Highlights-Corfu, Greece
I watched a lovely sunrise over the hills of mainland Greece on the approach to the island of Corfu. I took the excursion bus to various instagrammable sites (except I don’t have an account). Being allowed to stop for photos is a function of the available bus parking (ahem, there are rules for that). There was a hilltop stop for pictures of the SW edge of the island (the narrowest part is the south end), but I passed because the light posts at the cafe were too closely spaced and the airport runway was too prominent for my picture-taking tastes. Corfu has been occupied by multiple powers over the centuries: Corinthians, Athens, Romans, Venetians, French, British, and Germans. The Ottomans tried for a long time, but had castle storming trouble and weather difficulties. Pirates came and went numerous times, but just to pillage. The longest-lasting foreign power to control the island was Venice, 400 years. Compared to the Venetians, every other occupation was just the blink of an eye. There are Roman ruins, but they just look like someone’s unfinished root cellar. After some filing off the bus and clambering back on photo opportunities (my group was wobbly), we exited for real for a guided walking tour of the old town (also named Corfu). We were left on our own for an hour of free time to wander. I returned to the ship at noon. The “back on the ship and we mean it” time was 5pm. We pulled away from the pier at 5:15. They *do* mean it. There was a “BBQ” in the pool area with music at 6:15pm. I investigated, but didn’t remain. First, without trying to be too snobby, it isn’t a BBQ without open grilling and lots of smoke (probably risky for a cruise ship covered pool area). Second, the acoustics in the pool area made it sound like the musicians were playing in an aircraft hangar. It made my teeth rattle.