Views Of The Bay Of Kotor From The Old Wall

The views of the rooftops, the maze of little streets of Kotor below, and the stunning overview of this little corner of the Bay Of Kotor with the spectacular mountains all around, is the payoff for climbing the old city walls behind Kotor Old Town.

There are apparently two entry points to climb the wall, the one we found was a just another of many tiny street in Kotor after a courtyard from Mr Mary's Church.

The climb looked more challenging that it was, although now I read that it was 1350 steps to get to 260 meters above the old city, and that sounds like a lot!

But with views like these, it was easy to be distracted by the bay, the village life below among the roof, and the changing cloud cover over the mountains.

The wall was first built in the 9th century, and added to through to the 19th century, and has clear pathways for tourists to make their way to the top.

It's crumbly in parts, and sections are like abandoned buildings, particularly up at the fortress at the top. There is also the chance to see life on the other side of the wall, nestled into Mt Loveen, with a few houses and livestock living in the small space there.

With every section of climb, the view got better. It also changed quite a bit with each elevation, as more of the old town and bay revealed itself.

As we climbed, one of the daily cruise ships sat at the pier for Kotor below. Whilst it kind of spoilt our natural view of the bay, it seemed that the throngs of passengers disembarked, filled the old town below us, shopped or whatever, re-boarded their ship, and were off again when we had finished our climb are were back on street level to once again enjoy the near-empty streets. Perfect!

The first main interval is the Church of Our Lady of Remedy, which not only provided a rest for our legs, but served as a reference point for how high we were as we kept climbing further up.

The old fortress at the top gave us a well-deserved resting place, and shelter from a rain-shower that swept in just as we got to this point.

An opportune local seller was hawking his wares up here, and we seized on bottled water and a couple of beers, as we waiting out the rain, and took in the views.

The wall blends right into the terrain of the mountain-side above Kotor, however at night it is all lit up, reflecting into the water below. From where we were staying, across the Bay, we got a magical view of this each evening, after initially wondering what the ring of lights were on our first night.


jouljet notes
Serious Tip: Take water with you for the climb, as the only vendor we saw was right up the top. The humidity during the Summer months means you'll need to hydrate!
Cost: 2 euro each, paid at the entrance
Time Spent: We took a couple of hours to go up to the top and back, which included our stop at the top waiting out the rain.
Quirky Tip: Take the time to get some great photos, from all different perspectives, like through the wall, which was my favourite view.

Exploring The Cobbled Streets Of Kotor

Kotor is the biggest village around the Bay of Kotor, but still the size of a village, really. It's grand entrance is moat and castle-like, as the Sea Gate was built when the area was under Venetian rule, and paints an initial impression that quickly vanishes from your mind once through the tunneled gateway.

After that first royal-like structure, the stature of the village is quite small, filled with streets of stores, cafes, squares and churches. The tallest points of the village are the church bells and domes, for which there are many.

The streets fill with cruise passengers when the daily ship arrives at port, but once they clear back out to their next stop, it's peace and quiet again.

Little squares to linger in, an unbelievable amount of churches to take in in awe, and a maze of little streets with regular village life going on around you.

Working our way through the streets, we eventually found the very far back street where the city walls began, ready for the climb up for a view across the town and Bay.

Family Gathering, Birthday Celebration, and Discovering Beautiful Montenegro

In June last year, all four sisters gathered in Montenegro to celebrate our youngest's 30th birthday. This was no mean feat, with the discussions and organising of this starting many months before.

Firstly we needed somewhere affordable for Katie, the birthday girl, to travel to and enjoy, given that she was living in London at the time, and was about to wrap up her time there. We also wanted somewhere none of us had been before - and here we settled for, and fell in love with, the beauty and surprise of Montenegro.

Further research had us book a house for the week planned, on the edge of the Bay of Kotor, in the tiny village of Prčanj. Which was perfect, because with our hire cars we were close enough to explore the Bay, get into Kotor for supplies and sightseeing, but far enough away from the throes of tourists that seem to swarm every other day in the area.

The Bay of Kotor is stunning - a weirdly shaped body of crisp, clean, cool water, surrounded by the Alps, creates a quite, calm and still part of the world.

The little villages dotted around the bay each had local restaurants, many of which we walked to from our rented house, across the week. The food we sampled throughout the area was really good - squid ink dishes, arrays of local seafood, little dumplings

The water held much fascination - cold and refreshing for a dip, it also held the twinkles of the lights from Kotor each night, and we were in the perfect position to see the Old Wall lit up.

During the days the water was spectacular, taking in the views of the mountains. The wisps of clouds in the morning that would hang around for some time. The everyday goings on in the little villages - all so photogenic and worth taking the time to take it all in.

Our week was perfect, and meet all our needs and exceeded our expectations. Montenegro felt like such a travel find!



jouljet Notes
Serious tip: Go! Montenegro is one of the world's newest countries, and is affordable, has great food, and feels so fresh. It's beautiful!
Time spent: We spent a full week here, but included a couple of day trips - one across the border to Dubrovnik, one into Budva, and then another inland to the capital of Podgorica and one of the monasteries.
Cost: Our 5 bedroom house worked out to be $45 per night, per person.
Quirky tip: There are so many cute, run down buildings to check out and photograph. Actually, there are so many things to catch your eye - the boats, the water, the islands on the Bay of Kotor. Seriously stunning place!

Luminous Rain-Soaked Street Of Old Kotor

After exploring the small Old Kotor town, and climbing the old wall, we returned to the little streets to find it glistening after some rain. All the more enchanting!

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Kotor Through The Wall

A view of Old Kotor from the old wall.

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An Archway Of Old Kotor

An arched laneway of Old Kotor. So much charm and history!

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A Church In Perast

A visit across the Bay Of Kotor to Perast discovered many architectural treats, like this.

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The Tranquil Beauty Of The Bay

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The View Across The Bay Of Kotor

We rented a house on the waters edge in Montenegro, and this was our stunning view each day. This fairly new independent country is a little surprise packet of beauty!

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Introducing A Jouljet Travel Photo Series

From the Pacific Islands to Eastern Europe, I have managed to complete some pretty cool travel in the middle portion of this year. I want to start sharing my photos with you from these travels...the little moments that have caught my eye and my heart...on a weekly basis.

Truth is, it's hard to keep a regular post schedule going with my FIFO work habits. I cringe when my blog is idle and looks neglected. And I am pretty happy with a whole bunch of photos that I have captured, and shared on Instagram, and am really keen to share them here on the blog. I want to show you some of the amazing places I have seen!

As you can maybe spot here in this collage, I have managed to get to Tonga and the Solomon Islands between work rotations, which were easy enough in my respite weeks, and a reasonable flight time from the East Coast of Australia.  Then I travelled to Eastern Europe for a month of Summer, which added Greece, and the Balkans to my country list - Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.

I want to show you the views I have been lucky to capture on my travels. I hope you'll enjoy!