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Corfu, an island that lies in the Ionian Sea, midway between Greece and Italy. Never heard of it before this cruise, never. Corfu was colonized by the city-state of Corinth. It has been ruled by the Romans, the Venetians, the French and the English. In addition to all of that, which doesn't make particular difference today, it offers some of the finest coastal scenery in the entire Mediterranean. That we would see.
But, what on earth is this in the first photograph? At sometime in the past, a Corfuian, Corfunite, what would one say, went to China and found kumquat to be to his fancy. He brought kumquats back to Corfu to see if he could grow them there. They did quite well and a new local industry was formed. In this first photograph are bottles of kumquat liqueur. There are two types of liqueur and quite tasty if I may say so. We bought some candied kumquats and some kumquat marmalade.
When we went to the kumquat place, we were on our way to Paleokastritsa. This is a beautiful beach area composed of several emerald green coves. It is a small town offers what is considered some of the finest scenery in the entire Mediterranean. The steep surrounding hillsides support the growth of many old, very old, olive trees. These trees are huge and our guide informed me that most are around 600 years old and that it is these old trees that produce the best olives. I wish that the bus had been stopped for just a few minutes to get photos of the magnificent trees.
From the beach we took the winding road up the mountain. There were several hairpin turns on a very narrow road. When we came upon a little town near a stop we were to make for photos and refreshments, we had to stop and wait for oncoming traffic to pass. The road through this little town was so narrow that traffic could go only in one direction at a time. There were red and green lights at each end of the town. After it became our turn, we realized how skilled our driver was because roof tops were only 8-10 inches from the windows of the bus.
The little restaurant we stopped at was perched on the side of a cliff. The view was really great. Oh, the food and drinks were free, well included in the price of our tour, and it was nice to relax.
We traveled back to the town of Corfu and stopped at the Old Fortress. The moat, built by the Venetians, is now used as a marina for recreational boats. The tower is the, this is a mouth full, Kerkyrapalaiofrourio.
