Beautiful Corfu

On Thursday, Oct. 11, we arrived in Corfu at 7 a.m. We were a little late for our planned excursion, so the cruise line put us on another tour. What a blessing in disguise!
We first took a bus to a Byzantine monastery atop a hilltop. The island reminded Ralph and I very much of Capri, Italy, one of our favorite spots. The steep, rocky cliffs drop right down into the crystal clear, turquoise water and there were only a few sandy beaches. It's called the Bay of Paleokastritsa. It's definitely a place where I could spend an entire week, just relaxing on the beach and touring the island.

The Monastery of the Virgin was just breath-taking. The Roman Catholics have nothing on the Greek Orthodox when it comes to ornate church interiors. So many silver icons and delicately painted murals on the ceilings! The monks were cloistered in their cells so, of course, we saw none of them, but their devotion was obvious. Like many churches in Europe, the interiors were fairly dark so it was difficult to get good photos, but these will give an idea of what we saw.
We saw where they made olive oil using ancient wood and stone presses.
In an adjoining museum, we saw some of their priceless icons, vestments and holy books dating back to the 13th century.
I even saw a rose and gold and white vestment that I would have looked just fabulous wearing! Ralph just rolled his eyes and quipped, "Why don't you just become a monk!
The monastery was not on our original tour so we lucked out just by being late. It was quite moving and I'm glad we got to see it.


After leaving the monastery, we went to a mansion that was built in 1891 by a very special woman, the Empress Elizabeth of Austria. The views of the Ionian Sea were just spectacular! The grounds of the Achilleion Palace were gorgeous and decorated with marble and bronze sculptures. I even persuaded Ralph to pose with one sculpture where everyone had rubbed the man's toe.
I particularly liked the sculpture above on the left. (No, I did not pose for it! But I wish I had a body that beautiful.)
After the tour, we went into Corfu Town and had a delicious pasta and seafood lunch at an outdoor restaurant that the townsfolk like. As you can see, Peter was relaxed and quite happy as were James and Ralph.
We were done with the tour by noon and spent the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying the ship. I went to the gym again, determined not to gain too much weight on the cruise. (To our surprise, when Ralph and I got home, we discovered that I gained no weight and he gained only a half-pound! Must have been all that walking around.)
That evening was the second formal night so we all got dressed up and posed for pictures before dinner.