{"id":941,"date":"2013-08-02T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T16:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=941"},"modified":"2013-08-02T17:53:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T16:53:08","slug":"the-bay-of-kotor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=941","title":{"rendered":"The Bay of Kotor"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, we motored over to Kotorski Zaljev, first arriving at the Islands off Perast via narrow straits, with steep green hills on either side of the water way.\u00a0 Think of it as motoring from the RPA in Pittwater up to Cottage Point.\u00a0 Just past half way, we come to the Islands off Perast.\u00a0 We went to the northern end and put down the anchor and had a swim.\u00a0 It was like swimming in the ‘Sound of Music’ with a remarkably alpine look.<\/p>\n

\"Islands<\/a>
Islands off Perast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were swimming in an ancient ‘fjord’ created as the result of a drowned river valley, but the steep sided mountains made us feel like we were in northern Europe.\u00a0 We admired both small islands both with churches and their spires.<\/p>\n

Otok Gospa id Skrpjela or Our Lady of the Rocks has distinctive blue domes and is a manmade island.\u00a0 According to the Thompsons, the island was created by sinking captured pirate ships with stones and sinking them on the reef.\u00a0 In 1452, they found an icon of the Virgin Mary on a stone and in 1630 built a church to her.\u00a0 Every year on 22 July, the townspeople of Perast go out and drop a stone on the reef.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Our Lady of the Rocks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Right next store the island of Sveti Djordje, the site of a very rich Benedictine Abbey.\u00a0 The cypress trees surrounding the Church are striking.<\/p>\n

Perast was on the way to Kotor, Mercier is too big to tie up on the quay, but we motored slowly by the UNESCO protected former Venetian maritime center. A city \u00a0of Venetian style palazzos line the foreshore and go up into the hills.<\/p>\n

\"Perast,<\/a>
Perast, incredible Venetian heritage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One afternoon, we passed some very well dressed people in front of a lovely stone building and I wondered if they were going to a wedding.\u00a0 As we came nearer we could see they were at the elegant entrance to the fruit and vegetable store.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the greengrocers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Approaching Kotor, you see striking mountains, a long fortress wall, used to protect the city and possibly a cruise ship. At the top of the mountain is the Fortress of St John with only 1350 stairs to reach the top. \u00a0On Monday night, we sat on a rooftop having dinner, listening to music and decided we would start the climb at 8AM on the next morning.<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a>
Just some of the stairs up to the fortress- the old town in the triangle below<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Louise raced up the mountain, so she would have time to sketch with Frosty right behind her.\u00a0 James stayed with me, while I scheduled strategic stops to take early morning photos of Kotor and the bay.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from the Fortress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Are<\/a>
Are we there yet?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a great start to the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, we motored over to Kotorski Zaljev, first arriving at the Islands off Perast via narrow straits, with steep green hills on either side of the water way.\u00a0 Think of it as motoring from the RPA in Pittwater up to Cottage Point.\u00a0 Just past half way, we come to the Islands off Perast.\u00a0 We … Continue reading The Bay of Kotor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-2","category-history","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VxXq-fb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}