Corfu - Day 5

We planned to walk to the top of the highest mountain on Corfu today, Pantokrator at 906 metres. However we drove to the village of Strinilas to start with, which is itself at 720 metres. There were loads of switchbacks on the road up.

The path went through the village, past some plantations, then into the forest with occasional views.

As we approached the summit the vegetation disappeared and it was quite barren. We were on a good track though.

There was the occasional flat plateau that had obviously been cultivated at some point in history.

For the last stretch to the summit we had to go on the road, which is there to service the plethora of communications antennae that cover the top.

There's a monastery at the top that we went in to, and a café and gift shop.

The views all around are extensive. The seaside resorts in nearby Albania are easily visible.

We headed back by a different route, some on the road and some on tracks. We saw quite a few wild flowers growing in the forest.

After reaching the car we drove back down the mountain, and stopped for a wander and a drink at Ipsos. This is not much more than a strip of bars and restaurants behind a narrow beach.

Back at Gouvia we had decided to hire a motorboat tomorrow, so we went round a few places checking out prices. We eventually reserved one at Billy's Boats, which is right on the beach.

We walked across the main road to the supermarket for a bit more shopping, then went back to the apartment.

Dinner was the rest of the spinach pie, with peas and sweetcorn.

Corfu - Day 4

Since we'd discovered this was a free weekend for museums and attractions, we decided to go into Corfu town today to take most advantage of it. We caught the Blue Bus there rather than take the car and have to find a parking space.

We started walking towards the port, and on the way found a tunnel through the city wall which took us to the New Fortress, so we went in for a look around. The views from the top were pretty good.

We continued down to the sea front and walked round to the south.

We passed the Asian Art Museum. It's probably something we wouldn't normally have visited, but since it was free we had a look around. It was quite interesting.

Just a bit further round is the promontory on which sits the Old Fortress, the most well known attraction in Corfu town. To get to it you first cross the moat.

We then had a good walk around it all, including getting up to the highest point by the lighthouse.

We went back into the town and bought some lunch to eat in the park. Shirley had chicken gyros and Scott had pork gyros.

We had more of a wander round the streets of the old town.

We stopped at a bar for a drink, then caught the bus back to Gouvia.

It was still quite early so we went down to the beach and Scott had a swim in the sea.

After having a drink the the apartment courtyard again, we made our dinner. It was something called pizza rolls, which wasn't very appetising, and some salad.