We had booked a short tour but were going to cover lot of ground. The first thing we did after we disembarked at the dock in Corfu was to pass through the city and travel about 10 kilometres up the hill, to the Achilleion Palace. There were two notable former owners of this impressive property and both were important royals in Europe at the turn of the 19th Century. Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria, built the palace beginning in 1888 and spent time there until she was assassinated in 1898. She was the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I who ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire for 68 years. The second owner was Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, who bought it from Elisabeth's family in 1907. The famous Kaiser can be said to have helped bring on WWI. Both owners left their mark on the property and much original artwork and personal belongings from both owners can be viewed there today. Gym and Mrs Gym were most impressed with the statues of Achilles in the gardens and the ornate wooden furniture that was designed for Elisabeth.
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| the gardens of Achilleion |
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| This is one of several pieces of artwork where Achillies is the subject. It is a true masterpiece showing the agonizing death of our hero who has beed hit in the ankle by a poison arrow. |
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| The palace which served as a casino for a while before it was a museum, also served as a set for the James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only". |
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| A life size statue of Elisabeth of Bavaria who is said to have been over 6 feet tall. Amazingly she maintained a 20-inch waist even after having a son. |
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| Mrs. Gym found the current owner of the palace who was very friendly, arching her back and kneading the cement. |
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| The second statue of Achilles was donated by the Kaiser and this one is not life size. It is 10 meters tall overlooking the sea. |
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| This is part of the cool stuff the Kaiser left behind. The model ship is the Kaiser's yacht that he used to get to Corfu. It had a very large crew and apparently to be a member of the crew you had to be able to play a musical instrument |
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| Elisabeth left the most amazing set of bedroom furniture. Each piece featured hand-carved wooden decoration including the face of Medusa to ward off evil. |
After checking out the palace, we drove down to sea level and back towards the city. Before climbing back up into the city the road came to a stop light where it passed the end of the runway for the Corfu International Airport. Apparently, if a plane is taking off or landing while you are about to cross the end of the runway you get a red light so you don't get landing gear messing up your wax job.
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| Looking back on the cruise ship from above the airport |
It was warm and sunny when we came to the last part of the guide's itinerary, a walking tour of the medieval city centre. The centre of the old city of Corfu is where you see some really cool narrow streets paved with well-worn, marble paving stones. The streets are lined with Venitian-style three and four story houses hewed out of native stone and adorned with balconies and tile roofs. There are many churches in town but the coolest one is the Church of St. Spiridon. It has the tallest bell tower in the Ionian Islands and contains the remains of St. Spiridon himself. It is a very beautiful church on the inside but is rather unassuming on the outside except for the bell tower. Gym and Mrs. Gym did not get enough time to fully explore this historic part of the city and were not able to check out the fortresses that protect it. We will have to come back.
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| bridge from the old town to the Venetian citadel which stands guard over Corfu. |
Mon Repos Mansion of Sir Frederick Adam,
Lord High Commissioner
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| Church of St. Spiridon Bell Tower |
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| narrow marble paved streets and angular medieval buildings |
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| greek musicians in one of the city squares |
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