Mountains, Villages and Trees: Oh my!
Attention: this is your Captain speaking. Today is Saturday, October 7th. This morning we arrived in Corfu, Greece at 0800 hours and we will be departing at 1800 hours. Today's high will be 28c and it will be sunny with some mild haziness.
We started our day with breakfast on the back deck overlooking a panoramic view of the island of Corfu. It was a beautiful view which cannot be captured on one picture, but we have many beautiful pictures to show you. After breakfast we met up with our guide for the day, Spiro, and started out in our tour of the island. Spiro was a great talker and tried to tell us everything about the island. He started our filling us in on all the trees, both ornamental (cypress) and fruit trees - olives, figs, pomegranates, lemons, orange, and kumquats. He told us how to tell if an olive tree is going to produce good olive oil or not so good olive oil. This depends on how well the trees are cared for by their owners.
Spiro tried to teach us some Greek phrases and was disappointed in us when we could not remember what he taught us. He was very funny and really pulled our leg on many occasions and we really believed him many times. He said he was going to put us to work on a farm and we believed him. OK. Enough about Spiro.
We made many stops to see great views below.
As we were driving along, we stopped at a small Greek Orthodox Church by the side of the road - every village has their own church - this one was really small.
It was located next to a house with a beautifully cared for garden with many vegetables and fruit trees.
The farmer was working in the garden, and he was very nice and let us take his picture.
Next Spiro said we were going to 'steal' some figs which means we would stop by a fig tree growing along the side of the road and pick the figs.
Watch out for the barbed wire Karen.
There were not too many ripe ones yet, but we found a few and Karen volunteered to 'steal' one and she ate it.
We have many views to show you as we stopped regularly to enjoy the views above and below.
We traveled through many villages and at one village, Spiro dropped us off at one end of the village and told us to walk along the main street and he would meet us at the other end.
Very narrow and yet cruise ship busses come up this street - yikes!
This was a particularly lovely village, and we enjoyed our walk and met up with a local lady who helped us remember the Greek phrases that Spiro tried to teach us so that Spiro would not be disappointed in us.
Next, we went to a 'farmer' for a snack and Spiro said we would have to work at the farm for our food. In reality it was a small business that the owner made their own wine and olives. Spiro had purchased some wonderfully freshly made bread - crusty on the outside and soft on the inside - it was yummy. He also had a block of feta cheese and some fresh tomatoes.
Karen helping Spiros and 'farm' store lady prepare lunch while Carla watches.
He sliced the bread, dipped it in olive oil, added a slice of cheese on top and then some sliced tomatoes and a sprinkling of oregano. This was the best lunch we could have had. It was accompanied with olives and a sample of the homemade wine.
After our amazing lunch, Spiros told us we now had to work, and he took us to the back room where the wine was fermenting in barrels and olives were Brinning in large jars. It was interesting but we really didn't have to work.
We next drove down to a beach where Karen and Carla could put their toes in the Mediterranean Sea.
All along the way back, up and over the mountains were more great great views.
We started back towards Corfu town but stopped to see another small Greek Orthodox church on a small island with a bridge that we used to walk out to see it.
Now we had a choice - to go back to the ship or Spiro would let us off in the 'old town' to enjoy that part of town and then walk back to the ship. Carla and Mike decided to go back to the ship and Bill and Karen wanted to walk through old town.
It was a charming area with many shops and restaurants and lots of people. We stopped for gelato and just enjoyed the place as we found our way back to the ship.
Karen enjoying her gelato while kids play soccer in the square.
Back at the ship after walking a couple miles, Karen found out Carla had another afib episode which took her several hours to get under control, so Bill and Karen enjoyed dinner as a couple in the dining room.
This is a bit of a long blog, but Corfu was a beautiful place, lots of mountains, villages and trees and we had an interesting day.
Captains log: it is now 11 pm, Oct 7,2023 signing off.
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