Wednesday 5 June 2019

Corfu City

A Too-Short Visit on a Drizzly Afternoon

Arriving in Corfu

Greece

Corfu

Leaving home just after 4am, we caught the 7.45 flight from Birmingham, arriving in Corfu 3½ hours later at 13.15 (local time). We were picked up by a taxi driver whose name may or may not have been Spiros and taken to our hotel via the offices of a ferry company where we collected our tickets for tomorrow.

Between checking-in and departing for Albania at 9 next morning we had time to investigate the island’s capital – a cursory glance maybe, but long enough to realise it deserved more.

Corfu, with abundant cheap tourist flights, is ideally placed for a tour of southern Albania

Lunch in Corfu

After taking some pictures of the ferry port from our hotel window…

We have to walk down there to find the ferry for Albania tomorrow morning

...we went to find a late lunch. Lynne had never been to Greece before and my experience was limited to a day in Athens in 1966 (I was 15), but with a basic knowledge of Greek food and expecting multi-lingual menus on a holiday island it seemed – and indeed was - a simple task.

I picked stuffed vine leaves and Lynne chose pork doner kebab in pita bread – the chips were not mentioned on the menu. The café owner talked us into sharing a dish of tzatziki with excellent crusty bread and then suggested we try the more expensive Corfu beer. This enthusiast run micro-brewery opened on the island in 2006 and produces a wide range of beers. Their (darkish) pilsner was seriously good; had we been staying longer we would have tried more.

Dolmadaki, tzatziki and gyro, Corfu

Corfu: A Walking Tour in the Rain

We then set off on a walking tour. In June, sunshine and a temperature of 28º would be typical, we got rain and 23º - oh, well.

With Old Corfu City a UNESCO World Heritage site and the island’s tourism industry thriving we would have expected some immunity to the financial woes that have beset Greece for the last decade, but the town looked a bit down at heel. Grass grew through cracks in the pavement and the road to the ferry port had a number of derelict buildings.

That said, there are several pleasing parks and in one purple bougainvillea nodded above a dozen tables with chess boards. Nobody was playing – but who plays chess in the rain?

Chess boards beneath the bougainvillea - and the rain - Corfu

Venetian Corfu

The Old and New Forts

The city has two forts, an old one by the sea…

Corfu's Old Fort

…and a new one on the hill behind.

Corfu's New Fort

Both were built by the Venetians in the 16th century, the ‘New’ Fort being barely 30 years younger than the ‘Old’ Fort. I only noticed the Venetian Lion of St Mark over the gate to the New Fort in the evening as we walked back to our hotel after dinner.

Venetian Lion of St Mark over the entrance to the New Fort, Corfu

After the usual shifting loyalties of antiquity, Corfu became part of the Byzantine Empire, forming a strategic link between its east and west. As the Byzantine Empire started to fade the Venetian Republic took over, ruling the island from 1386 until Napoleon destroyed the power of Venice in 1797. The rest of Greece, meanwhile, was under Ottoman rule. Although the Ottomans tried hard to take Corfu in the 16th century – hence the two forts – they were repulsed.

The old town has tall buildings and narrow passageways in typical Venetian style. It is all pedestrianised but as some streets are too narrow for cars…

The narrow streets of the old city, Corfu

…and others have too many steps there is little choice.

Street in the old city, Corfu

Exploring the narrow streets and looking at the many shops we found much we would have liked to buy and take home – mostly food and drink – but this was the first day of our travels and we were reluctant to cart our trophies all the way round Albania and back.

Narrow shopping streets in Corfu

Corfu After the Venetians

After the Venetians' demise Corfu became a Departement Français, then briefly the capital of the self-governing federation of the Ionian islands under Ottoman suzerainty, and then French again. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Treaty of Paris (1815) created the United States of the Ionian Islands under the protection of the United Kingdom.

Corfu As a British Protectorate

The United States of the Ionian Islands

The British stayed in Corfu until 1864, the High Commissioner residing in Corfu City. During this time the British built new roads, improved the water supply system, upgraded the French founded Ionian Academy into Greece’s first modern university and made Greek the official language.

They also left some neo-classical buildings around the huddle of the old Venetian town, including the Palace of Saints Michael and George, now Corfu’s highly regarded Museum of Asian Art.

The Museum of Asian art, Corfu

Cricket is another legacy of British rule. The game is largely unknown in the rest of Greece, but the Hellenic Cricket Federation (based in Corfu) organises a Greek national championship involving 20 clubs, almost all of them from Corfu. The island is also an understandably popular venue for tours by clubs from more established cricket playing nations. The grassy expanse of Spianada Square facing the Museum of Asian Art is maintained as a cricket ground.

Spaniada Square, Corfu. A matting wicket and an outfield ready for the mower

Meanwhile on the Mainland

While the Corfiotes were peacefully learning cricket, Greece was busy removing the Ottomans. By 1828 the fighting was mostly over and Ioannis Kapodistrias, a Corfiote (we had landed at the airport named after him) became the first head of state of a modern independent Greece. Kapodistrias was assassinated in 1831 and the Conference of London was hastily convened to ensure Greece had a stable government and internationally agreed borders. Greece, the Great Powers (Britain, France and Russia) decided, should be a monarchy and they offered the throne to Prince Otto of Bavaria (why? search me, but spare German princelings were fashionable in the 19th century).

Newly independent Greece, much smaller than modern Greece, was anxious to acquire those surrounding territories traditionally inhabited by Greeks, including Corfu and the other Ionian Islands. Britain had no problem with this in principle, but developed major problems with King Otto, so hung on until Otto was deposed in 1862 and the Greek National Assembly obediently elected Prince William of Denmark to be the next king.

Corfu Becomes Part of Greece - Links with the British Royal Family

Greece received the Ionian Islands as a coronation present when Prince William of Denmark became King George 1 of Greece (why George? Dunno). George I would become the grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Greece as it was in 1832, and how it became what it is now
Thanks to Wikipedia, Adam Carr and Dr Kay

The Duke of Edinburgh was born on Corfu in 1921, in Mon Repos, a villa just too far away for us to walk in the rain, not that there is anything to see. How this grandson of a Greek King and great-grandson of a Danish King became an officer in the British Royal Navy and married the heir to the British throne is another story.

The Durrells and St Spyridon

I am surprised to have persevered this far without mentioning ‘The Durrells’ other than an oblique reference in paragraph 1. Based on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy it was undemanding, feel-good Sunday evening viewing, I may have watched all 26 episodes over the last four years. Spiros, the taxi driver who takes the Durrell family under his wing after their arrival on Corfu, was played by Alexis Georgoulis. It was a nuanced performance giving Spiros humanity, compassion and the ability to be spun round by his own moral compass. In the 1987 version called, like the first book in the trilogy, My Family and Other Animals, Spiros was played by Brian Blessed – a national treasure, perhaps, but a total stranger to ‘nuance.’ My memory of the book is that Spiros was closer to the Brian Blessed version, but as I read it the early 60s, my memory may be unreliable.

And that paragraph was prompted by catching sight of the bell tower of the Church of St Spyridon down a narrow alley.

The bell tower of St Spyridon's, Corfu City

St Spyridon, as Spiros tells the Durrells, is the patron saint of Corfu and that Spiros is (or was then) the commonest boy’s name on the island.

Outside St Spyridon's, Corfu City

St Spyridon was born around 270 in Cyprus. He was a shepherd until his wife died, then went into a monastery where he worked his way up, becoming a bishop and playing an important part in the Council of Nicaea (325). He is credited with several miracles and died in Cyprus in 348. He never visited Corfu during his life. When the Arabs took Cyprus his body – which was found not have decayed (another miracle) - was taken to Constantinople, and when that fell to the Ottomans in 1543 he was moved to Corfu, where he is credited with expelling the plague from the island and defending it from the Turks – quite a trick from beyond the grave.

His body, which appears to have undergone natural mummification, lies in a chapel to the right of the altar. Hemmed in by other buildings, a satisfactory photograph of the outside is impossible, while photographs of the inside are forbidden and St Spyridon is closely watched. He features prominently in an early anecdote in My Family and Other Animals so I wanted a photo, but I had to settled for a good look and I have ‘borrowed’ a picture from his own website.

St Spryidon in his casket

Edward Lear

Making our way back to the seaward side, we came across the residence of Edward Lear. Best known now as a nonsense poet, Lear was also a traveller, artist and illustrator. Corfu was his winter base from 1855, through the final years of the British Protectorate and after until he finally moved to San Remo in 1870. According to the plaque he spent part of that time in this house – I think the graffiti is later.

Edward Lear's residence, Corfu

That was the end of our walking tour, though we did stroll down to the ferry port to see how long the walk would take in the morning (about 15mins).

Dinner in Corfu

Being in Greece it seemed appropriate to go out about 8 o’clock for a glass of ouzo – the lovely little appetizer, cheese, olives and ham came gratis.

Pre-prandial ouzo, Corfu

We then headed for a restaurant we had ear-marked earlier. Ordering grilled squid we asked about bottled wine as the menu only offered carafes. For a steep €25 we were offered a Malagouzia from Monemvasia in south-east Greece. Malagouzia is a Greek variety once thought extinct that has grown in popularity since its rediscovery in the 1970s. A fully dry, clean and well-made wine it had an austerity that made up for acidity lost to the southern sun. Usually described as ‘floral’ it did not seem that to us, but then floral would not suit squid. An unusual wine to our palates, but a perfect partner to a perfectly grilled squid.

As fine a grilled squid as one could wish for, Corfu

Albania

Part 1: Ksamil on the Albanian Riviera
Part 2: Butrint and the Blue Eye
Part 3: Gjirokastër
Part 4: Berat
Part 5: Tirana
Part 6: Tirana to Saranda

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Corfu: A Fleeting Visit

Tuesday 4 June 2019

The South West Odyssey: The Last Post

The South West Odyssey was a long distance walk.

Five like-minded people started in 2008 from the Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire and by walking three days a year finished at Start Bay on the South Devon Coast in May 2019.

[Links to all 31 posts can be found at the end of this one]

So, it is finished. After 36 days walking over 12 years we have arrived at the end.

On our journey from the Shropshire Hills to South Devon we walked 660km through 5 counties: Shropshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Devon,

The South West Odyssey (English Branch) to use its full name

crossed two National Parks (purple on the map):

Exmoor

Exmoor was a delight, dry springy ground to walk on and blue sky above. (Day 25)

and Dartmoor,

Dartmoor ponies and Haytor Tor, Dartmoor (Day 31)
Wet, misty and boggy, I did not get the best of Dartmoor (though others fared better)

and 6 of England’s 34 ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ (yellow on the map)

The Shropshire Hills

Alison on the top of Caer Caradoc in the Shropshire Hills (Day 1)
Our starting point, the Cardingmill Valley in the Long Mynd, is just the other side of Church Stretton, the town in the valley

The Malvern Hills

On the Malvern Ridge. (Day 6)
Here the path descends before the climb to the Herefordshire Beacon

The Cotswolds

Natural beauty is not always enhanced by human activity, but sometimes..... (Day 11)
Bagenden Church has a 15th century nave and a Norman tower, but this site was used for religious observance long before Christianity or the Romans came to these shores

The Mendip Hills

Our trip across the Mendips started with a gentle climb up to a dull, flat grassy plain. Ho, hum.
Then suddenly the ground dropped away, down to the village of Wookey Hole. Glastonbury Tor can also be seen on the skyline two-thirds left (Day 17)

The Quantock Hills

The Quantocks gave us a lovely walk in pleasant sunshine along a high(ish) moorland ridge (Day 22)

South Devon

Most of our time in the South Devon AONB was spent on the coastal path. (Day 35)
I think we were all impressed and perhaps surprised by the variety of scenery and walking conditions we met on our litoral perambulation

We crossed many rivers and streams including

The Rea, the Teme, the Severn,

The River Severn at Upton-upon-Severn (Day 7)

the Churn, the Chew, the Brue, the Cary,

The River Cary struggling to flow across the Somerset Levels (Day 19)

the Parrett, the Tone, the Barle,

The River Barle at Withybridge on Exmoor. It shortly joins the Exe and together they continue south to Exeter (where else?)
I took the photo from outside a café which sells a memorable cream tea (Day 25)

the Teign, the Dart, the Webburn,

The exuberant little River Webburn rushes down from Dartmoor and under Buckland Bridge to join the Dart a drop-kick behind my back when I took the photo. (Day 31)
The bridge, built in the 1780s to replace an earlet version, was payed for by public subscription

and no less than three River Avons (or should that be Rivers Avon), Shakespeare’s Avon.

Crossing 'Shakespeare's', the largest of the Avons, in Worcestershire not far above its confluence with the Severn (Day 7)

the ‘Bristol' Avon

Walking the Avon Way. We crossed the river where it is joined by the Chew in Keynsham (Day 16)

and the ‘Devon’ Avon (twice)

Francis and I on the magnificent Huntingdon Warren Clapper Bridge over the young River Avon on Dartmoor (Day 33)

and let us not forget the mighty Cressal Brook on Day 2

Brian swings across a chasm to cross the Cressall Brook (Day 2)

We also crossed the M5 (twice) and the M4, but I will spare you the photos.

Homer’s Odyssey described a ten-year journey across a small part of the eastern Mediterranean. It clearly did not involve a direct route. Neither did ours; after 3 years walking we were well east of our starting point, and on Day 12 ('Around Stroud on the Cotswold Scarp') we walked 18km and finished only 6km form our starting point. But then, it was about the journey, not the destination.

I asked the other Ody-ists for their comments. The brief was deliberately vague, the only stipulation was 150 words – and that was ignored by all. Francis decided to write about the route, he did all the route planning and booking of accommodation, a difficult job done supremely well, so he has earned the right.

THE ROUTE PLANNER SPEAKS

As the guy who plans each year’s walk, I have to say that it has been an excellent walk with each year taking us through fantastic scenery (even in the Somerset Levels). There have been four occasions when we have veered off the general south or south west trend. First, after we completed the traverse of the Malverns we headed east to climb Bredon Hill and get in line for the Cotswolds. Second, I encountered my only opposition to my route planning in the Cotswolds. Alison, with local knowledge (she lives in Cheltenham), correctly decided my route was rubbish and instigated the infamous ‘Alison Loop’ which we had to walk in inclement weather. Our third veering off was after we walked The Levels, we headed north west along the Quantocks and did a short stretch of the Somerset Coast between Watchet and Blue Anchor. And our final veering off was on the very last day after clearing Prawle Point and Start Point we headed north into Start Bay for a convenient point to set off for home.

Francis

It was a brilliant route with a huge variety of countryside and took me (and, I expect, others) to places I had never been before. The ‘Alison Loop’ was the Day 12 referred to above; it would have been an excellent walk but for the lousy weather. And I rather liked the Somerset Levels.

The Somerset Levels viewed from the towering height of Lollover Hill, all 90m of it (Day 19)

Mike, though, was less concerned with the mechanics of the route..

Has it really been twelve years of memorable three-day walks in order to reach Britain's south Devon coast from Shropshire? Yes, but my memories are not so much of wonderful English countryside, though there was much of that, but of the friends that I walked with and the shared experiences. The times I, and often others, spent walking varying distances behind Francis…

I had no shortages of pictures of Francis' back to choose from. Here we are entering Withypool on Exmoor at the end of Day 24

…. and the secret pleasure gained when, on occasions, he was behind me!

I don't have many pictures like this. Knowstone Inner Moor (Day 26)

Full English breakfasts,…

Full English, Brownstone Farm, between Exmoor and Dartmoor (Day 27)
(and Lynne does not even have the excuse of walking it off)

…. coffees at eleven and rarely before.

Coffee at Fire Beacon on the Quantocks. This photo timed at 11.21 (Day 22)

Pints at pubs at lunchtime,…

We are joined by Lynne and Heather for lunchtime pints in the garden of the Cross House, Doynton (Day 15)

… and stings in the tail – the short sharp hills at the ends of the day’s walks.

After climbing over Glastonbury Tor the little Wearyall Hill lived up to its name
The sting in the tail of Day 18 (and surely that's Francis' white hat 50m behind!)

But most of all the opportunities to catch up with and share family news with a small group of special people who became great friends over the years. Thanks everyone. And if I have to pick my favourite bit of the whole walk it would have be the last two of all, from Outer Hope to Torcross, a quite spectacular coast path.

Mike

I would also like to mention the many convivial dinners we have shared.

Brian and a huge fish, the Star Inn, Watchet (Day 23)
And a pint of that nasty, cloudy cider that is so popular in those parts but tastes like wet, rotting wood (so I won't be welcome back!)

I know Alison was interested in the route, but she chose instead to concentrate on time’s wingéd chariot.

Looking back, my thoughts go immediately to the changes we have all seen in our lives - getting older, retiring, children getting older and having children of their own. My biggest change has been moving away from Stafford, leaving Francis and starting a new life with a new partner. I feel tremendously grateful to Francis and the others, to have been able to continue the walk despite this change. On a practical level, it meant I could do the walks as a day trip from home for a couple of years, as we walked through the Cotswolds. Apart from all that, I have felt a bit of the "odd one out" as the only woman - especially with my sense that the other wives thought I was mad to want to walk all day. But it has been great to meet up in the evenings - always Lynne, sometimes Alison and Hilary. I have enjoyed the companionship of the walking, and the evenings, and what could be better than walking through the English countryside in the spring

No Alison, you were never in any meaningful way an “odd one out”. Although Lynne, Hilary and Alison T did indeed think you were mad – but that was their opinion of all of us (and I harbour a sneaking suspicion they might be right.)

As for other changes, Brian was the only retired member of the party in 2008, now none of us does a stroke of work and we all leach off society. And, yes, we could all supply a picture of a grandchild or two who did not exist in 2008, but if you look at the photographs of before….

Cardingmill Valley, May 2008 (Day 1)

...and after

Torpoint, Devon, May 2019 (Day 36)

…it is clear we all look younger than we did at the start (and if you'll believe that....).

Having talked about the route, the countryside and the people, perhaps I should finish with the wildlife.

I am no a birder myself, but Francis and Brian are, and I have tried to faithfully record everything they identified. If anybody wants to trawl through all 31 posts and compile a bird list, good luck to them. I will merely mention what I believe to be the highlights: common cranes circling above us on the Somerset Levels (Day 20) and cirl bunting on the south Devon coast (Day 35). Sorry no photos, that is beyond my capabilities.

Nor do I have photos of the fox strolling across James (vacuum cleaner) Dyson’s Cotswold Estate (Day 15), the muntjac deer running across the low-lying land beside the River Parrett (Day 20) or an Exmoor Stag. There were rabbits and squirrels, too, and possibly a hare that went unrecorded. I do have photographs of Dartmoor ponies (right at the start) and Exmoor and Quantock ponies, which are just about wild.

Exmoor ponies, Trisscombe (Day 25)

..and a slow worm on Day 35!

A slow worm basking in the sunshine on the South Devon Coastal Path (Day 35)

Farm animals featured as well, and they are easier to photograph. There were cute spring lambs in abundance…

Spring lambs near Exford (Day 25)

….young bullocks that run in packs in the spring, energetic, exuberant and supremely stupid…

This lot galloped round to cut us off at the gate....then meekly backed down, Avon Estuary (Day 34)

…the odd self-important cockerel...

Look at me, I am beautiful. Williton, Somerset (Day 22)

....rather more alpacas than I had expected....

These Alpacas near Chew Lake in Somerset (Day 16) were not the only alpacas we encountered

....and what would Gloucestershire be without its Old Spot pigs?

Gloucester Old Spots (Day 13)

That just about wraps it up, so I will leave the last word to Brian, who covered all bases:

For me these walks were more about meeting up with friends and enjoying their company whilst taking part in an outdoor activity rather than where we were. However, you could not fail to be impressed by what we were seeing. My highlights were seeing properties and parkland in the Cotswolds, walking through the Quantocks and meeting my first Quantock pony; seeing an Exmoor Stag in full antler growth standing in the gorse early one morning whilst positioning the car and, of course, the day walking to Prawle Point. Our accommodation varied but none reached the depth of the Commercial Hotel, Colne and I fully appreciate the difficulty that Francis has had each year to find somewhere that offered the particular combination that we required. Our final cottage was different and enjoyable. To finish I would like to thank everyone for their company and Francis for his considerable organisation - a great 12-year Odyssey.

I would like to add my thanks to everybody for your companionship and the way nobody moaned when my slowness held people up, to Francis for all the organisation, to Mike and Alison for dropping back to walk with me on some of the more challenging sections, to Brian and Francis for walking Days 21, 28, 29 and 30 with me when injury prevented me from doing it at the right time, to Hilary for hospitality when making up those days (but a small boo for Dartmoor which held back the vilest weather for those days) and to Lynne for just being there and for TLC. The one year she missed through illness I discovered how many little tasks she did that I then had to do for myself.

And that is it. We have all walked all the way from Shropshire to the South Devon Coast. It is an achievement.

Addendum

There is a little more, including the answer to ‘why did we start in Shropshire when in 2008 we all lived in and around Stafford?’

Before the English Branch there was, in 2005,6,7 The South West Odyssey (Welsh Branch).

South West Odyssey, English and Welsh Branch

And before that (roughly 2001-4) there was Go North when we walked (more than three days a year) from Stafford to Hadrian’s Wall.

The two Odysseys and Go North

And before that in 1998 (or was it 1999 - in the days before digital cameras nice clear dates are unavailable) there was Go West when we walked from Stafford to Barmouth on the Welsh Coast, linking Go West to the Welsh branch of the Odyssey, which links to the English Branch. But we started the latter two walks from different places in Stafford, fortunately the Stafford Wheel (2006-8) links everything together.

The two Odysseys, Go North and the Stafford wheel

One (or more of us?) missed some sections of Go West and/or Go North, but I think four of us have walked from Hadrian’s Wall to the South Devon Coast – with a side trip to Barmouth. I do not know how anyone else feels, but I am proud of that achievement, even if it took 20 years.

Francis has also walked from Stafford to the east coast, and in early June Brian will spend a couple of days more on the Coastal Path to link his former home in Stafford to his new home in Torquay. He now lives on the top of a hill, so there will be a sting in the tail.