Day three of the cruise was in Kotor, Montenegro! This is someplace I wouldn't have ever thought of visiting but it was really great. It is the southern most fjord in Europe and sailing into it was stunning! Since we had such an early morning we had Jomar, our butler, bring us breakfast in our room and that was a life saver. I am telling you, we can never cruise again without a suite, we are SPOILED! Having breakfast in the room was great because the kids were all so tired from the day before and it was nice to be able to eat while they were still sleeping and then get them ready in the room without having to rush for breakfast! Plus we have huge windows to watch sailing into the port!
The kids were so tired.
Another part of having a suite was getting priority off the ship, we had a central meeting place and then they let us leave first. We loved that!
Montenegro was European Country #9 for us! What an exciting day!
Our big ole ship right outside of the old city.
Kotor was beautiful and very "raw" to sound like a Rick Steve's video. When we got off the boat there were taxi drivers everywhere wanting to take you places (this is something I don't like about cruises is when you get to port, people are waiting for you and know you are a "cruiser.") We passed by them and headed to the walled city of Kotor. I wish we would have had the taxi drivers take us to a pair of islands I wanted to visit when we first arrived. After we did the city, the kids were tired and we were afraid we wouldn't have enough time (so next time we will do that first!).
The city was very small and not very touristy (yet!). We started by strolling the walls (which were nothing like Dubrovnik). They were unpaved and had random garbage and things everywhere, there were workers all over the city fixing stones in the road. It seems like they were trying to get the city ready for tourist season. The views from the city, with the giant green mountains in the back was so pretty. The city was old and the back streets were so cool to walk through. It would not be a trip without Q needing us to find a bathroom at the very last minute. We were buying our cat magnet (because there were cats all over the place and Finley kept yelling "more cat", it got pretty annoying after about 55 times!). I asked the lady where the bathroom was and she said "two streets down and to the left." So we did that and found nothing, so I went into another store and asked again, "two streets down and to the left" so we ran and did that again and found a water closet that cost 1 Euro.
There were cats everywhere.
After the bathroom trip we walked to this hill (mountain really) where you can hike to a castle ruins. It was a hike, up the side of a mountain with 1300 stairs, with 3 kids... sounds like a great idea! Every single vacation, we end up doing some kind of hike (why?? why??). I even asked Dave if we were going to do it in the morning so I could dress appropriately for carrying a child up the side of a mountain and we decided we would not because it would be too much work. So I wore TOMS which are not great for hiking!
So we paid the 3 euro to climb to the top! The path was gravel with a small set of sketchy stairs on the side. Our kids are troopers and Leo hiked the hill while holding his alligator (which made him a lot of friends along the way). He fell a few times and one required a bandaid. The kids and I stopped at the church (well we went 5 minutes past the church and then decided it wasn't happening and hiked back to the church to hang out and wait for Dave).
This sign said "Strictly forbidden throwing stones and other objects on houses of the old town." We felt it was appropriate to get Leo's picture with the sign because it was put up there just for him I think.
More cats, the kids have decided to take pictures with all the cats and then make a book.
Dave ended up going all the way to the top and got some great pictures (except for our giant cruise ship in the port messing up the beautiful views). I got a cute pair of earrings from a man outside the little church, I love them (Q helped me pick them out). It was a fun time and I am glad we did it but I wish I would have had on tennis shoes!
Leo checking out his injury.
The little church in the background where we hung out and waited for Dave, it was so little but very cool.
We love Kotor!
Leo's face in this picture is the best, he is a rotten little man!
These photos were taken by Quinn, she loves taking pictures.
After hiking down the mountain and being so tired, we were giving Dave the thumbs down! And Quinn needed her picture of the cat for our "book."
These are Dave's pictures from walking all the way to the top, he said it was very cool but not something the kids could have done very safely.
After we hiked back down we realized we should have done the far away things (the islands) before doing the city because we were afraid we would be cutting it too close to get back on the boat in time (lesson learned for next time).
The kids were so tired so we decided to just go back and have lunch on the ship.
We went to the Irish pub on the ship for lunch and the views were great (waterfront and free), Leo slept the entire time and the food was pretty good, it ended up being a highlight of the day for me. After lunch we went to the pool so the kids could play. They loved (not Fin- she hated the water) playing in the kid pool and the water slides. Leo said his favorite part of the trip was doing the big waterslide (at the adult pool). We were at the pool when we sailed out of Kotor and the views were stunning! The kids played on the slides and I sat in the hot tub, it was pretty great.
Lunch with views.
Quinn made a boat from Moana out of her leftover food.
Lunch with Finley is never boring, smashing cups and climbing on the table is pretty normal.
This sweet girl loves her daddy.
The kids had a picnic with Dave on the floor with the food Jomar left us, it was the sweetest moment.
Leo and Finley are quite the duo and are going to give me grey hairs far too soon!
Tantrums all day, every day.
Everybody getting in naps before dinner.
Baths on the ship are fun! I didn't realize how much the ship rocked until I tried to paint my toe nails before dinner and the ship was rocking!!
We were going to one of the "fancy" restaurants for dinner this night and needed to change our dinner reservations. I called the reservations line and they told us they couldn't change it because they were full. So I called Hanno our concierge and asked him if we could change our time and he said "sure" and took care of it for us. Dave and I laughed because they couldn't change it for us but he did with no problems! We decided to take the kids to the kids club so we could have a "date" (Finley had to come with us still because she wasn't big enough for kids club yet). Leo lost his mind and did not want to go, Quinn was so excited about super hero night there. We ended up getting one hour before they paged me and said I needed to come and get him (Finley slept the entire time in the stroller so we got a pretty good "date" in). Quinn cried because she had to leave kids club and Leo said he wasn't going back! Instead of dessert at the fancy restaurant we all ate together at the buffet and I got to eat my favorite yellow cake fondue (it was so good!!). I can't even tell you have many ice cream cones (and hotdogs) our kids ate on this trip, so so many!! It was a great ending to a pretty fantastic day.
The kids loved running back to the room each night after dinner to see what animal Madonna had left for them on the bed, it was so sweet. Also you can see Fin climbing on the nightstand in the background, she is so wild. What a great day!!!
Kotor is incredible, life is good!
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