Been away again … somewhere hot.

The family went off on holiday to Corfu this year. We stayed near Liapades on the west coast - a very nice it was too - the hotel was ok, the beach bar was hopelessly run - sit for table service, only to be ignored by the waitress for ages, go to bar, only to be redirected to seats unless drinking at the bar - this worked out well for the Women’s World Cup Final which I watched in the bar without buying anything. Anyway the local area was stunning and the weather possibly a tad too warm pushing 35 degrees most days. 

Some of the views from the first day - the Church was a kilometre uphill from the resort.

On the third day Thing 1 agreed to go on a little hike up to the monastery in the village of Paleokastritsa. 

Top left the bay of Paleokastritsa, top right the beginning of the Corfu trail from the resort. It required some scrambling and the was a ladder at one point to climb before levelling out and heading down to the village  and back up to the monastery of Paleokastritsa (which had a cannon of Russian origin outside it for some reason). Bottom right shows the hill with the Byzantine castle of Angelokastro - I did want to go there, but the heat would have meant starting a 6am ish (no volunteers) and the temperature was still around 24 degrees at that time. Anyway a nice little walk. 

We also did a little boat trip to see some of the caves and beaches which are only accessible by boat - absolutely gorgeous - could be Saint Nicholas’s cave, Poseidon’s cave and Paradise Beach - stayed on a beach for a couple of hours (almost burnt my feet as the sand (gravel) was so hot. 

Just before the end of the trip we headed over to Corfu Town - where we met with Keeno and family who were staying in the north of the island. However before we met up we had a little wander around the Old Fort (there is a new fort in the town as well, but I didn’t get to visit that one - next time).

The statue on the left is of Johann von der Schulenburg, who successfully defended Corfu (on behalf of the Venetians) from the Ottomans in 1716 - and probably had some influence on the old and new Forts in the town. I found this of interest as I had read about Schulenburg before, as he was a general on the Saxon army at the battle of Fraustadt (the account of which got me interested in the Great Northern War), where he had had a much tougher time against the Swedes. So seeing his statue and reading a bit more about him is making me think I should paint the Saxon troops who are undercoated for painting … the other pictures are of the entrance with the Old Fort with the older Venetian citadel in the background, and the sea moat to the right of the gate/bridge. 

Inside the fort are a number of cannons and mortars - I think these are of British origin (well the mortars are) - top right a view of northern - sea facing fortifications. Bottom right is the British built church - very much in the classical Greek style - was Anglican while the British were running things in Corfu (1814-1864), before become Orthodox Greek - however there was an art exhibition in there on our visit. Corfu old town was a maze of small streets - lots of character, but a tad shabby. 

Anyway Corfu is great place and I would like to go again, when it is a little cooler, so we could do a bit more exploring on foot. It might also encourage me to revisit the Saxons for the Great Northern War and some (more) classical Greeks I have about the place. 

Morts