Washed out, but not wasted

The promised rain and thunderstorms failed to materialize on Sunday, allowing us to spend the morning enjoying a pleasant but tiring 3 hours kayaking in the Bay of Kotor.
 The afternoon was spent having lunch and walking around the town of Budva, located directly on the Adriatic a half hour taxi ride south of Kotor. Apparently having a better night life than Kotor, it boasts of attracting movie and music stars from around the globe.
   Like Kotor, the main attraction was the old city, similarly surrounded by old stone walls and consisting of a maze of streets filled with tourists. In restrospect, we could have saved the taxi fare and stayed in town, but it gave us a break from all the cruise ship passangers flooding the town.
 In the evening a hike up to the castle ruins overlooking the town proved an exhausting but revearding challenge as it afforded a magnificent view of the town and the eastern part of the bay.
between the churchbells and the thunderstorm crashing around us there was no possibility of sleeping late. As we enjoyed a rather lazy breakfast we watched the streets fill with water as cruise ship tourists ran to shelter from the rainstorm.
  The weather broke around 9:30am allowing us to escape the hotel and pick up wine, cheeseand snacks from the local supermarket.
  The rain held off during an afternoon boatride to a couple of small islands near the mouth of the bay and we had a half hour to explore a small island on which is located the Church of Our Lady of the Rock ( Gospo od Skrpjela). First commenced in 1452 the island was built over the next 200 years by adding rocks to an existing reef, upon which the church was then built. Filled with a treasure trove of silver plate, stone carvings, various paintings and frescoes, the ! Euro admission was a real bargain.
 A further stop at the adjacent town of Perast provided some interesting photo ops. before we returned to Kotor.
   The return trip brought us smack into the middle of a major thunderstorm so the ride was rather bumpy with waves breaking over the boat and water pouring in from the sides. By the time we completed the 30 minute trip back to Kotor the storm had broken and the sun was trying to break through. The Cunard cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth was just preparing to set sail,its 2000+ passengers probably happy to get back on board and change out of their wet clothing.
 At 7pm we are debating the our dining options for the evening. As 80% of the restaurants are mostly outside seating, our choices may be limited by the weather.
  An 8am start is planned for tomorrow. If everything goes according to plan, we will be in Dubrovnik in plenty of time for lunch.