The Bay of Kotor is an inlet of the Adriatic, lined by small medieval towns that have resisted invasions by Italians, Ottomans, Byzantines, and Austro-Hungarians for centuries.  The cruise ships have found it now, and we can understand why.  It’s funny how prices rise when cruise ships show up!  Kot means “Cat” in Russian/Slavic, so the city is famous for all of its cats.   One even jumped into the picture with us!

Eli and Jake were in heaven.

The best part about staying in a hotel is getting free breakfast.  It’s fun to wake up and go into the dining room, unfold your napkin and see what’s there.  The boys have fresh squeezed orange juice and Mike and I order cappuccinos.  Mike and Eli get excited over the big piles of fried eggs and hot dogs, and if they’re lucky, it’s English style with beans and a grilled tomato.  You can always tell what kind of clientele a restaurant has by what shows up in the breakfast buffet.

Jake and I are a little more civilized and a little more fascinated with the art of baking.  I finally have someone to get excited with me about going back and forth to taste test all the pastries!

Amidst the oatmeal and kiwis and roasted vegetables, there was also a tray fanned with meat and different kinds of cheese.  We decided to do a “meat tasting” of all the prosciutto and cured ham.  Who knew there were so many different kinds of prosciutto?  Some of it is smokey, others are almost raw, and others maybe a bit too chewy.  There is clearly more to breakfast meat than just bacon.

After breakfast we drove a few miles down the coast to Kotor to walk through the old town and hike up to the fortress.  The boys were excited to pet the cats and Mike and I were excited to find real calamari and Italian pizza.

We loved Montenegro!