Kotor, Montenegro

We traveled by bus (a bus that was supposed to take two hours but actually took four hours because of the boarder crossing into Montenegro) to Kotor, Montenegro, which is Shana's 50th country! As we have done our whole vacation, we were excited to stay in the old part of the city. In Kotor, the old part of the city is inside the walled city. This beautiful and small city reminded us of a miniture version of Dubrovnik. 

We started our time in the city at the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, which was built in 1902, after the original church and monistary where destroyed in a fire. 

Opposite this church is the smaller St. Lucas' Church, which was built in 1195 (yes, you read that correctly).

Our guide book said that some of the best and most iconic baked goods in the city can be found at Cafe Forza. We are not ones to pass up a good baked good so we headed to the restaurant in the main square. Michael and I absolutely loved the baked apple dessert (top photo) and the traditional lemon and almond cake called Dobrotska Torta (bottom photo). Since neither of these desserts were made from chocolate, the kids refused! Too bad, they were amazing!

The sun was starting to set so we walked to one of the gates to see the city walls.

Our apartment was owned by the same people who own Bokun, an amazing local restaurant in the square below where we were staying. We ended up eating there three times!

We also took the long way back to our hotel through the small lanes. 

The next morning, the boys were so excited to go to the Cat Museum. Cats are a fixture in Kotor (almost every souvenir has a cat on it) and we thought this was a great way to start the day. In addition to two beautiful little kittens, the museum had one of the largest collections of cat related items we have ever seen!

We then took a little boat tour around the city and into the harbors that surround Kotor. Our first stop was a little island with the unimpressive Our Lady of the Lake Church (so unimpressive that we didn't even take a picture). We did take a picture of Teddy and I standing on our respective directions on the compass rose.

We then went out into the Adriatic to see the blue cave. We had all wanted to swim inside the cave but there were too many boats and the driver thought it was too dangerous. We did get to swim outside the cave and the water was beautiful.

We also got to drive into a submarine tunnel from WWII or later. 

On the way home, we got to take a quick dip in the water off Kotor. 

On the way to find a spot for dinner, we found some really wonderful cats!

The kids loved pretending to be in prison on the city walls.

We ended up back at our favorite restaurant for our last night in Kotor!