Our sail in this morning was lovely, pastCorfu's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which we would be visiting later. This Greek Island has changed hands multiple times over the centuries with a history that goes back 2700 years. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, French and British have all had a turn ruling here.
While we waited for a bus that would actually seat the 19 people on our tour Karl had a sit here in the ferry terminal. He was a bit confused about the chair next to him with the "no sitting" sign on it.
As we started our trip around the island we got a view of this rock outcropping that resembles a monkey face. Can you see it? My thanks to my friend Kim Kissick for getting this photo that was on her side of the bus.
Unlike most of the other Greek islands that we've been to, Corfu is covered with trees, lots of pine and cypress, even more olive trees. The mountains are rocky as you'll see.
There are some beautiful beaches on the island, most of them are quite small. There are also homes that dot the mountainsides.
Look at the beautiful water of the Ionian Sea! Corfu is the furthest north of the Greek islands and probably the loveliest.
We headed up one of the mountains to the monastery at Paleokastristsa. Roads to get here are so narrow that they have to put stop lights at either end to keep cars from having to pass one another on them.
A marker on the monastery says that it was built in 1228 but our archeologist tour guide, Alex, said there is no evidence of a structure here before the end of the 15th century, which still makes it pretty old.
We got a quick photo with the bell tower behind us.
There were some lovely mosaics here and a couple of pretty doors.
A better look at the bell tower.
Behind this wall inside the church is a sanctuary where only the priests are allowed to go. In Ionian churches this separating wall is made of stone rather than the usual wood.
The entire interior here was typical of an Ionian church, including the ceiling which was supposed to replicate the sky.
There are many icons throughout the church, mostly featuring the Virgin Mary. People will leave all kinds of offerings in hopes of blessings. This one contains many old wedding rings.
Hanging below it were also many small metal plates stamped with various blessing requests, like eyes for better eyesight, a wish for a child, or a home.
This is an example of one of the Eastern icons with color tones that are more brown.
Those from the west are brighter and have more golden tones.
There were so many beautiful blossoms throughout the grounds.
Yep, its another door photo.
We hurried through the archway to get a photo without anyone in it, and then another from the other end with the bright bougainvilla.
Another view from the monastery hilltop before heading down.
You can see again here that sandy beaches are few and far between.
But the island is extremely scenic.
Paleokastritsa Beach was crowded, and will be through the summer months. Tourism runs the economy of Corfu. 120,000 people live here full time but there are over 3.5 million visitors who come to the island each year. Most of them are repeat vacationers.
While there are tons of colorful flowers throughout Corfu there were also Prickly Pear cactus. And I always love seeing these unusual Bluecrown Passionflowers.
We stopped for a "meze", or appetizer on our way to our lunch stop. The savory grape leaf portion and the cheese filled pastry were my favorites.
They believe this olive tree was planted sometime in the 8th century. It does look ancient, as well as massive. There are literally millions of olive trees on Corfu as production of olive oil used to be the main money maker for the island's economy. Now they grow wild and unattended. Olive oil production is only 5% of what it used to be and most of that is what people make for their own use.
The ruins of one of five castles that used to be strategically placed around the island for its defense.
As we reached a high point and looked south we could see Serenade far in the distance.
Our lunch stop was here at the Pumphouse Restaurant where the food was delicious.
We felt like if we were only going to get one real Greek meal this one was an excellent offering. The bread was soft and chewy, the tatziki on the lower left full of cucumber and garlic to give it zing, the moussaka on the upper left smooth and dreamy (that last because I'd really dreamed of having some good Greek moussaka!), and the salad perfect with its ripe tomatoes, cucumber, olives and feta.
As we continued around the island we reached our closest point to Albania, just there across the sea, about two miles away.
In fact it was so close that my cell phone picked up an Albania cell tower!
Heading back into Corfu Town we passed an apartment buildings with laundry out the window, and I thought you might like to see a little Greek on a business sign. No idea what it says.
The central square in Corfu Town is dominated by what was originally the British Lord High Commissioner's residence. It was built between 1819-1824 during the days of the British administration of the island. Today it is a museum.
Also in the square is this old water cistern, which was an important feature because there is no fresh water on Corfu when it was built. Hard as I tried I couldn't find out where their water actually comes from now.
We saw a few of these horse and carriage combos traveling the streets of Old Town, ready to take tourists for a ride.
This part of town beside the square is called The Liston and was constructed during the French rule of Corfu, between the years of 1797 and 1814.
You can definitely see the Venetian influence in this part of Old Town, which isn't surprising since they were around for over 400 years. We got some delicious gelato at a shop on this street. My favorite today was White Chocolate Lime. I plan on trying a lot of different flavors over the next few weeks so be prepared to drool jealously!
St. Spiridon Church is probably the most important and favorite in the city. We didn't have time to check out the interior, which is supposed to be much more spectacular than the unassuming outside. One thing about the church is that no other buildings in town are allowed to be taller than the bell tower here.
We got a few photos of the castle fortress near the main square, but alas, didn't have time to enter here either. In my first photo of this post you can see both the Old Fortress, here, and the much larger New Fortress nearby.
The fortress entrance,
and views of the battlements. The defenses of this site were begun by the Venetians on the site of an old Byzantine castle.
Hustling back to the bus I took a quick photo before we headed back to port to get back on board. Ports are going to start coming fast and furious and posts are probably going to get shorter, or maybe lots of photos and less rambling. It's going to be interesting to see how I manage!
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