Saturday, September 19, 2015
We were up at 6am again today. It was the first time that
the alarms Clay set went off. I think he has been up earlier every other day
and I think this was the first day that the alarms actually worked. I think he
was up 2 or 3 times during the night resetting the Surface which won’t stay on
all night and the other tablet was so quiet it would never have woken us up
anyway. Oh, well. Breakfast was at 7am
and the buffet was an absolute nightmare. Gate One was leaving a half hour
before us and the restaurant should have asked the other groups to start a half
hour later but since they didn’t everyone showed up at the 7am opening and fought
it out. The coffee area was particularly vicious. Had we realized that at
7:45am there would be no line at all, everything on the buffet would have been
replenished and there would only be about 8 people in the room, I think we’d
have all been willing to wait!
It was another spectacular driving day. We set out back down
the Moraca River Canyon road to Podgorica then on to Cetinje, the historic
capital. We were there to visit the last royal house museum. It was very nicely
restored and refurnished with the former royal family’s possessions as it was
before they went into exile. We were supposed to have a local guide here. Yesterday’s
guide, Zorka, declined to talk at all about Montenegrin history as she assured
us our guide today would overwhelm us with it. Or not. Gabriella walked us
through the house museum and told us about what we were seeing, but I would say
overall the day was a little short on history. We had about 30 minutes of free
time to walk around. We walked up to the square and the pedestrian area then
across the street to look at the outsides of a monastery, another former palace
and the former royal chapel. It is terribly hot. Near 100F.
We rode on towards the coast and eventually left the
mountains, then the foothills and finally rounded a corner to a view of the Adriatic
Sea. We were on our way to Kotor. First, we had a photo stop at Budva. It was
like Naples Bay without the volcano. The bus dropped us right at the harbor and
the Sea Gate to the old walled city. (Ponant’s Le Lyrial was docked right
there!)Gabriella walked us through the Sea Gate and provided us with Old Town
maps and advice on what to see and where to go and where to eat. She issued
another slow service advisory, but we found it much quicker than last time in
Albania. We shared a pizza and Clay had a salad and a Nikosicko Beer. I about
$2 for a tiny slightly chilled bottle of water. The food was good and we did
get to spend an hour indoors in air conditioning and smoke. The smokers weren’t
sitting out there under the canopies and misters! We were already so wet from
sweat that I don’t think getting wet from the fan-blown misting would help at
all. The food was good and less than $20. Afterwards we walked over to
Gabriella’s favorite sweet shop, Forza, and got 2 2-scoop ice cream cones that
were delicious for 4 Euros! Then we had less than 30 minutes to wander and get
back to the bus. It was so hot! We did a short quick circuit of the lowest
section of the walled old city of Kotor. They have a lot of churches. It would
have been nice to have more time and a cooler day to walk up at least part of the
high part. It was crazy to see the walled city going almost straight up a
vertical mountain wall from the sea (which is apparently a bay of a
fjord!). It made me think of Minas
Tirith from Middle Earth! The whole sea side drive was very scenic and again in
many places reminded of the Amalfi Coast drive.
Back on the bus and we drove for over an hour before we made
a truck stop to use the restrooms before we got to the border since we might be
there for a while. Once we reached a manned checkpoint we went right through.
That was to leave Montenegro. We drove for at least a couple of miles before we
reached the Croatian entry point at their border. I don’t know what was up with
the no-man’s land in between. At the
Croatian check point, we were there for a while. We got behind an ordinary
transit bus and it had come from Albania through Montenegro. Gabriella said
those buses are really being thoroughly checked now because of the immigrant
crisis in Europe. So there were about 8 tour buses waiting and that bus was
being emptied of people and luggage. Eventually, another line was opened and
busses drove past us to get first in line there, so we slipped even further back.
From there it was about an hour drive to get to our hotel Lacroma. It is out on
a peninsula with a bunch of other new beach resort/spa/conference type facilities
far from the old walled city of Dubrovnik that I am sure we all came for. It is
supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow so no one will be enjoying the beach here. We
have a walking tour in the morning and the rest of the day free. There was an
afternoon/evening optional tour that we had planned to take with a Dubrovnik
harbor cruise and dinner at the beach overlooking old town, but that has been
cancelled due to the inclement weather forecast. My only hope is that it pours
in Germany, Austria, Hungary, etc. so we have enough water to float river boats
in a few weeks! So, we are miles from the old city of tourist attractions and it
is supposed to storm but at least it is supposed to be cooler and we have been
told there is a public bus that we can take back to the hotel after our 1-2
hour walking tour so we can choose to spend the day out and get back for 2
Euros each. We’ll see.
Tonight we gained 22 people. Now instead of a group of 16 we
have a group of 38. Most of them have been touring together already through Sarajevo
and Bosnia. We booked through Celtic Tours for example, but at the welcome
cocktails and information greeting meeting at 7pm, Gabriella read off a list of
at least 8 different tour companies that had sold this tour offered by Kompas
Travel. I am not sure how that works because one she mentioned was CIE and when
I called them (because we had used them before and would like to again) they
told me they didn’t offer it. But, now I think he must have meant the whole
thing that we’re doing because at least some of the 8 people who flew in to
begin today must have been on CIE. Anyway, now we have a really large group for
the rest of the tour! We weren’t expecting that.
Dinner tonight was included and at the hotel. This place is
huge and feels like a convention center hotel with a giant food court. There
must be about a dozen tour groups here tonight based on the tour group’s signs
by the elevators like ours is. I think they all had dinner tonight here!
Gabriella had told us that when we have included dinners that they always
include water, coffee and tea and if we don’t get it to ask for it. So, last
night we had to ask and even though it was the same exact bottle that was
placed on our table gratis the previous night, the waitress billed us for it. I
had to get up and go get Gabriella to get it removed from our bill. Tonight,
water was already set on our tables and then Gabriella came around and told
each table that beer and wine were included. She failed to mention to the newcomers
what she had told us, when beer and wine are included you can ask for sodas or
something else non-alcoholic instead. I told the newcomers that. 2 of them
wanted Cokes and Clay and another man wanted beer. The first waitress that came
wouldn’t take our drink orders because we didn’t have drink tickets. I went and
found Gabriella and she said she’d sort it out. More than half the meal was
over before another waitress came over and offered red or white wine. She said
no sodas, no beer, nothing or red or white. So, our table of 6 ordered 3
whites, 1 red and 2 nothing. When Gabriella came by during dessert to see how
it was going, I told her about the drinks. I hate complaining but this was 3
included drink problem reports from me in 2 nights. That seems excessive! In a
matter of minutes, a manager came over and offered juice or soda to the folks
who wanted Cokes. The tickets waitress came a few minutes behind him to offer
them soda and finally right after the Cokes were delivered the waitress who
refused their first orders came back to apologize. That is all well and good
but better service would have handled it more courteously and professionally in
the first place without all the confrontation and complaints and need for
apologies!
It is past my bedtime now and we have another early morning.
So I’ll end here.
