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19 October 1904 — Cettinje | |
Wednesday. 19th [October 1904]. Called at 6.30 & was ready to start at 7.30. The carriages did not arrive till 8. Fevsy Pasha came to see me off & regrets he could not accompany us as far as Ragusa. Mr Montalba headed the procession in a carriage with some of the luggage. Baker & I followed—but at the English Legation Baker gave her place to Mr Kennedy so that he & I drove in the 2nd carriage & in the 3rd came Baker & his valet. It was a very fine day & as we wound up thro’ the rocks the view looking back on the little plain at the end of wh are the red roofs of the little town of Cettinje. The fringe of the rocky hills in wh it stands makes this plain look like the bottom of a cauldron. Behind it are the distant mountains of Albania & now & then there was a glimpse of the Lake of Scutari. The view is very wild & impressive. When we got to the top of the pass were went along a comparative level for some time & we got out of the carriage & went down several of the zigzags by the short cuts– We stopped at the little inn at & had a very passable lunch at 11—served by a very clean Montenegrin who had been servant to Mr Kennedy & others of the diplomatic corps at Cettinje. It was market day there & there were men in costume & sheep & goats with beautiful long wool being bought & sold. The view as we descended over the Bocche di Cattaro was lovely, the water blue & the shadows on the hill sharp & blue. We arrived at Cattaro at about 1 to find that the steamer which we intended to take to Ragusa was late & would not be in till 3 so we sat in the garden of the restaurant & partook of coffee, strolled about & bought post cards with views of the country & at 3.30 or nearly 4 we got on board the Ernö & steamed away. It was a lovely eveng the old walls & fortifications of Cattaro looked their best as they appeared to climb up the grey rocks. As we steamed along the rocks took different colours grey, blue, mauve, red—until they faded away in the sunset. By the time we got to Castelnuovo the light had nearly wained—but the town looked very lovely. We stopped outside the place to take in a few people & some parcels & then set out to sea & followed the coast towards Ragusa. The moon effects rising among the sun tinted fleecy clouds were fine. There was rather a swell at sea which made our small steamer roll about but not eno’ to prevent me taking my lunch. We reached Gravosa a little after 5 just as it was getting dark. We somehow missed finding the hotel porter & there was only one carriage to be had– Into this we packed all the luggage & the 2 servants & set off to walk to Ragusa which is ¼ hour’s walk over a little hill. As we were trudging along a gentleman in a carriage with 2 good horses stopped it & got out & begged us to drive with him. Mistaking him in the dark for the missing porter Mr Montalba asked him in German why he was so late. He looked puzzled & humbly asked us to drive with him wh after many excuses we did. We got very comfortable rooms at the nice Hotel Imperiale wh belongs to the Austrian Lloyd society & were just in time for table d’hôte of wh we partook at a separate table—& went early to bed. | |
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