When was the last time we did something for the first time? Today, when we experienced a full blown tornado with 65-70 knot winds as the Pacific Princess was sailing out of the Bay of Kotor through the Verage Channel past Perast. Captain JP admitted it made for some highly interesting navigating to be in the very narrow channel at the time the winds- and rain and hail- hit, but the Pacific Princess weathered it well. But that came at the end of our stay in Kotor; let me back up to the beginning...
So much for watching our arrival in Kotor, located at the end of Southern Europe's largest fiord. I did set the alarm, and apparently it did go off at 6am, but I slept right through it. Those earplugs I wear when we travel must be highly effective; I never heard a thing. G finally turned off the alarm and went back to sleep himself, and it was just after 7am when I started to stir. I took a quick shower and headed to the Club Restaurant for breakfast. G was awake enough to promise to join me...and he did, just as I was finishing up. We were seated by a window, and saw the high, steep mountains closing in on the fiord as it narrows at its end in Kotor. It looked exactly like Alaska and our waiter told us it also looked much like Norway, though the mountains were much higher in Norway.
The weather today was miserable, a carbon copy of yesterday's in Dubrovnik, which is unsurprising since they are only a short distance apart. I'm not certain we missed much by sleeping through our arrival in Kotor. But we were disappointed as Kotor and the area around it are supposed to be especially picturesque. We had to come up with a significantly different plan for our day as we sat at breakfast, and scaled it back to include just the Maritime Museum and St. Tryphon's cathedral. We looked at our Maps.me app where we had downloaded the maps of all these areas and the two sites appeared to be very close to the dock where the Pacific Princess was tendering and to each other. It seemed a good plan, given the weather. Dancer Abby told us that when the Pacific Princess was in Kotor just last cruise, it was sunny and stiflingly hot. Hmmm...maybe something mid way between that and this for next time??
But when we walked outside on the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet, we saw that it was more than raining; it was pouring. 50F and rain. Our plans continued to be adjusted. Maybe we'd take a taxi from the dock to the museum and then walk from there to the cathedral and take a taxi back to the ship? Maybe... First, though, we returned to our cabin and started to watch Princess' video on European history (we've seen it many times in the past past, but it holds new interest now that we're here). I did some hand laundry after searching everywhere for the detergent I packed (we are still not very organized, and I'm wondering if our move next turnaround day will improve the situation or ruin us), and G quickly fell asleep. I don't do that, but enjoyed the down time to read about our stop in Argostoli tomorrow. I know nothing about it other than it is Greece and (hopefully) will be warmer and drier.
The rain didn't let up until late morning, and, in fact, the skies brightened considerably. After a quick lunch in the Panorama Buffet (our first meal in there this cruise) we took the short tender ride to shore. And just as we stepped off of the tender, the skies opened again in a deluge. The puddles were already deep from the morning's rain, and within minutes we were were dripping wet from head to toe. We found an overhang and stayed there until it slowed a bit, and then did about an hour walk around, but our wet clothes and shoes and the chilly air had us returning to the ship without ever really seeing any area beyond the tender dock. As we made our way back to the ship, we experienced another heavy rain that made us sure we had made the right choice.
G wants to climb this hill on a future visit.
Pray for us me.
We will be in Kotor three more times this season. Even bad weather days are bound to be better than today was.
Once back in the cabin, we hung up our dripping clothes and crawled into bed to warm up. Eventually we went to the Panorama Buffet for some hot tea and were shocked to see the sun was peeking through. I'd heard of changeable weather before but this was crazy. We sat out on the covered Panaroma Terrace (which had squeeged and wiped dry countless times today by junior waiters). Captain JP announced that our tenders were picked up around 4pm and the Pacific Princess turned and headed back out the fiord.
Well, we may have missed our arrival but we were not going to miss our departure. As we approached the Baroque village of Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks Island, barely larger than the church perched on it, the skies grew threatening and it started to rain once again. It was while we were transiting the narrowest part of the fiord, Verage Channel, that the tornado hit in earnest. The chairs on the terrace flew and tables skidded and visibility dropped to nothing. The wind started to force us inside but before we reached the door we were being pelted with hail. Then, as quickly as it arrived, it departed, and the sky grew brighter.
I could have stayed and watched this show all evening, but it was our first formal night of the cruise, and we had exactly 21 minutes to both get ready. We were just five minutes late walking into the Club Restaurant, and it was still half empty. I think most passengers had also wanted to watch our sail away, and wish that another night had been chosen to be formal night. Still, by 5:45pm the dining room was mostly filled.
I purchased another wine package today, a 7-bottle gold package to go with my 12-bottle silver package. I eat beef just one or twice each cruise, and Italian just once, but love a glass of good red wine when I do. Tonight's menu featured several Mediterranean inspired items. I chose Catalan-style flatbread tapas, a puff pastry topped with roasted vegetables and flaked white tuna topped with pesto drizzle. Yummy! But for the entree I went with beef tenderloins. As I said, I love them once or twice a cruise. Dessert featured head waiter Josko's bananas foster flambé (G's choice), but I chose the Norman Love Chocolate Journeys chocolate cake with raspberry creme brulee and chocolate mousse. So rich...I only finished half of it. Accompanied by a bottle of Nobilio, it was a memorable meal.
We enjoyed our first production show of the season afterward, Do You Wanna Dance, one of my favorites. It was funny to watch this same cast perform it ten months after we first saw them. Music Director Steve Lee stopped by to see us after the show. Steve was on last season in French Polynesia also. As I've said there have been a lot of familiar faces. He said that production show Stardust has been dropped (I'm not too sorry; I was a generation too young for that one), but another one called Colours of the World (I think) has been added. That's nice. After two seasons on this ship, as much as we love Do You Wanna Dance and Motor City, we are happy to see something new
Cruise Director Sammi announced another change in the schedule; we are arriving in Argostoli, Greece tomorrow at noon, and not leaving until 10pm (we were originally scheduled to be in port from 10am to 8pm). That's fine by us. We are moving clocks ahead another hour tonight, so we'll be seven hours ahead of EDT. Ouch. Just when we were getting used to the time zone in Central Europe. The extra time resulting from the schedule change will be very welcome. We have no specific plans for the day, although we want to see what we can of the island of Cephalonia, where Argostoli is located. It's our only visit there this year and we need to make it count. I firmly hope the weather cooperates!