Leaving Ioannina my first thought was that it was nice to be driving on a straight road for a change. Ha! I left early and drove for about an hour to the ferry port in Igoumenitsa, then drove my little car that doesn’t smell like it’s burning onto a very big ferry bound for the island of Corfu out in the Ionian Sea. After about an hour and a half I was in Corfu Town.

It was still early when I arrived and too early to check in to my hotel, so I decided to drive straight up to the highest peak in Corfu, Pantokrator. So much for driving straight roads. At the top is a monastery that was founded in 1360 and has exactly what every monastery needs to more efficiently commune with God, a giant cell tower. I had intended to hike some of the trails up here around the “Sinkholes of Pantokrator”, but honestly, I didn’t find it all that interesting.

The sinkholes may not have been that interesting, but the views from the monastery were unbelievable! This peak is actually closer to Albania than the Greek mainland, so I got some awesome views of some familiar places from a few years ago. In the pic below I could see Sarande, where I stayed, and the Butrint Archeological Park, both in Albania. Memmmoriesss light the corners of my minnnd…

And on the way back down I got the birds eye view of Corfu Town, where I’ll be staying the next few nights. It’s waaay at the end of the bay, on the left side of the pic.

For the next couple of days I’ll be exploring Corfu Town on foot. I’m giving the car a break and getting a much needed change of pace. My first stop was just a block away from my hotel, the New Fortress.

Corfu apparently has an Old and a New Fortress, though they’re both pretty old. The island has been a contested place for a long time. For a long time it was a major Venetian city and the New Fortress was built by them in the 16th century to expand the city’s defenses against the Ottomans. You can find Venetian lions all over the fortress, and all over town.

The New Fortress turned out to be closed so I couldn’t go inside. It’s going to be closed for the whole winter. I was actually pretty disappointed about that, but there’s nothing I can do about it so, moving on.

I made my way around the peninsula and made a quick stop at the Church of Our Lady of Antivouniotissa, which conducts services only a couple times per year. Mostly it acts like a small Byzantine museum. The inside was really pretty though.

The downtown area is just made for aimlessly wandering around. Lots of beautiful Venetian and French architecture, lots of shops, and lots of food. I however, am not aimless, I have a plan, so I checked out the Palace of St Michael and St George. It was completed in 1824 and was the headquarters of the British Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. The British occupied the island for some time in the 19th century. Inside was a surprisingly comprehensive Asian art museum.

Corfu is not immune to randomly finding ruins when you’re trying to build a house either. Someone found this 6th century BC tomb while digging a foundation. Its dedicated to Menekrates, who apparently was a Corfiote ambassador who died at sea. It was adorned with a big marble lion which is now in the Archeology Museum.

The advantage of traveling in the winter is less people and cheaper everything. The disadvantage is that just about everything closes at 330pm. So I get up early and try to go to all the places that close first. My second morning I started at the Old Fortress, which is actually only slightly older than the new one.

During Byzantine times this was the city itself. When the Venetians took over in the 15th century they heavily renovated the area to what it is now and moved the city off the peninsula to the west.

The views from the top were pretty amazing. The British also added their touches. In the pic below you can see the British hospital added in the 19th century. Below that you can see the Venetian prison while looking off towards Pantokrator, Corfu’s high point.

And across town I got a better view of the New Fortress, which is closed for the winter, grrrrrrr!

The other British addition to the fortress is the Church of St George. The inside is pretty sparse, but it’s an impressive building.

Finally I made it to the small but very interesting Archeology Museum. I was unclear where exactly this temple fragment came from, but the bearded guy in front is Dionysius.

I also got to see the Menekrates lion which decorated the round tomb in the middle of town.

Supposedly the most important temple in Corfu was once the 6th century BC Temple of Artemis. There’s really nothing left at the actual site, but all the artifacts found there now live here in the museum. How did they know it was a Temple of Artemis? Because they found about a million little Artemis votive statues at the site. The ones in the pic below are just a fraction of them.

The best part was the remains of the west wall from the Temple of Artemis, featuring Medusa. For a temple where there was almost nothing remaining, this was pretty impressive.

Right in the middle of downtown among all the narrow streets was the Church of St Spyridon. I read that a lot of the buildings in this area are actually French from when Napoleon briefly occupied Corfu.

For a small church it was actually pretty amazing inside. The little room to the right of the alter is where the silver coffin that contains the remains of The 4th century St Spyridon is. He was from Cyprus, but now he’s here and is the patron saint of Corfu in case you haven’t guessed yet.

The church is also well known for its magnificent painted ceiling. This place was a real treat.

Corfu has a fair amount of ruins, mostly located at the edge of town. First, a pic of the Temple of Artemis. Like I said, there’s really nothing left. It looked like just a few rocks in an empty lot.

There wasn’t much left of these next two places either, but they were interesting. These Roman Baths were right on the side of the road. Also, right across the street were the ruins of a 6th century BC naval base, the former Alkinoos Harbor. They had a navy in the 6th century BC? Apparently.

The Mon Repos park to the south of the city is a place mainly for joggers and dog walkers, but there’s also some cool ruins inside, so let’s go.

There wasn’t much left of the Temple of Apollo. Right near it though, the Temple of Hera had a bit more. There were some other foundations nearby so apparently it was a whole complex of some sort.

The highlight, though, was the Doric Temple. It was clearly the most intact and most interesting. Ironically, this is the one temple that they can’t figure out who it was dedicated to. The park and the temples were all free, but I did pay a fairly high price because Mon Repos park is mosquito central. My arms and legs are gonna be on fire for a few days!

For my last day on Corfu I got back in the car and drove out to some other parts of the island. First was the famous Achilleion Palace.

Achilleion Palace was built by the Austria-Hungarian Empress Elisabeth in 1890. She apparently didn’t like court life and wanted a place to isolate. She hired the best Italian painters to decorate the inside and created quite an amazing sculpture garden outside. Unfortunately, the inside was closed for renovations. I’m not doing so well in Corfu with the closures, but the gardens were at least open. That’s Empress Elisabeth below right.

Elisabeth’s ideal Greek hero was Achilles, so she named the place after him and the gardens feature two very famous sculptures of him. The one below is the marble Dying Achilles.

And at the end of the garden is the giant bronze Victorious Achilles. She had some pretty amazing views of Corfu Town as well.

Next up was a drive to the northwest part of the island to see the 13th century Byzantine Angelokastro. After driving all the way up there it turned out to be closed. What?! No! It’s definitely supposed to be open today. Whatever! This time I was mad!

I had my lunch next to the locked gate half hoping someone would show up. Maybe they just went to lunch too or something, but no one came. Then… and this is for the record by the way… I did not, DID NOT circumvent the locked gate by hiking through the nearby olive grove, thereby accessing the steep steps of doom out of view of the cameras and climbing to the top only to discover that the main entrance to the castle (a tunnel) was gated and locked too (allegedly) and that the rocks and castle walls were much too precarious to scale up and over (also allegedly). Those Byzantine architects are infuriating sometimes (so I’m told).

I wrapped up my day by heading far south to another 13th century Byzantine castle, Gardiki Castle. Luckily this one had no hours at all. It’s just sort of there so you can visit whenever you want.

All that’s left of Gardiki Castle is basically just the outer wall, but it was still awesome to see. I ended up not staying very long, though, because this castle is now home to masses of marauding mosquitoes. These guys were worse than the ones at Mon Repos Park. When I was packing for this trip I decided I wouldn’t need my skeeter repellant. “It’s Greece, I won’t need skeeter repellant for Greece”. Ha!

I have a super early ferry ride back to the mainland in the morning, so now it’s time for dinner, try not to itch my legs too much, and to pack up for my next quick stop tomorrow. Stay tuned…