I’m way behind in writing but there has just been too much going on here. I’m skipping one port, Katakalon, because I didn’t go ashore there. Instead I had a sea day. Katakalon is the gateway to Olympia, birthplace of the Olympics, and I didn’t think the ruins there had changed since the last time I saw them.
We docked the next day, Wednesday the 5th, in Kerkira, Corfu. I’ve been here on previous cruises too so rather than taking a tour I decided to get a taxi into the old town and wander around a little. I suppose I should tell a little about Corfu’s history.
As with every place here in Greece its history stretches back thousands of years. It’s an island not far off the Grecian mainland and it and the nearby smaller Diapontian islands mark the border between the Ionian and the Aegean Seas. In ancient times Corfu, or Kerkyra as it was known in Greek, was one of the three major naval powers along with Athens and Corinth. Also as with most of the places in this part of the world, Corfu was conquered by a variety of civilizations that came along including Ottoman and Venetian. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 Corfu came under the control of the British Empire for a period of time. Finally in 1864 it was ceded to the modern Republic of Greece.
People familiar with German and Austrian history know that in the late 1800’s an Empress of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, popularly known as Empress Sissi, built a summer palace here on Corfu. She was a rather tragic figure. She had several daughters and her mother essentially took them away from her. She had one son Rudolf who was involved in an episode called the Mayerling Incident which was a murder-suicide ending with Rudolf and his lover dead. Sissi never really recovered from the loss of her son and heir to the throne. In 1898 she was assassinated while visiting in Switzerland. Her palace in Corfu is one of the main tourist attractions which I visited on a previous stop here.
Old town Corfu is very typical of places in this part of the world. There are narrow streets lined with shops and cafés. Many buildings have balconies from which flowers cascade down and every now and then there’s a little square, usually with a church. I was looking for a particular small jewelry shop that I’d seen online. There were four ships in port today so it was pretty busy. Thankfully none of the ships was one of the megaships so there weren’t hordes of tourists. I found the place I was searching for and found what I wanted. The salesman was a delightful Greek gentleman who had actually gotten a bachelor’s degree in piano at a college in the US. He was helping out his newly widowed sister at the family shop until the end of the tourist season in Corfu (it ends in a week or so). Then he’ll go back to playing with various orchestral groups when the winter music season begins.
After a lovely chat I asked him to recommend a nice place for lunch. Nikos recommended a place nearly around the corner next to a park so I went and sat outside enjoying a wonderful Greek salad (what else?) and some of the best homemade crusty bread I’ve had in a long time and just watching the world go by. I also had a very nice glass of a dry Greek white wine. After a while I took a cab back to the ship and chalked it up as another lovely day.
I should mention that we’ve been having trivia every afternoon. Some of my teammates I’ve played with before and we’re doing okay. It’s cumulative so we have a few days before we’ll see how we come out.
As usual I’ve been going to the shows and afterwards to the Club. I’ve reconnected with some old friends and made some new ones, so the world is good. More later.
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