Corfu

It's 12.25 pm here in Corfu, and another glorious and VERY hot day! I've just spoken with Andrew on Skype again, Michelle will be at her concert with Christ's College. Thanks for the comment on yesterday's entry, Mark.

Before I go on, please check the entry for Katakolon, I've added some more at the bottom to describe how we spent the rest of the day there.

Today we got up early, in the hope of beating the heat and the crowd into town. Actually, we are the only ship in the port, and so we have found things a lot less crowded. We had a 20 minute walk along the port to get in to the town. That walk does NOT give a good first impression of this town - broken buildings, broken windows, rubbish lying around, and graffiti.

We first went into the 'new' fort and climbed to the top of that for some amazing views. This fort is renowned for its strategic construction, and we could see why.

Next we wandered through the narrow streets and found ourselves in a kind of square or esplanade area with a lot of trees and grass (not very well groomed, but pleasant all the same). And whilst here we came across a 'noddy' train so we hopped on for 5 Euros each and a 40 minute narrated tour around the bay. We saw the place where Prince Philip was born, and drove through some residential areas (very run down and lots of graffiti) and some ancient areas. Then back along the foreshore with its lovely views. We saw the 'old' fort but didn't go into this one. We sat at a cafe and looked across the bay to the island, and views across to Albania. I had a coke and David had a ginger beer that he said had a bit of a bite to it!

Then we wandered through some more of the old narrow streets in the old town area, where there are lots of the same shops we've seen elsewhere. We bought some Koum Kouat Liquor - yum! I also had a wee sample of some ouzo, and that was ok. We also walked past the Palace of Sts Michael and George, and the Church of St Spyridon.

We've just been pottering around, half looking at the shops, and now we're updating the blog and I hope to upload some more photos before we head back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon. This might be our last chance as I'll be dependent on the ship's slow internet and I only have about 50 minutes left on that. It's a sea day on the way to Venice tomorrow.