Honeymoon Day 14: Corfu Part I

The next morning we got up and checked out of our beautiful hotel. It was hard to say goodbye to Kalambaka and the gorgeous monasteries. I wish we had more time there, but we had to make it to Corfu that evening. We drove from Kalambaka to the Port of Igoumenitsa, about 2 hours away. The drive felt a lot longer than it was; we were tired and frustrated at the prospect of having to get on yet another ferry.

We finally made it to the Port of Igoumenista. We parked the car, hauled all of our luggage out of the back of the car, juggling bags, hats, my purse, our tickets, and Don (who refused to stay in the luggage). We dragged everything across the hot parking lot, getting our share of a workout. Along the way we noticed that the parking lot and area in front of the port was filled with people “camping.” I use the term loosely because everyone looked homeless. It was bizarre. Some people had erected tents between two small trees out of a sheet; others stretched clothing across the tops of van doors to create awnings; other people pitched actual tents right in the middle of the parking lot and were sleeping away. Most of the people looked clean, and they had children and snacks and nice cars with them, which, while it made my heart less heavy, added to the confusion. We finally made it into the air conditioned area and looked around for our ferry. We couldn’t find it. Andy is this the right port? It has to be, he answered.

I stayed with the luggage while Andy went to ask someone at one of the other kiosks. He returned a short time later and announced we were in the international port terminal, with ferries to Syria and Egypt. Apparently they did not depart often, which explain the numerous “campers” outside the ferry. We picked up all our stuff, and hauled it back through the parking lot, carefully stepping over these campers. We breathed a sigh of relief that we had not accidentally headed to Syria (could you imagine?!). We found our ferry just a couple blocks down, put our luggage in their storage area and found some nice seats on the outside deck. The ferry ride to Corfu was only about an hour. The ferry ride was relaxing and beautiful, with gorgeous views of the Ionian Sea. Don loved the ferry ride; we even saw some dolphins swimming beside us, but they were going too fast to take a picture.

Fort seen from the ferry

Don enjoying the ferry ride

On the ferry

Corfu is a magnificent place. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, along with Ereikoussa, Mathraki, and Othnoi. What makes Corfu interesting is its presence in the earliest Greek mythology stories. Its Greek name, Kerkyra, came from Poseidon (God of the Sea) and Asopos (a river in Greece). Corfu has a compelling history; it sits in a prime location for trade and naval battles. Indeed, the entire island is dotted with castles and forts strategically placed around the perimeter of the island. Corfu has a special place in Greek history due to its role in fortifying Greece against the Ottoman Empire. Corfu repelled numerous sieges from Turkey, and eventually fell to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars. With the Treaty of London in 1864, Corfu became a part of Greece.

We made it to Corfu, unloaded our stuff and began the trek to find our hotel. We got lost part way there, I had a mini-meltdown due to the heat, and we hailed a cab. We eventually made it to the Cavalieri Hotel. It was a an older, beautiful building set in the Venetian area of Corfu town. It was ancient and posh, with the scariest/antiquated elevator I had ever seen. I learned to love it. You had to open an exterior door, press the elevator button, and enter the elevator. It wouldn’t go up unless the exterior door was closed. It was confusing, but fun once you got the hang of it.

Don on our hotel balcony.

View from our hotel

Another view

Front of the hotel

The elevator

Some of the more involved activities we wanted to do while on Corfu would have taken longer than the time we had left after checking into our hotel. We decided to save those activities for the next day. We decided to walk along the wharf to find something to eat. We wandered down along the wharf-line and found a cute little ice cream/coffee restaurant with a small menu of desserts, salads, and pizzas. We found a nice table by the water and split a pizza.

View from our table.

View of the side of the fort from our table.

From our table we could see a small sandy beach area towards the bottom on the opposite side of the fort. It appeared like people were sunning and swimming down there but we couldn’t figure out if it was a private beach or, if it was public, how to access it. We asked our waiter who explained it was public and pointed us to a staircase on the opposite side of the street. We decided to visit it before dinner after seeing Andy’s James Bond Casino.

In For Your Eyes Only, James Bond visits Corfu and goes to a casino on the island. It’s a famous scene filmed at an actual casino on Corfu. We had figured out it was just a couple blocks down from our hotel at Casino Corfu, although we determined this was not actually where the casino was at the time of filming, but had actually been moved here. The movie was shot in 1981, where, at the time, the casino was inside the Achiellon Palace built in 1890 for the Empress of Austria. A majority of the scenes where shot at the palace. During World War I the palace was utilized as a military hospital and was later turned over to the Greek state after the war. World War II saw the palace being used as housing for the axis powers. The Hellenic tourist organization took over the property in 1983. The Casino Corfu, used in the movie was moved to the Corfu Hilton. This blog does a great rundown of the history of Casino Corfu, as well as other James Bond locations to visit.

After the casino trip, we made our way down to the beach area for a dip. It was a nice secluded area with cool water and beautiful views of the Ionian Sea. Don came with us to sun.

Andy at the top of the stairs to our beach

Not dead. Sunning.

Andy waving from the sea.

For dinner that night, Andy had made us reservations at the Cavalieri Rooftop Bar, recently named by CNN travel as one of the 50 best rooftop bars in the world (it was #13 out of 50). It was phenomenal. Fancy and elegant with beautiful table settings, a gorgeous bar, and a compelling overall design, the Bar/Restaurant boasted the best views of Venetian Corfu and their long cobbled streets and never-ending Ionian sea views. We had a romantic table with awesome views. During dinner, a local high school band was playing in the courtyard area. They were very talented and added a nice touch to our dinner.

View from our table.

The band playing.

I’m not a big hard-alcohol drinker, it always makes my stomach hurt. But, Greece was a nice excuse to order super fancy drinks with more nonsense in them than alcohol. The Cavalieri Rooftop Bar had a huge list of these fancy drinks, complete with umbrellas. I ordered a “Jamaican Champagne,” also known as an “Old Jamaican,” made with bitters, lime juice, mint, cane simple syrup, rum, and champagne. It was tasty!