Visiting Sissi

I guess, I already mentioned Empress Sissi (Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary) used to live some years on Corfu. Here palace Achilleon (called after the ancient greek hero Achill, who died during the Trojan War) is above the cliffs not far away from Corfu Town. Today, it’s a museum. Although, we were quite early (before 10 a.m.) and before the beginning of the main traveling season, the parking ground was extremely crowded. Many, many travel busses with tourists from everywhere and even more rental cars stood in front of the palace. Finally we found a tiny free parking slot and walked up to the entrance. This fact and the high entrance fee held me back to enter the area. You can visit the park and the palace. Despite I guess, it’s interesting, I skipped the visit. Instead, I walked around to find a viewpoint to see the palace from the street, but unfortunately, that’s not possible because of a fence and dense bushes behind the fence.

So, we went back to our car, followed the street downhill and came back to the coast to look for a place to spot the palace from here. Below the palace, there uses to be a bridge crossing the coastal street to connect the palace to the ocean. While the pier is still there, the bridge is gone. We stopped near the pier and tried to see the palace from here. Unfortunately, high palm trees hindered your eyes from seeing the palace from here.

Take care!

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Angelocastro

Today, I take you on a trip to the north-western coast for visiting an old castle built by the Venetian Republic many centuries ago when Corfu was part of their state.

It way uphill ist very steep, but well paved. At the foothill you can find a tiny parking lot and a restaurant. I wasn’t in the restaurant, because we have had another plan for that day.

Just in case, you plan to climb up to the castle, I’d recommend taking enough water with you. There is no option to get some (expect in the restaurant). But, it’s really worth climbing up to the castle, you have a wonderful sight over the cliffs and the sea. The air smells like a fresh pizza from all the wild herbs.

Stay tuned!

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Welcome to Corfu

Today, I’m taking you on to another trip. I’d like to introduce you to the beautiful greek island of Corfu. If you’ve read Ililas, the book written by Homer telling the stories of Odysseus wandering through the Mediterranean Sea on his trip back home to Ithaka after the end of the Trojan war, you might already read about Corfu. In those ancient times the Phaiakens used to live there. Corfu was the last station on Odysseus’ trip. They led him home to Ithaka, where he came right to save his wife and his crown. No-one believed, Odysseus might be still living 10 years after the end of the Trojan war. But, that’s a totally different story 🙂

Those of you, familiar with the Austrian Empire might think of Impress Sissi (Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary), the wife of Imperator Franz. She used to live here, in a palace called Achilleion, for some years to recover from here melancholy after her son’s death. She called the palace after Achill, another of the greek heroes during the Trojan War.

Or, if you’re familiar with the royal family of Great Britain, you’d think you HRH Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He was born in Palace Mon Repos on Corfu as Prince of Greece and Denmark.

But, I’m putting all these apart and tell you a bit more about the island itself. It’s the most norther Greek island. It’s locate in the Ionic sea, not far, west of the Albanian coast. The shortest distant is only about 1.5 km as the bird flies. West of Corfu, you can find the heel of the Italian boot (you know, the shape of Italy is similar to a top boot.

For today, I assembled a very short gallery as a starter. All of the images are taken from the balcony of our hotel around sunrise. You can see the Albanian hills on the other side of the sea and parts of the castle at the left. And many, many swallow hunting insects over the sea. The windmill on the right, can be reached from the peninsula called Mon Repos. The palace, I mentioned above can also be found here.

Stay tuned!

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