This week, we had an excellent end to our cruise and we’re now off on new adventures.
We started the week with a full day at sea. After four straight days of ports, it was nice to have a day to rest and do some laundry. I got too much sun on our day in Athens, so I was also glad to be able to stay out of the rays for a bit. We also really enjoyed access to the workout facilities, especially the weights and the walking track on the top deck.
Our port for Tuesday was Bar, Montenegro. On our original itinerary, our stop was to be Kotor, just up the coast a bit. We heard that the bay there was stunning, but the cruise excursions that were headed to Kotor from Bar felt too expensive. Instead, we hopped off the ship first thing and walked to a local car rental agency. We picked up a little Hyundai and set off for Kotor. The scenery was nice along the coast, even though we were in traffic and some construction slow-down. But Kortor was worth it! A gorgeous old town on one arm of a bay surrounded by enormous mountains and cliffs. We hiked up the steep path to the ruins of the fortress. Then it was time to have a snack and pick up our car. We decided to take the scenic route back to the ship and we got our money’s worth – it was VERY scenic. We took the oh-so-steep switchback route up above town, the view becoming more dramatic with every one of the 16 turns. The road was too narrow for two-way traffic, especially when there was a big truck or a tour bus in the mix. It was exciting to meet up with oncoming cars! We then took an even more remote road through the back country. We could see one way over the Bay of Kotor and the other way to the other side and the sea. It was a really fun day.
It was going to be hard to beat our day in Montenegro and our next stop, Corfu, was our last in Greece, so we weren’t expecting anything too different from previous ports. But Corfu is just lovely and we had a relaxing day walking around town and we had a delicious lunch off-the-beaten path. The island is green and beautiful and a quieter day was just what we needed after our mad dash through Montenegro.
Our last cruise port was Messina, Sicily. There was really only one thing we really wanted to do for that stop – visit Mt. Etna. We were on the tour bus for a big chunk of the day, but it was worth it. We learned a lot about volcanoes and the tectonic plates that are driving the volcanic activity of Italy.we got to walk around on the volcanic rock and around an old crater. It was so cool! We had some time in the city of Catania, which we used to run to a little restaurant for a very tasty lunch of pasta and seafood. And we had a delightful cake made with a sweetened ricotta filling and coated in nuts.
We ended our cruise with another sea day and then we arrived early in Barcelona. We disembarked and then made our way (slowly) to the train station to pick up a rental car. We are now roadtripping around Spain, but I think I will save all those details for the next blog. Have a great week!