Got up at a decent hour, grabbed JW a coffee and found out the bakery nearby was closed on Sunday. Lots of things closed on Sundays. UGH.
We headed out on the road and headed south towards the very tip of the island. There was a place Arkoudillas Viewpoint that had an amazing view of the southern coast. Lots of winding roads and we passed a lot of slow tourists on tiny roads, I love driving in GREECE. We arrived at a tiny village near where we wanted to go and at one point google maps wanted us to drive through someone’s backyard. UGH. I took a different way hoping it would recalculate and it wanted us to go down a dirt path. UGH. Needless to say we did not make it to Arkoudillas point, I have included a google picture so you can see what it would have looked like.
From nowhere south Corfu the next thing on the list was large inland lake that is separated from the sea by a beach with a road on it. Halikounas or something and of course it was another amazing spiraling drive through scenic southern Corfu. We arrived on the dirt road around the lake and realized there wasn’t much to see here, it was just a neat place.
Next on the list was lunch so we headed over to Boukaria Beach Taverna not far away, but oh my, it was a one lane two way road along side the sea and houses and cliffs and oh my, multiple oh shit moments there and back again. The food was tasty and the spot Devine.
After lunch we headed north along the coastal road until it told us to take another 1 lane two way road nearly straight up the side of a mountain and when we emerged, we were there, the Achilleion Palace which was built by the Austrian queen who visited it twice a year until she was murdered. The place is fucking fantastic, the problem being the actual palace is closed which nobody told us before we paid our 7 euro tickets and went inside and walked entirely around the house looking for a door and came out the other side. Definitely feeling ripped off there.
From the empty palace we continued along the palace road and hooked a right towards the airport. I have rumour to believe there is an ancient site stuck in the middle of the park there. We again drove around the entire place when google maps said we were there and we’re looking at a 10 foot fence. Luckily I spotted an entrance to something behind us so we zipped around and parked and found the Mon Repos Park, which also has a giant mansion in the middle, which we recognized from Durrels on Corfu, and if you go all the way to the end of the path, a very cool Doric Temple. Right before we got there, an American walked by and looked at us and said, do you speak English? Because you need to go to the end of this trail, there is something very cool there, very Laura Croft. We laughed, she was definitely new to Greece. We see shit like that on Crete every day. It was a smallish temple tucked into a small grove of trees facing the see and it was very cool indeed.
We wandered out of the Mon Repos Park and told ourselves we’d look that up later and headed back to the hotel. It was about 4 and I suggested since we wasted the entire morning tearing shit up in the country that we should actually go to the old fortress which is what the town is known for in the first place.
It was a 14 minute walk through old town and it was packed ! Lots of people at 4 o’clock taking advantage of free museum day (today was free museum day? Why did they charge us 7 bucks at empty palace????) anyways, we’re always in Greece on free museum day, you just never know what day it is.
We entered the old fortress through the cool gate and across the cool moat and looked up high at scenes we’ve definitely seen on UTOOB and walked around the inside when we came to the super cool church shaped like a Greek temple. Sad to know it was only a church.
The other distinguishing feature, is a large rock formation in the middle of the fortress with a lighthouse on top of it. Seeing it from far away it looked impossible, but JW coaxed me with kisses and before we knew it up the ramp to the top we went. It was actually pretty sweet and there were not too many stairs, and once we got to the top the view of the city was amazing.
I’d like to say coming back down was just as easy, but my knees have totally been tortured on this trip and today they were really kicking me in the ass.
Eventually we made it back down and saw a shortcut out of the castle. Ouch, more stairs.
Don’t come to Greece if you expect no stairs. Seriously, lots of stairs.
We walked back to the hotel after taking a few picts of random shit. Waiting for dinner.
There’s a place behind our hotel we decided to go for dinner, it was fine, some odd pasta dish, al-dente, ugh, which meat chicken, ugh. Julia got the pesto. Why are we striking out on all of our dinners on Corfu.
After dinner head over to a mini market to by some water and beer and back to the hotel for Rogue One and hit the HAY.
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