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| Looking out over Corfu from Lakones |
Several days ago we received an email from our friend
Nina. She had seen that we would be
visiting Corfu and was pleased as she had spent time there as an AFS (American
Field Service) student while in High School.
So we were really looking forward to seeing the island, having been
alerted to what we might expect.
What we didn’t expect was to receive a notice from Shore
Excursions the morning before, stating that our shore excursion had been
canceled; not enough people had signed up.
So we had to look over the list of excursions and make a quick
decision. We certainly didn’t want to do
it on our own after hearing many wonderful things about the island! After careful consideration, I opted for Panoramic Corfu, which required very
little walking, something I needed after a busy day in Dubrovnik the previous
day. After being assured by Shore
Excursions that I could definitely handle that excursion on my own, Chuck chose
to do Paleokastritsa & Corfu,
which required far more walking.
We woke up to a steady rain and thick, low clouds. We were quite disappointed to see such dismal
weather, but at least when I went out, it had stopped raining, and I had none
during my entire excursion.
Mine was a short tour that pretty much circled the island
with a half-hour stop for what would have been lovely scenic views of the
island had the weather not been so dreary.
Our guide gave a running commentary as we drove, providing
very interesting facts about Corfu.
Corfu is the second-largest Greek island with a population of more than
110,000 permanent residents; it is located nearest the countries of Italy,
Albania, and the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.
It certainly doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of Greek islands, the
most well-known being Santorini and Mykonos.
She explained that those two islands are located in the Aegean Sea,
which has very different weather conditions than Corfu and its six companion
Greek islands of the Ionian Sea. While
the Aegean islands are hot and dry (we sure hope that proves to be the case on
this cruise), those in the Ionian Sea tend to be rainier. As a result, the hot and dry Aegean islands
choose to paint their buildings white (with distinctive blue roofs) so sunlight
will be reflected, while Corfu and other Ionian islands don’t need the
whiteness and therefore paint their buildings in a variety of light
colors. Corfu is very lush and green,
with the most prevalent trees being olive and cypress trees.
She explained that the seas (Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean)
are all part of the Mediterranean but are given names to designate areas of the
Mediterranean Sea. The Adriatic refers
to the area to the east of and near Italy.
Ionian refers to the area west of Greece, and Aegean refers to the area
east of Greece. (This makes perfect sense
to someone who lives near Chicago and refers to the Loop, Near North, Gold
Coast, etc., all specific neighborhoods of Chicago.)
We climbed up and up through tiny villages perched seemingly
precariously along the cliffs, marveling at the skill of the driver wending his
way through the narrowest streets one could imagine! As our guide commented, the moment we meet a
car, they know that the bus can’t back up, so the car has to back up until it
can find someplace to get out of the way.
Whew! We squeezed through with
inches to spare, reminding me very much of Harry Potter’s Knight Bus that can
actually draw itself in to maneuver tight places. Each little village was a maze of
passageways. This was done for
protection. Hundreds of years ago people
settled high up in the mountains to avoid invasion. If any foreigners were to manage to reach
these small villages, they would end up lost in the maze of streets and
walkways, making it nearly impossible for a successful invasion.
Our one and only stop on the tour was in the mountains in
the little village of Lakones at a hotel/restaurant called Bella Vista and what
a perfect name! I can only begin to
imagine what breathtaking views we would have had in sunny weather because as
it was, the scenery was lovely! We had a
half hour to shop, stop for a snack, or just enjoy the scenery. I skipped the snack, and spent the time
shopping and enjoying the views.
Standing out on the balcony, looking down on the town of Paleokastritsa
and out at the sea and the small nearby islands dotting the water was the
perfect way to drink in the beauty! And
to add to the flavor, if we listened carefully, we could hear the sound of
musical chanting. I went to find the
guide and ask her what we were hearing – we couldn’t tell if it was coming from
the monastery just outside Paleokastritsa, a small church near the monastery,
or possibly a mosque. When she listened,
she decided it was coming from the church.
After hearing the chanting, we could then hear a voice speaking. She said it sounded like they were conducting
a church service. It was pretty amazing
to be so far up at the top of the mountain and hear those voices way down in
the village!
We continued on our way, passing through more small villages
as well as the central valley area till we once again reached the coast. We passed the port and headed to Corfu Town (Kerkira)
for a brief tour there before returning to the ship. The local market appeared to be very
interesting, but no more so than the two fortresses. The “new” fortress dates back to about the 15th
Century and was built by the Venetians, as evidenced by the Venetian symbol of
the winged lion that is carved into the fortress wall. The French took over the island for a few
years before losing it to the British after the Napoleonic Wars. The British influence was definitely visible
as we passed the mansion where the British governor used to live, which
overlooked a huge cricket pitch, alive with competitors playing cricket. Apparently Corfu is hosting an international
cricket tournament, and countries from as far away as Australia have sent teams
to compete.
I was pleased to have managed the tour on my own with no
incidents, and to have been able to enjoy this lovely island without dealing
with rain. I envy Nina having had the
opportunity to live here for several months.
(But then I had my own different opportunity to spend several months in
Grenoble, France, so I consider myself very fortunate in that way!)
BT
As Barb indicated, we were originally scheduled to do a tour
called Achillion Palace and Private Villa but a couple days ago we
received a notice that it had been canceled due to insufficient
participation. While Barb did her panoramic tour of the island, I picked Paleokastritsa and
Corfu as my substitute choice. While waiting for our excursion to be
called, I heard a lady comment that her excursion had been canceled and she had
had to select another. I asked if it was Achillion Palace and Private
Villa and she said it had been. I told her we were rather surprised
that there were too few people for it to be done. Overhearing our
conversation a man that I know only vaguely indicated that they had done that
tour several years ago and it was outstanding – in fact, he said, it was
one of the best excursions they had ever done and that the Greek lunch served
at the palace was really excellent. It was rather expensive but from what
he said, it probably would have been worth doing it. But by having that
canceled, I did save a substantial amount of money; I told Barb that I would
use that to justify doing the most expensive tour of the whole cruise when we
get back to Spain on the extension of the cruise. Another excursion I
could have done was called Albanian Adventure. I had considered that it was
a long tour and I don’t have sense enough to stay in port in new places!
Too much to see and the opportunity to see new places may never present
themselves again. Of course who knows if visiting Albania will ever be
possible, but I did want to see Corfu since I had heard it was a beautiful
island. Then when our friend Nina let us know she had been here several
decades ago, I definitely wanted to see Corfu. Several years ago when we
did a Mediterranean cruise, we were supposed to go to Corfu but it had been
canceled and replaced by two days in Venice instead of one since we were there
on a major Italian holiday and platforms had been built on our exit route for
the fireworks display. Now was our chance to see Corfu.
We were disappointed that there was such an overcast sky
with rain, but the rain ended before we went out to our bus and the worst we
experienced was cloudy skies with a few peeks of blue sky. Our guide, old
enough to have had young children 15 years ago, was an energetic individual who
both sang to us and wanted us to sing along. Never on Sunday was
the one she sang initially in Greek and had us join in later in English and
asked us to sing “la, la, la” wherever we didn’t know the words. (The
reason we knew about her children was because she told us it virtually never
snows on Corfu but that about 15 years ago there was some snow and her children
wanted to stay home from school and play in the snow because they had never
seen it before. They were disappointed that there was no snow the next
day and they had to go back to school again.) In the spirit of fun, she
admonished us to be back on the bus on time and that the last person back would
have to sing a solo for everyone else. That sure did work! No one
wanted to display musical talents for everyone else. I might say parenthetically
that her English was near flawless and she explained that children in Greece
are required to learn English.
Barb described Corfu’s geography and how green the island
is, but as confirmation, our guide asked us to guess how many olive trees there
are in Corfu. Guesses were wildly wrong as we realized when she explained
that there are about 4.5 MILLION olive trees. (Barb confirmed that her
guide had given them the same statistic.) No wonder olives and olive oil is a
leading export! We cut inland from the port to the town of Paleokastritsa
located on the opposite (west) coast of Corfu. We climbed above the town
as the guide told us that the Monastery of the Virgin Mary that we were
visiting was celebrating a feast day and that it might be quite busy and in
fact there could be a religious service going on. When we arrived, there
was just one bus ahead of us into the small parking lot. We thought nothing of
that nor were we really surprised when a farmer led a herd of goats right past
our bus. As we got off, we heard a loud chant indicating that something
was going on in the church. We walked along and noticed cats everywhere,
two or three, then more and more. I wouldn’t be surprised if twenty cats
resided there. A lady put some food out and the cats came running from
everywhere for their meal. When we climbed up to the level of the
sanctuary, the loudspeakers were deafening. It almost sounded like a
Muslim call to prayer but we knew it was a Greek Orthodox service. By the
time we were finishing there were throngs of people there and we had to fight
the crowds. I think most of them were coming because it was the service
being held there. When we got back to the parking lot, there were buses
everywhere and we were blocked in by buses to the left, right, and back with
more buses and a few private cars continue to make the trek up the hill.
Gridlock was the word! But the tour guide and driver did a masterful job
of opening the space. The guide actually walked partway down the hill and held
the traffic back until the bus came down the hill, picked her up and we were on
our way. By the way, when we returned to the ship, Barb and I compared
notes and could confirm that what we heard blasting from nearby loudspeakers
was what Barb had heard up on the mountain, quite some distance away!
As we crossed to a place called Kanoni along the coast,
while going through a small town, the driver pulled over because he smelled
something. Initially he thought it was a tire, but later he determined
that it was a brake. We commented that at least there was a grocery store
and better yet, a bakery, a few steps away. But he determined we
didn’t have to call a new bus and we proceeded on our way with no more bus
issues. There was a short photo opportunity at Kanoni, which received its
name from the cannons in place above the beautiful bay below. More and
more buses came here and once again the throngs of tourists, speaking languages
other than English. We returned to Kerkira or Corfu Town (Kerkira is the
Greek name for Corfu). By the way, English is so universally known here,
that many signs are entirely in English!
We parked near the Old Fortress built in 1546 which at
one time housed the entire population of the city and walked through Plateia
Spianada where we observed a Cricket Match in progress – a lasting
influence of the time when the British controlled Corfu. Then we walked
along the elegant walkway between the Cricket Square and the beautiful French
style buildings which set the boundary for the narrow streets lined with
shops. To the right were restaurants and outdoor cafes and to the right
were more outdoor cafes and beyond it was the spirited Cricket Match taking
place. Our guide said that at one time, the only people that could walk
there were noblemen and a person had to register at either end and if their
name was not on the list, they would be denied the right to walk there.
She took us down a narrow street to the Church of St. Spiridon, named for the
Patron Saint of Corfu. It’s the tallest church on the island and the symbolic
center of religious activities on Corfu. After about 45 minutes of free
time to have a coffee in one of the cafes (not me!) or to shop at some of the
many stores, we returned to the bus for the drive back to the ship. We went
through the gates of the Palaces of St. George and St. Michael which
represented some of the elegance of years gone by. Though we didn’t get
to do the excursion we preferred, we felt we had had a glimpse of one of the
jewels of the Greek Islands.
CT
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