April 28, Corfu

Saturday, April 28^th

Greg woke early and walked to the beach. 

 Another beautiful day.  We head for another breakfast buffet.   At every breakfast there is quite a variety of foods.  Almost always there are broiled tomatoe slices, sometimes with cheese. I don’t know where they are getting them, but all the tomatoes we have had have been wonderful – ripe and flavorful. None of the hard, greenish things we often get at home.  Also lots of sweets.  Emmie says the Greeks don't really eat much breakfast, but they sure lay out a nice one for tourists.

Today we will explore a bit of Corfu, (Kerkyra in Greek) an island off the Western Coast of Greece in the Ionian Sea.  It was both protected by location and on the main east-west trading routes. Just 45 miles from Italy and only a few miles from Albania. It  was first colonized by Corinthians, Greeks who were good sailors and used the island as a bridge to other places.  It never was under Turkish rule, so has a bit more western orientation and many of the older buildings have Venetian and British roots.  It was only in 1964 that Corfu was returned to Greece by Britain.  In fact, the game of cricket is still played here in a large park area called the Esplanade (also soccer:))

Our tour guide today is Mary, who was born and raised here on Corfu.

 We go by the Old Fort whose walls were built by the Venetians.  There are about 100,000 people on Corfu today, with nearly 65% employed in tourism.  There are ferries which connect to Italy and it is a popular summer destination, especially for Germans and Brits.  Lots of flowers, some of which are familiar to Texans, mainly bouganvilea, bottlebrush, and oleander.  Lots of gorgeous roses as well.

Corfu is the birthplace of Prince Phillip.  We head south to Gastouri, the site of the Achilleion, a late 19^thcentury palace of Empress Elizabeth of Austria. 

 Beautiful statues and paintings, lovely terraces and gardens.

 There are several statues of Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, who was felled by an arrow to his ankle – his only weak spot.

The humidity is much higher here and Mary says that during the rainy season (November to March) there is rain, rain and more rain.  There are about 4 million olive trees on the island and they also grow oranges, lemons, cumquats, eggplant, tomatoes, etc.  They make a liquor from cumquats which we sample, along with limoncello.

There is an airport fairly close to our hotel, as occasional flights rumble in.  The road past the airport has a traffic light that stops traffic during take-offs and landings there.

Next we go to the old town area near the old fortress., which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are narrow streets and many shops and restaurants.  A McDonalds and recently opened Starbucks are there also – Mary says Greeks can’t afford Starbucks, though they do love their coffee.  Iced coffee and cappuccino and other types of coffee are popular.  One made with instant Nescafe is a favorite.

Flower shop

We walk to the Church of St. Spyridon.  Built in 1596, it is visible from most of town because of it’s red dome bell tower. 

There is some sort of service going on involving a dozen or so Russians. St. Spyridon is revered for miraculously saving the island several times from plague, famine and the Turks.  During WWII a bomb fell here but did not detonate.  His remains are in a small chapel where people come and kiss the reliquary and pray.  Spiro is a very popular boys’ name.  There is a small shrine in front of the church where people light candles, as these girls are doing. No photos allowed inside the church, but it is quite ornate as we have found most Orthodox churches to be.

We wonder the streets in our free time and hear quite a few different languages.  We stop at an outdoor café and try some Corfiot ginger ale which is quite gingery with a touch of lemon. 

 We watch folks stroll and kids play soccer, ride bikes etc. Greg asked these ladies if we could take a photo.  We don't see very many older Greeks in the tourist areas.

Out tour guide says this has always been an area where families gathered and played.

We head back to the hotel, the Corfu Holiday Palace, which is one of several nice hotels in the area that have access to the beach.  The beach is very pebbly but we wade into the water and Greg takes a brief swim. 

  Not too cold.  We walk along the shore and see various fish and one little scrambling crab.  We explore an old church and take a few photos of Mouse Island offshore.

 

This evening we go to the small family-run tavern, Tripa, for dinner.  Dimitri lets us off and we walk into a neighborhood .  

We pass one home where Emmie points to the columns in front, saying that they were probably taken from an ancient site.  This was quite common at one point before things were protected.

We are met first with ouzo, which seems to be THE drink in Greece.  Dinner progresses  with Greek salad, sausages and paper thin slices of some sort of salami type meat, a pasta dish – long tubular noodles (pastitsio)with a meat sauce, roasted potatoes and roasted lamb.  We find that most of the meats here are slow-cooked, to the fall-apart-tender stage (which I like!). Dessert is yogurt with honey along with kiwi, strawberries and fresh pineapple.  Quite a feast!  The tavern is small and the walls are covered with bottles and other paraphanilia (cobwebs included!).  A couple in Greek costume entertain for a while.

 And lead some of us outside for some dancing in the street.

 He ends with a dance in which he holds a table in his mouth - warning "don't try this at home".

The moon is full as we walk out of the neighborhood to catch the bus back to the hotel.