Corfu

Now that we have better internet, here is more about the last few days we spent enjoying the island of Corfu.  It has Byzantine and Venetian influences since both empires controlled it for significant amounts of time.  We arrived Sunday evening and had time to explore the area around our hotel in Kanoni.  We could walk down the hill to the waterfront and walk across a bridge to an old monastery, and also to another part of the island.

Sunset by the old monastery

 On Monday we had free time to explore the main town, Corfu Town or Kerkyra.  It is built in Venetian style so the streets are so narrow that vehicles cannot enter the old city.  On one side of the town is the Old Fort, built by the Byzantines in the 6^th century and further fortified by the Venetians in the 1400’s. On the other side is the New Fort, built later by the Venetians.  After Corfu Town, we traveled to Ipsos for lunch and time on the beach.  Some of us swam in the Ionian Sea.  We also visited the monastery at Paleokastritsa.  It had beautiful mosaic icons, a small museum, and lots of cats!

The clear water of the Ionian Sea at Ipsos

An icon of Mary Mother of God over the entrance to the monsatery

Tuesday we had a tour guide to walk us through the sites of Corfu.  We began at the Achilleion Palace, commissioned by Empress Elisabeth of Austria in 1889.  She named it after Achilles because she admired him and also identified with his mother, since she lost her son Rudolph a few years before building the palace.  It later belonged to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and then became a wartime hospital, casino, and now belongs to the Greek government as a museum.  Many of the rooms are beautifully decorated with ceiling paintings and statues.  We also visited the gardens to see the view and three terraces, also decorated with statues.

The chapel in the Achilleion Palace

Statues of the nine muses at the palace

Inside St. Theodora's Church

Inside the Old Fort, with the church of St. George (which looks like a temple)

Part of the view from the top of the Old Fort

In the afternoon we visited a museum in Benitses of seashells and listened to the owner tell us his stories of traveling the world to collect them – see the previous Corfu post for a great picture of him and Tim!  Finally, we enjoyed some more time on the beach!

- Renee Geck