At noon we went an organised excursion to Corfu. We visited a local distillery for a taste. Very nice!
Interesting history being ruled by Venice, France, Britain and Greece over the last 600 years, so it is mix of cultures.
From medieval times and into the 17th century, the island was recognised as a bulwark of the European States against the Ottoman Empireand became one of the most fortified places in Europe. The fortress is still visible in the old town.
The people of Corfù drive like Italians except without the drama and noise. The streets are narrow and in poor repair and yet the locals drive with no apparent rules in enforced. More motor cyclists don’t wear helmet than do and not only is indicator fluid obviously an expensive commodity we wonder if actually indicators are optional extras.
The residential area we went through was unkept, rundown and slap hazard. Houses were rough and many times unfinished. Shops or living in the bottom floors and derelict in the top. The guide anounced the area near the Achillian Palace were beautifu with lovely gardens. We saw that the whole of the house was liveable in and quite pretty and gardens were very different to ours.
The Achillian Palace was located at the top of highhill reached by a narrow and windy road ( think Bruce Highway near Lucinda in the 1970’s). The palace was built in 1891 by the Empress of Austria who fell in love with the island and its inhabitants. The palace is a mixture of various classical Greek styles but with a heavy Austria-German influence. It was also a favourite of Kaiser Willihem the second ( leader of Germany during the First World War, and grand-son of Queen Victoria.) The palace is called the Achillian Palace in honour of the Ancient Greek mythical hero Achillies. The Empress saw Achillies as the perfect man and Kaiser “Bill” saw Achillies as what he wanted to be.
The Achillian Palace is in fair repair by Island standards and certainly worth a visit. Though the outside marble floors and muses could use a good hit with a pressure hose. The palace gardens are located and planted to take in the views of the coastline and countryside. and are heavily designed and decorated in the classical style.
We were then taken back to old Corfù town. The road as mentioned was fairly steep and with around three hairpin corners. All of which the driver had to do a 3 point turn to turn. One was so tight, and in the post rainy weather, he struggled to navigate, skidding a little as the bus was sideways traversing the slope during the final part of the turn. On arrival the rain had started again. Apparently cruise ships missed the port due to high wind and rain. We were lucky. We quickly ducked into a cafe “The Lisbon”. We had Greek coffee ‘just like Yaya (Grandmother) used to make’ and share a scrumptious cheese cake and zest cake, which was a lemon zest cheese cake consistency cream on crispy sweet pastry. It rained quite heavily but briefly while we were in the cafe then cleared. When we finished time was short so we grabbed a Corfù momento, took some quick photos of the hybrid Italian, French, British and Greek architecture and returned to the bus.
Our Greek guide was good, but obviously has done this tour so many times it seemed scripted.
In general the locals where more friendly than most we have encountered.
We passed through customs control with some passengers getting very animated over the initially slow moving long line because another queue was short cutting into longer queue. This changed when someone closed a door forcing the remaining passengers into one line instead of two.
Later on ship, we enjoyed one of many “shows” on offer and returned to our cabin to collapsed into deep sleep.
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