Corfu; Saturday, 20 July, 2019

Given I had all my new clothes, that would last for the whole trip, I’d decided not to unpack and instead continued to live out of the M&S bag – why wear only clean clothes when you can wear new clothes! I headed down to a later breakfast that the previous morning and then, after a quick post breakfast freshen up, headed down to the bus stop to pick up the regular city bus into town.

My first stop of the morning was the St Michaels and St Georges Palace. This had been built by the British to act as their main administrative building whilst they were in charge of the United States of the Ionian Islands. Today it houses a very interesting museum focusing on Asian Art with lots of displays on Chinese and Japanese art and artefacts, as well as collections from other parts of Asia.

From there I wandered slightly around the headland and visited the Byzantine Museum of Antivouniotissa. This museum dedicated to Byzantine art is located in an old church and was very impressive – with lots of examples of church icons and religious paintings. From the museum it was a short walk down to some restaurants situated on the old Venetian City walls overlooking the sea and across to Vido island. I had a very pleasant long and filling lunch before heading on down the road to the harbour.

Vido island is located in the mouth of the harbour and has played a key strategic part in the history of the islands, though today it’s mostly known for it’s beaches. I made it down to the harbour in time to catch the hourly ferry across to Vido and after the 5 minute crossing I headed out along the path that led along the coast of the island.

Along with the beaches, the island is also known as a place where thousands of Serbian soldiers were treated during WWI. Many of them died on the island from their injuries or disease and in a secluded woodland near the South East corner of the island is a mausoleum to the memory of these soldiers. Having taken in the mausoleum I continue on my wander around the island, which – apart from the beaches – was mostly deserted. I timed my walk just about right, arriving back at the harbour just as the boat was pulling in ready to take us back over to Corfu.

Back on the mainland I wandered through the Old Town and down to the Archaeological Museum. This is another excellent museum housing a number of artefacts from the history of the island, including their star exhibit parts of the west pediment of the temple of Artemis, which was discovered close to where the modern day airport is and is one of the oldest examples of a stone pediment in Ancient Greece.

Having spent quite a long time wandering around the museum I headed back to the bus stop and caught the bus back down to Kanoni and stopped off at a bar at the very southern end of the peninsular to take in both the views across the lagoon and sea, but also the very impressive view of being at eye level with jets as they come into land on the airport runway, the start of which was located immediately below the bar.

After my drink I headed down the hill to the harbour and from there picked up one of the small boats that heads out to the small mouse island, located a couple of hundred yards off of the peninsular. The island houses another small monastery and provides excellent views of the peninsular itself. I spent a good 40 minutes or so wandering around the island and taking in the monastery before it was time to catch the ferry back to Kanoni.

Back in the harbour I wandered round to the hotels beach and used the funicular to go back up the cliff the easy way. After quickly freshening up I headed down for dinner. Once again after dinner I changed into my swimming stuff and spent another hour or so in the sea before heading back to my room, showering and turning in for the night.