Corfu time

And so to Corfu, or in Greek - Kerkyra.....beautiful Kerkyra.  We drove onto the car ferry at Ignoumenitsa for the hour journey to Corfu.  The island has an interesting history with Venetian and French influences and of course now a very British influence with holidaymakers.  Corfu Town is busy but the island is big enough that it's easy to find secluded and quiet bays and beaches.  We stayed first on the east coast in Dassia, then on the north west coast at Paleokastritsa.  It was an idyllic week of sun, boating, swimming, snorkeling, reading... and gyros pita.  I'm not a fan of gyros at home....but in Corfu.....delicious.  Tender slices of meat with tzatziki and salad in a small freshly made pitta bread....2 euros.  I could eat them for lunch and dinner too.  I think we did some days!

Kerkyra

My favourite view of Corfu

'The Liston' in Corfu Town, built by the French to resemble Rue de Rivoli.
It houses a shady promenade of beautiful cafes and restaurants and it
 overlooks the town's cricket oval, where there was a game being played
on the weekend we arrived.  Cricket in Greece - who'd have though?

Corfiot bride

Perhaps our favourite part of Corfu, the north coast.  We
hired a boat here for the day......

...... and explored the coves and bays.  This is Agni and the view
from our lunch table at Toula's taverna.  Our boat is not that
sleek number moored at the jetty, but the little runabout behind
it with the dark blue bimini.  And those hills in the background....
that's Albania!

Ahhhh, Toula's taverna.

Breakfast with Greek goddesses.  This is Paleokastritsa bay, dotted
with caves and grottos that we swam to.  The 13th century monestery
is on the hill.

This is the beach at Glyfada on the west coast.
Lounges and columns, don't you love it?
A very 'cool' place on a hot day.

At Paleokastritsa we stayed in one of Aris and Christina's apartments, just 20 steps from the beach (and 120 steps down from the road).  The terrace, breakfast table and outdoor shower were shaded by big, ancient pitted-trunk olive trees.  And all around the steep hillside of the bay were lemon trees, olive groves alive echoing with cicadas, and cypresses. Maybe more cypresses than in Tuscany!  Some days Christina would deliver olive oil, wine or figs and vegetables from their garden.  We are now carrying with us three and a half litres of homemade olive oil - gifts from hospitable families we have stayed with in Italy and Greece.  We'll never use it all for cooking or salads, so we've taken to using it as an after-sun all over body moisturiser! 

We snorkelled and swam in crystal clear coves, over vast fine back
swaying seagrass beds where the sunlight refracted on fish
like floating silver foil and gold leaf.

Aris's olive trees with the harvesting nets rolled up around them.

The view from the outdoor shower

Monestery of Panayia

After a week on Corfu we have arranged to meet L and PJ in Venice. They are travelling in Italy before heading off to South America and so we've booked on the 24 hour cruise from Corfu to Venice.  We're so excited to see them again - and in romantic Venice!  We were 20-year-olds when we last saw Venice.

Sunrise Corfu port.  Waiting for our boat to Venice to arrive.
That's not it.....ours is the one on the horizon!  Our Venice ferry
arrived, loaded trucks, cars and passengers and departed in the
time it took this floating city to dock.