With dizzying memories, impressions and enthusiasm for Albania still sorting themselves out in our heads and hearts after the unexpected variety of the last two days, we didn’t quite know what to make of our expedition leader’s claim that our one day in the Republic of Montenegro would be the scenic highlight of the entire voyage.
Montenegro? In Venetian and Italian it means black mountains, and the people who live there call it Crna Gora, which also means black mountain. Independent since 2006, none of us onboard really knew what to expect of Montenegro, except that we had heard that Kotor Fjord was not really a true fjord because it was formed by rivers cutting down through rapidly rising blocks of limestone that result from Italy’s seismic push into the Balkan peninsula, instead of being formed by glaciers.
We docked in the outer reaches of the UNESCO-designated fjord and took buses, ferries, local boats, Sea Cloud tenders and finally the historic Sea Cloud itself for the full experience of the 17-mile complex of four protected bays that are surrounded by 3,000 foot mountains on all sides.
We went to the small, man-made island of Gospa od Skrpjela, or Our Lady of the Rocks to visit one of the most charming and photogenic Catholic Churches in all of Europe. Dedicated to centuries of mariners from the disproportionately wealthy and influential town of Perast on the neighboring shore, the church was a museum to maritime navigators and explorers.
From there we drove up the 25 serpentine switchbacks that connect Kotor with the Austro-Hungarian mountainous country above. We had lunch in the mountain village of Njegusi, which is famous for its smoked ham that dries in the rhythmically oscillating winds of the Kotor fjord mountains. We dove back down the serpentine switchbacks with lots of comedic encounters with oncoming traffic and then explored the gorgeous medieval town of Kotor before boarding Sea Cloud for a deck dinner while we cruised back out the fjord during the best light of the day.
Wow. It seems the expedition leader was right! Stunned by overwhelming and unexpected natural scenery, we all agreed we needed to come back to the wild beauty of Crna Gora to spend more time in this absolutely spectacular little country of 600,000 people that is now the newest member of NATO.
