The Fabulous Ventura – Part 2 Kotor & Corfu

Well after a busy 1st day in Venice and celebrating my birthday, the day at sea was meant to be relaxing, but with a ship like Ventura there was too much else to do. the-fabulous-ventura-part-1-venice-at-sea

On the Friday we awoke to the most beautiful of sights from our balcony cabin in Kotor, Montenegro.

Located along one of Montenegro’s most beautiful bays is Kotor, a city of traders and famous sailors, with many stories to tell. The Old City of Kotor is a well preserved urbanization typical of the middle Ages, built between the 12th and 14th century. Medieval architecture and numerous monuments of cultural heritage have made Kotor a UNESCO listed “World Natural and Historical Heritage Site”. Through the entire city the buildings are criss-crossed with narrow streets and squares.  The bay is the deepest natural fjord in the Mediterranean Sea, and the scenery around it (including the steep mountains which come almost to the waterfront) is spectacular.

At first sight we could see how low the cloud was but as the morning progressed the cloud started to burn off, although we had no rain or sun the temperature was around 18 degrees centigrade.

To get to the town of Kotor we had to get a tender to the port, this took about 15-20 minutes and was a pleasant ride across the bay towards the town. As soon as we came out of the port there was lots of taxi drivers and tour guides touting for business. We made our way across the street, picked up a map and straight through the Sea Gate of the old town.  The old town of Kotor is spectacular full of narrow streets, small squares with bars and restaurants, beautiful old mansions and churches, it is like you have walked back into the medieval era. High above the mountains surrounding the old town is the surrounding wall which extends for almost 3 miles, is over 6o ft high in parts and 50 ft wide with several forts.  Some was feeling energetic enough to climb the 1350 steps from the old town to the fortress of St Ivan which over looks Kotor and the bay. If the cloud had been higher and not so low, I may have considered the hike along the zigzag path, but didn’t want to make the journey to not be able to see much.  So after a walk all around the old town, we found ourselves a little bar tucked in the medieval streets and had a well deserved beer before heading back to the ship.

Once back on board the Ventura we headed up to the Breakers bar on deck 16, tried to get a few rays of sun as they intermittently came through the clouds and joined in the afternoon quizz ready for sailaway. One of the live bands performed as we left the beautiful and historical bay of Kotor and made our way back out to the Adriatic sea.  The sights along the bay was just stunning and I have to say this would be a place I would love to go back and explore more…

After sail away we went back to the cabin to sit on the balcony to watch the beautiful coastline of Montenegro pass us before getting ready for dinner.

We had been told that the Beach House at the back of deck 16 was an excellent choice to eat in the evening, normally a buffet restaurant in the day, by night it turned into an intimate waiter service venue and the menu never changed but was extensive. So we went to check it out. We had 7 nights on board and for 4 of those nights we ate in the Beach house! It really is fantastic, the menu never changes but there is so much choice to choose from.  Some dishes such as the steak on a hot lava plate come with a small supplement, but worth every penny. We had to wait approx half an hour before being seated so took ourselves up to the Metropolis bar for a pre dinner drink whilst we waited. After dinner and we was both stuffed, we headed down to the late evening show in the Arena theatre to watch the Opera Boys , they was magnificent signing a mixture of opera, show tunes and modern music they made the perfect end to a great day.

The next morning we awoke  to a very wet start in Corfu Town, the first thing I saw when I opened the curtains and went onto the balcony was….

As a cruise buff I do get very excitable seeing other ships!

We disembarked the ship and took the shuttle bus into Corfu Town at a cost of £3 per person each way, the weather was not improving and only getting worse. So after a quick walk around the town we had no choice but to go and get dry and warm up with a drink as we looked like drowned rats!

Unfortunately, as the weather was so bad, we just could not walk around and get to see or learn more of Corfu Town. This is a good excuse to have to return to the area again. After stopping in 2 bars to avoid the rain, we finally decided to give up and go back to the ship. Again the sailaway was a bit of a washout as the rain didn’t want to hold off, so we sat on the balcony and watched the pretty rain soaked island disappear as we started to make our way towards the Messina Straights to our next destination Rome.

to be continued….

Dawn x