World Cruise Day 79/152 - Corfu, Greece - I can see Albania from here

Cruise day: 79/152

Ports days: 28
Sea days: 51
Countries: 13
Continents: 4
Ports: 20

As I pulled the blinds back this morning, we were approaching the dock and the sun was rising over Corfu, Greece.

Corfu is an island just west of mainland Greece.

If you look closely at this map, you can see that just east of Corfu, there is a very thin strip of Greece along the shore with Albania directly behind it - that's where some of the snowcapped peaks we can see reside

Our tour took us into the town of Corfu, on the island of Corfu. Along the way, we passed some ruins.  History goes way back here, well into the BC era.  The area has been ruled by the Venetians, who defended the island from Ottoman sieges.  Ultimately, the island fell under British rule until it was ultimately ceded to Greece in the mid-1800s.

The old fort - started in the 6th century AD, and fortified in the 11th and 12th centuries, it has been here for a while

On the way, we stopped at an overlook where we caught one of only two inbound flights to Corfu daily.

The airport runway is built on reclaimed land over the water

We made another stop where there were panoramic views of the snowcapped peaks across the water and over the shore area of mainland Greece in Albania.

After our brief stop, we continued on into the city where we stopped in front of the old fort - one of two forts that were used to defend Corfu.

We then toured the city, walking from the square along cobbled streets and through narrow alleys.

Some of the passages were quite narrow

A vendor had this handy translation guide out for us

Some of the streets were paved with this beautiful volcanic rock

We had free time after the walking tour.  We had seen enough of the city so rather than just hang out and wait for the tour bus, we opted to walk the roughly 4km back to the ship.  The temperatures were hovering in the upper 40s but there was little wind and beautiful, intense sunshine, so it was a lovely day for a stroll.

The water was extremely clear and had beautiful shades of green and blue

The new fort - barely broken in and still with that new fort smell, the new fort was constructed in the late 1500s to the early 1600s by the Venetians

The pier is "L" shaped.  At the corner of the "L", where we were making a right turn to where our ship was docked, this warning sign was displayed for those foolish enough to continue without turning. If there's a warning sign, it is probably because someone has done it.

We ate a light lunch and decided to take advantage of people being off the ship and do a load of laundry.  From the time we got up until we left for our excursion, the internet was once again completely down.  Since it was back up this afternoon, I took advantage and got the photos processed and loaded into the blog, just in case we're slow again tonight.

Standing out on our balcony and looking toward the back of the ship, we can get a great view of the city, including both the old and new forts.

That's the old fort on the left and the new fort on the right

Old fort

New fort

Here's a view of the city with the old fort on the left and the bell towers visible

The other thing we saw was more of the nonstop maintenance going on to keep the Viking Star in ship shape.

Powerwashing the ship - we always see the crew painting as well - there is always some maintenance happening every single day

As we set sail, the scenery was lovely. These were with my cell phone, so sorry about the lower quality.

Then, on cue, Mother Nature presented a stunning sunset as a farewell for now to Greece.  We will see you again in ten days.

Tomorrow is another sea day.  After that, we hit our seven-day port extravaganza:

• Kotor, Montenegro
• Split, Croatia
• Venice (Fusina), Italy (two days)
• Zadar, Croatia
• Dubrovnik, Croatia (two days)

We'll be ready for a sea day after that, and then three more port days in Greece before our journey south through the Suez Canal to Saudi Arabia. At least it will be warmer there!

Tonight, since we're heading back west, we gain an hour, going to UTC +1.  It seems odd as the US will shift to UTC -4 for daylight saving time tonight.  So, we'll go from 7 hours ahead of the US east cost to 5 hours ahead overnight.  Strange.

I have a special blog planned for tomorrow.  Stay tuned!