Sunday, September 25th - Corfu, Greece
We were allowed to sleep in a bit later than usual; our presence to swap tour tickets for bus tickets wasn't required until 8:45a.
At Corfu we had a docking space so it was just walking down the gangway to locate and connect with Bus #17. Our guide, Nikkos, was very easy to understand and focused on the history of Corfu.
Note: Many photos today were taken by Gael; you can easily tell which ones are hers by the red border..
Corfu is the largest of the seven Ionean islands at 227 square miles. It's our last Greek stop on our ten day tour.  We started with a brief description of the main square in Old Corfu.
I don't know who this guy is (and Nikkos didn't either) but his sculptor didn't like him much..
..'cause his statue is real butt-ugly.
Once on the bus we headed to our first stop, a mansion constructed in the late 19th century by Empress Elizabeth of Austria to honor the great warrier Achilles.
Here's the main gate; it's called Achilleion and is now a museum:
That's "Achilleion" in Greek over the gate.
When Elizabeth commissioned the construction of Achilleion in 1889, she demanded it be completed in two years. Not only is it truly a magnificent building, it shows what can be done if you have beaucoup money; this plaque is at the entrance and shows the completion date of 1891 (and Gael's toes in her weird little excercise shoes):
The outside of the building is splendid:
Above is detail from the prior photo.
The gardens and the mansion are filled with sculpture and other art; there's so much to see.
The grounds are beautfully maintained:
And the view isn't bad, either:
Gael decided I wasn't pictured often enough:
This is the centerpiece of the garden. This statue is named "The Death of Achilles"; note the arrow from Paris' bow in his heel.
The statue is about twice life-size. Thank goodness for the ability to shorten depth-of-field; it's so hard to get photos without showing the tourists!
There is more amazing statuary throughout the grounds:
Of course, "Achilles" in Greek.
The woman above, a courtesan whose name was Frini, is said to have been the model for the Venus de Milo; she's certainly lovely enough for that to be true.
The above statue is of the English poet, Lord Byron. Everywhere we went in Greece there are statues in his honor; apparently he did much for the Greek nation.
These statues of the Nine Muses are spaced along a colonnade.
Many of the rooms are open to tourists and the art inside is unique and somewhat overwhelming:
The two images above depict Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the city of Troy to demoralize the Trojan army.
This is a photograph of a painting of Empress Elizabeth of Austria herself.
Cherubs abound (Beverly Baker will like these):
As we prepared to board our bus and leave, the young lady walking away was trying to sell us something; from the 6" heels there were several guesses as to her wares.
Our seats on the bus were just behind the mid-way door; Gael's goofy shoes attracted a lot of attention everywhere we went.
Twas a long drive back to Corfu Town and our walking tour of the old city which was located quite near the cruise ship port; of course there were ample shopping opportunities! More shopping and some walking.
This is "Mouse Island", so called because of its shape (or the fact that it's overrun with mice...)
On the ride back to the dock I saw a gas station advertising gas at 1.779. That's in Euros/liter. We think $4/gallon is a lot to pay for gas? In Corfu that translates to just under $11/gallon!
We were back onboard our ship by 1pm and lunch at the poolside cafe. I think I've had more beer in the last eight days than in the last eight months. Naptime --- no, I gotta build web pages!
Gael napped the afternoon away (deservedly).
Da boyz always enjoy a good cigar:
Tonight we ate alone again, but coincidentally right next to Bill and Phyllis Gifford. They, along with Tom and Kathy Cooper, had a great time in Corfu on the "4x4" tour. Four tourists to a jeep-equivalent, driving like bats out of hell around the island with a madman guide in the front jeep. They had a blast!
We sailed for Kotor, Montenegro at 6pm and will be setting our clocks back one hour as we cruise to the next timezone to our west. Now we'll only be six hours ahead of Atlanta time (for a while).
We enjoyed the Greek isles so much; it's sad to say goodbye to them.
Just before we sailed, the ship next to us, the Italian liner MSC Armonia sailed for its next destination. As usual, their guests lined the rails and waved; our guests waved back enthusiastically:
And then there was this guy...
Next: Montenegro!
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