided it might be good way to cool down and I got a cone of what was probably the darkest shade of brown I had ever seen. another interesting spot was Big Onofrio's Fountain which is a 16 sided container with a cupola that was build in 1438-1430. The ancient water supply supplied the town with fresh water for 500 years.

on top of the Cathedral

Big Onofrio's fountain

At this point had enough time to either take a walking tour or to walk The Walls of Dubrovnik. I had read about the walls and decided to see if I was able climb up the stairs so I got a ticket and started the climb. The Walls of Dubrovnik (Croatian Dubrovacke gradske zidine) are defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the citizens of the proclaimed maritime city-state of Dubrovnik since the city's founding prior to the 7th century.   There were so many great views from up there and I walked along taking photos and just stopping to enjoy the views. I got to one point where you could see a lot of cats laying around in one area and others saw them and were counting and pointing there were 17 in all. I became a challenge to find them.  Found out later that the restaurants feed the cats because they kill rats who carried the plague. All in all a good day in Dubrovnik.

climbing the stairs to the Wall

on the walkway 

views from the wall

crazy cats on the wall

A Day in Athens

Monastiraki (little monastery)

After breakfast at my hotel, I set out to explore Athens, I walked towards the Metro station and came across Monastriaki Square which is known for  its many shops the the restaurants and the flea market.  There were some colorful items for sale, it was early morning so it was not yet crowded.  I decided to get a metro ticket for the day and just explore. I first headed to Piraeus, on the metro. I arrived only to find there really was not much there, mainly consisted of shops I walked several blocks in each direction but did not see anything of interest. Since it was a port there were plenty of ships in view  I snapped some photos of a colorful church Ieros Naos Agia Triada  in the distance but it seemed to far to walk too, so I headed back to Athens.

at the market

Ieros Naos Agia Triada

even the metro station had statues

The next stop for me was the Temple of Olympian Zeus the first thing you see before you get to the temple is the Arch of Hadrian which in itself was quite interesting but was strange to see this ruin right at the street which was very busy with traffic.  The ruins include an enormous temple, although only one corner of the temple is still standing it was amazing. There was an entrance fee but I decided just to take some photos  I was busy snapping shots  with my camera I started to realize that maybe the zoom lens was going to come in handy, after all.   I looked was now at the Plaka district and found a place for ice cream so decided since it was hot I needed some, I sat on a bench and people watched. I then walked along and decided to walk up a steep hill past many lovely spots I was thinking that this was going to lead up to the Ackropolis that I could see up higher but in the end there was no place to get up to it.  I came across a cat on the way back down, there was a wall,  that had ledges that were like steps and the cat decided to follow me down and I had to keep petting it, as we walked.  I stopped to rest a bit then put my bag down to get my camera out and the cat decided it was his place to sleep.

Arch of Hadrian

Temple of Zeus

my adopted cat

The Ackropolis from below

not quite

the beginning of the hike up

I then started walking to the first entrance to the Ackropolis  but I found that it would be too long of an uphill walk for me besides it being steep climb it was now quite hot.  I came across the Herodes Atticus Theatre and then rested a bit and watched a man dressed in costume he looked interesting so I placed some coins in his bucket and took a shot.   I just continued walking and looking around and then I came across the Areopagus Hill, which is bare marble.  The hill is a historic rock,  the Aereopagus according to Greek mythology, Ares the God of war was tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon's son Alirrothios; and the site where St Paul delivered his famous speech to the Athenians.  By taking my time I was able to  climb the stairs and got an excellent  view of the Ackropolis and using my zoom I was able to see it close and also get some great photos. I could see that once you were up there was still a lot of stairs to climb and I knew I had made the right decision, for me I never would have made it.

a top  Areopagus Hill 

view of the Ackropolis

view from Aeropagus Hill

Herodes Atticus Theatre

 I managed to make the climb back down and was walking along and a man came up to me and started talking we walked awhile and he said he was from Venice he then asked me to go for Vino and I said no thank you and he said you do not drink vino and I said not during the day as it makes me tired. I spotted a toilet and headed over to it and thinking he was gone but he waited on the side for me. He then asked me to in the shade and talk but I wanted to carry on walking and I told him no politely no. So he walked away and I headed down hill again. I got on the metro and headed back to Syntagma Square Square and looked around and then decided to get something to eat and had a pork soulvaki pita. I then took the metro again back to Monastriaki Square. I explored some more and then just sat and rested and people watched. There were quite a few police officers around the area and I noticed they all were young and good looking, and decided that might be the criteria for the job.  Wow I was ready to say arrest me officer I am sure I have done something bad somewhere one time.

a Living statue