For the first time and maybe the last, we went to see the show after dinner and while we 

were still tied up in Dubrovnik. It was a one-man show by a guitarist, Vincenzo Martinelli,

 who had also been on our last cruise through Eastern Canada and down the East Coast of the

 US to NYC. We had not seen him play then, but he was in a cabin down the hall from us and 

we had seen him around aboard the ship. He turned out to be an excellent musician and we 

stayed through the whole show, which coincided with the sail away from Dubrovnik after 11 p.m.

 It must be the latest we have stayed up in a long time. So, we were not awake and up for 

our whole arrival into the Bay of Kotor. Today's tour guide, who lives about an hour from 

Kotor along one coast of the Bay said she was in her kitchen and her husband said, “your job

 has just arrived.” Hopefully, we will see more as we leave as we have to retrace our path 

on the way out to Corfu, Greece.

We were the first excursion group on schedule this morning with an 8:05 a.m. ticket exchange.

 We were the only ship in port, but 1250 passengers fill a lot of buses. We had again chosen 

to upgrade to been in a group of 16 and our guide thought we would be wise to get ahead of 

the 4 other buses of 50 going in exactly the same direction. Our mini-bus/van left the city

 of Kotor and headed up the “old road” with its 25 switchbacks that took us first to a 

panoramic viewpoint showing the whole Bay of Kotor, the various beach areas and all the way 

out to sea. We then continued into the mountains, to the village of Njegusi, where we tried 

the local bread, cheese and ham (cured like prosciutto) which are famous in the whole country,

 as well as a choice of the red wine or honey wine they are also known for. Although we 

had a head start on the other buses from our ship, there was another bus from another 

neighboring country, and by the time we had our snack, our shipmates had also arrived so we

 headed out of the village and over the winding highway into the next valley and the city of 

Cetinje which was the capital of Montenegro when royalty were in place. We had a lesson about

 the history of Montenegro, which rivals that of Croatia, in its complexity – going from 

being run by the Orthodox Church to royalty and changes of power along with and in between the World Wars. 

We passed the other bus from our earlier stop, but arrived at the former 

Royal Palace which is now a museum and the buildings which used to be embassies from 

neighboring countries until Montenegro became a Republic, separate from Yugoslavia, like 

Croatia, Bosnia, etc. to find about 6 large buses with loads from a variety of other sources.

 The country was fortunate in that they were not damaged in the 1991-92 conflicts, although

 they also have suffered through earthquakes and changing powers in charge.  As with Croatia,

 there is little in terms of industry and less and less in terms of agriculture. Tourism is 

the key for almost everywhere we go on these trips and you begin to realize how the US in 

particular is supporting multitudes of other peoples even with our own lagging economy. We 

had to wait 20 minutes or so for our tour through the Palace as it is relatively small and 

cannot accommodate large groups all at once. We saw the living spaces of King Nicola, Queen

 Milena and their 12 children (3 boys and 9 girls, many of whom married into royalty throughout Europe.)

After the visit to Cetinje, we took the “new road”, a much faster route back toward the 

coast and through Budva, a city with beautiful sandy beaches and large hotels. Our guide 

said that before the worldwide economic downturn, the beach was the site of Rolling Stones

 and Madonna concerts where the wealthy came by yacht and watched from the water. Those days

are gone, at least for now. We then motored into Kotor and the driver dropped us at the 

Saturday market outside the walled city, another UNESCO Heritage site which has been restored

 using old methods and materials. Enike, our guide took us on a tour through the City, 

pointing out items of interest for 30 minutes and then said good-bye, allowing us to stay 

as long as we want until sail away at 5 p.m.or head back to the ship, “parked” across the 

street. We opted for the latter as we had been walking around for 3+ hours.

We ran into our friends for lunch at the Waves Grill – the only place you can get lunch 

after 1:30 p.m. and then planned to meet for cocktails in the Horizons Bar on the top deck 

so we could watch the sail away through the Bay of Kotor and out to sea. They eat early and 

we eat late, so we meet for a glass of wine and to talk about what we did that day, etc. 

They have been on Oceania cruises about twice as often as we have and know all the staff, 

so it is a happy time. We will kill some time reading until dinner at 8:30 p.m. at Toscana –

 pasta or veal chops or meat Italian style. We lose an hour tonight and have early call for 

our tour tomorrow, so it is eat and then sleep.