Kotor: a real place

Kotor looks as much like a city out of a fantasy movie as it sounds. It sits on the corner of a bay that is inside another bay (okay technically it is the same bay [Kotor Bay], but look at this map and tell me that's not a double bay...or even a triple bay), and is such a dramatically beautiful place. We were blown away when we first saw it. The bay felt more like an alpine lake, with the dark mountains rising sharply up from the crazy blue water. These pictures disappoints but here they are anyways:

Oh and the light here was crazy - it all looked so fake. The brights were so bright, the white extra heavenly, and the shadows felt super deep...if that makes any sense. We didn't consume any drugs but if we did we would surely have been freaking out...I was already on the verge of freaking out as it was. Just look at this red strip of a sunset that we saw on the mountainside. And this is just what our crappy/dirty point-and-shoot camera was able to pick up.

Unfortunately our plans in Kotor were cut short by a day-and-a-half of rain, but we were able to get in a wonderful hike that took us up the Kotor fortifications on the mountain above Kotor and up even higher onto the mountain above the fortress.

A little background: Kotor is a walled city whose city wall stretches for 2.5 miles up the hill around and the city. The current wall dates back to the 15th century when it was built under Venetian rule, but the mountain has had fortifications for well over a thousand years before that. Nowadays the walls are a popular tourist attraction, and for good reason. The hike is great - incredible views, plus you get to see a lot of amazing ruins, including the castle at the top. Here's photographic evidence of our foray up the walls and the mountain above.

Cats rule Kotor and several tried to follow us on the hike up the mountain

Church of Our Lady of Remedy

it's sprouting

St. John Fortress

The city and bay of Kotor

And if you wanted to keep going after reaching the top of the wall, like we did, then you can climb through the wall and go up to the next mountain. I think this is the Montenegro mountain that gave the country its name, but am not positive about that.

JRam on the other side of the wall. Watch out for wildings JJ!

Just past the wall are the ruins of a small town called Spiljari.

The ruined church of Spiljari

Inside the church

Spiljari with the Kotor city wall behind

The path up the mountain

A very special place. Not surprised to learn that it was just named the #1 city to visit for 2016 by Lonely Planet. We thought the food is awful, but the scenery and the kind people more than made up for it.

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More of our Kotor photos