Kotor; Monday, 08 May, 2023

My main aim for the day was to conquer the fortress at the top of the hill overlooking the city. Everything I’d read up on it in advance had suggested setting off early as there are nearly 1,500 stone steps to climb to get to the top and you’ll want to do those before it gets too hot. Also, once you’re into the afternoon the position of the sun makes taking photos down the bay more difficult as it moves round to be directly in front rather than behind you. Consequently, I had the good idea of getting up early to make sure that I was at the ticket booth to get onto the walls just after it opened at 8am.

Of course, the effect of a comfy bed, and having got up early the previous morning conspired against me and by the time I woke up it was already 08:30, so given I was already running late I decided not to bother rushing and headed down to breakfast. Though this turned out to be a bad time as I appeared to become a tourist attraction myself as the first day trip tour groups of the morning were already heading round and the hotel restaurant terrace is situated right in front of one of the many, but for the tour groups one of the first, palaces in the city. There must now be several photos of a palace in the background and me tucking into breakfast in the foreground.

Fortified for the journey ahead I popped back into the hotel, grabbed my bag, wandered round to the nearby kiosk and stocked up with several bottles of water and headed to the back of the old down and the access route onto the walls.

The guides I’d read had said it is possible to make the ascent in 30 minutes – but I can only assume from my experience that was done without stopping and first thing in the morning as the narrow steps mean you quite often have to stop to give way to people coming in the opposite direction. In the end it took me about 90 minutes to make the ascent, but that did include some extended photo stops at various points along the way as the stunning scenery of the Bay of Kotor and the old town opened up with each step higher up.

The fortress was, if anything, a bit of a disappointment after the stunning views on the way up as it had more limited views being set back a bit from the cliff edge, unlike the walls. Internally much of the fortress is ruins, but there were still some views to be had.

As I’d taken so many pictures on the way up I decided that I probably didn’t need to stop for pictures on the way down and the descent was much quicker, though it still took over 30 minutes – though that was with giving way to lots of people who clearly had decided slogging up the hill in the midday sun was a good idea. After getting off the wall my first stop was a quick pit stop back at the hotel to make use of the bathroom as there were no facilities on the hill and I had consumed the best part of two litres of water.

Freshened up I headed back out and stopped off at a restaurant for a relaxed late lunch. Restocked with calories I headed out of the old town and over to the bus stop for the local bus along the coast to the town of Perast. The journey should have taken about 25 minutes, but we got stuck on the road for quite some time as there had been an accident further along that we had to inch our way round, in the end it was nearly an hour before we made it into the town.

I had a long wander round the small town – which has a pleasant harbour front and excellent views the couple of hundred meters across the bay to Our Lady of the Rocks and St Georges Islands. Lining the harbour front alongside a number of restaurants are the large number of water taxi and boat tour companies offering quick transfers over to the islands, and they were a little persistent in trying to drum up trade, even relatively late in the afternoon. Despite all my wondering I did notice that at no point did the bus turn up going in the opposite direction, or even in the same direction I’d come from – which was a bit of an issue as I wasn’t quite certain where the bus stop for the trip back was. In the end I walked all the way back along the harbour front road to where it joined the main road where there was a bus stop, but with no sign of any details about bus times I wasn’t sure if I had 5 minutes, an hour or longer to wait – not helped by all the disruption caused by the earlier crash.

Thankfully, as I was waiting at the stop a Kotor taxi driver pulled up and offered a €10 fare back to the city centre, which given the bus fare was €2 didn’t appear too extortionate so I took a cab back, which was probably a good idea as we passed two buses coming in the opposite direction – which for an hourly service meant I would probably have been waiting for a very long time if I had decided to wait.

Back in town I headed back to my hotel to freshen up and then headed out for a final dinner in Kotor.