We got up early today to watch our ship pass through the fjords into the port of Kotor. Unfortunately, I think we were just a bit later than would have been ideal, as we were past some castles before we got up to the breakfast. We started off on the back deck behind the galley as we ate, then moved up to Deck 16 to watch as we passed through the fjords. It wasn’t exactly what Shannon had pictured in her mind, but it was beautiful, and there were some neat churches and towns on the hillsides and coasts, as well as little islands.
We have a tender scheduled for 10 AM. Apparently we are lucky to have gotten a tender slot. I booked it the second it became available a couple days ago, and since that time, a bunch of people have been complaining about not getting a slot.
There should be a “cat square” and a church row in the old town, but likely there won’t be more than a few hours of stuff to see as we wander around. Perhaps today we’ll find our way to a set of Italian-suited cards and/or a Dr. Pepper.
We went down to Deck 4, the normal disembarkation deck, but got sent back up to Deck 6 to check in for the tender. We had a 10am appointment and it was about 9:40. When we got up to Deck 6, there was a massive line running through the casino, which turned out to be the standby line.
They had 3 lines going around the grand staircase for the tenders. There was a sign for 9:30 and 9:50, and they were letting those people through, but wouldn’t let anyone stand in the 10 AM line, which we should have been first for.
They kept putting us off, and letting people for the 9:50 group through even after 9:50. Eventually it was announced that 100 people who had gotten through would be getting onto the boats. That cleared out the entire waiting area in the On the Rocks bar around the grand staircase.
We were the 2nd and 3rd person through the 10am line, and were winding our way around to sit in the bar, when we were called through to go ahead and get on the tender. The tenders as it turns out were attached to the Virgin Scarlet Lady itself, not separately contracted boats from the shore as had been the case in Santorini.
We were fortunate to sit down on a tender right at 10 AM to head across to Kotor. The boat was pretty full, and we were some of the last to get aboard. The boat ride over to the port was about 15 minutes or so. You couldn’t really see much from the tender boat. We got off at the harbor and headed into the old city.
Dubrovnik yesterday was the best port up to that point, but I think Kotor surpassed it. It was very beautiful wandering the narrow streets lined with stone buildings and clay tile roofs. The main sites we took in were a “cat square” called “trg od drzo” (hope I spelled that right) and a number of churches, one after another. There was also castle structures going up the mountain, and the city was surrounded by walls.
Adjacent to the cat square, we stopped at a coffee shop that had actual iced lattes available for the first time. Shannon had a salted caramel iced latte and I got a cappuccino. At some point a live music performer started playing across from us. A tiny kitten was in the area, and he was trying to catch flies, and was jumping into the rafters of the chairs too.
We basically circumnavigated the edge of the city, then took in a bit of the more modern city outside the walls. As it was Sunday, the couple grocery stores we encountered were not open. There was a pharmacy, and it did not have playing cards or Dr. Pepper. There was also a newsstand where the attendant didn’t speak English, but I think they did have cards, because on the tender ride back over Shannon was showing me a deck of Italian cards from Amazon, and I saw the exact same package at the news stand, but had thought they were cigarettes.
Back at the boat, we ordered room service. I had a cheese burger, and Shannon had basically the exact same dinner from the Italian restaurant the night before. We also ordered a bunch of diet cokes, but they gave us regular. Those are now in the fridge. For dessert we had chocolate covered pretzels, and these “red velvet cookie” whoopie pie type things. I also had another cappuccino.
We’re going to head out onto the pool deck now. Tonight for dinner is the Razzle Dazzle Chinese restaurant again.
Dinner at Razzle Dazzle was at 6 PM. I skipped the appetizers and got two mains, the ribeye steak that I had previously, and the five spice pork chops. This time the ribeye came with pea pods and only one half pepper that wasn’t roasted all the way through, which was a bit of a disappointment. It was better the prior time. The pork chop was breaded, and had some crunchies and pickled onions and round pepper slices on it. It was fine, nothing too special. Shannon had beef short ribs, which were too fatty for her taste, and otherwise were basically the same as the ribeye. The star of the show was the dessert, which was the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. It appeared to actually have buttercream frosting, and also was very dense and rich in walnuts.
After dinner, Mason went his own way, so we went with Shane and Lisa to see a show at the Red Room caled Persephone, which was basically a modern, vulgar retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone. There was a lot of swearing, but also talented acrobatics and dancing. They performed it in a sort of theater in the round type setup, there were a few different platforms in various places in addition to the stage. The funniest part was a gangster looking fellow, who looked like a chubbier version of the twin brother killers from Breaking Bad, standing near the back with his wife having the worst time of his life. Whatever that show was, he didn’t like it.
After that, we decided to go see the magic show at The Manor, put on by David Maestro, who only recently began speaking English apparently. He did quite well for a new language learner. The show was very good.