The boat ride along the Bay of Kotor took around three quarters of an hour, passing gorgeous scenery in glorious conditions – as you can see from all the photographs below – until we reached our first stop, that being the church of Our Lady of the Rocks.
Our Lady of the Rocks is an artificial island created by sinking ships loaded with rocks and rocks dropped on top of them. The tradition of dropping rocks was allegedly started by sailors to give praise for a successful voyage and still takes place in a more ceremonial form to this day. On the surface of the island stands a Catholic church and museum.
While the boat ride had been just about perfect temperature-wise on account of the breeze off the waters of the bay as we moved the same couldn’t be said for Our Lady of the Rocks itself. The sun had risen as we’d travelled so it was hotter than it had been at the start of the cruise excursion and there was barely a breath of wind. The exposed location on the island was uncomfortable for me and my wife – we don’t handle hot temperatures very well – but that was nothing compared to actually going insde the church and museum, neither of which (as you can imagine) were air conditioned. We had to wait for another tour group to vacate the place first as it can’t handle too many people at once. It was still very crowded with just our boat-lot visiting but inside it was very interesting. Decorations in the church were modestly impressive and throughout it and the museum there were plenty of examples of local art. We would have appreciated it all more if we weren’t so intent on getting outside for some air but none of this should put you off considering a visit if you’re ever visiting Montenegro.
