Wednesday,
August 7th 2002
Visit to the Achilleion Palace and roundtrip on
South Corfu
This time we headed south... A great ride through the green hart of the Island, impressive hills and beautiful cypress trees. After some delays on the road (it seemed everyone had the same idea today ??) we arrived at the Achilleion Palace...
This fairy tail like palace was built as a residence for the Empress Elizabeth of Austria in the 1890's. Most of us know here better as "Sissi". This palace was later acquired by Kaiser Wilhelm II and visited frequently before W.W.I broke out in 1914. The palace is now owned by the Greek nation and part of it is now a casino and hotel. We visited the main palace, which is now a very busy museum. The museum exhibits old belongings and informational material about the former royal owners....
In the Foyer, many royalties and celebrities have been entering the palace. For example, the E.C. Top 1994 reception was here as well. At the sealing a beautiful fresco, showing "the Four Seasons"
The royal owners, Elizabeth (Sissi) and Franz Josef
At the left the huge statue from Achilleus. With 5,50 meter the largest statue in the Achilleion. In 1909 the statue was assembled at this spot from many single parts, brought in from Germany, specially for Kaiser Wilhelm II, who liked to identify himself with the mythical figure. As we all know, it didn't help him to victory after all.... At the right the 9 Muses, representing nine different performance arts....
In the back of the gardens, where the Achilleus statue is dominating, one will find some superb views over the island.... The royal owners sure picked a nice location to built their "residence" !!!
After this very interesting cultural dip, we did some touring to the very south of Corfu, to the town Kavos at the very tip of the island. To be honest, I was expecting an old fishers town, bit authentic and some tavern's to have some localities for lunch. I couldn't be more wrong !!!! Two longs streets with nothing else than bars, nightclubs, sex-clubs, sport cafe's, fast-food and a lot British youngsters, drinking beer and looking sports on Sky Digital...... Not my idea of vacation. But that of course is just my personal opinion !
Quickly moved on to the west coast ----->
At the west-coast, close to the Garziki point, we found the old Byzantine Fortress of Gardiki, built in the 13th Century. Not much left of it, but quite impressive though......
A little bit further on the same road we found an interesting natural phenomenon. Behind a very narrow and low dune row, a very shallow lake is formed (left picture) named "Lake Korission" Just 20 meters further, there is a very small beach with the sea. So actually an small band of dune/beach is formed, almost 5 km long. Definitively not as busy as the other beaches we have seen !! Nothing like this seen before.......
Today we had lots of wind, so when we returned to the hotel, we were surprised by the high waves in the bay and a totally cleared beach. Which was a pity, because just for this evening, a local performer group from Ermones wanted to play the "landing of Odysseus". Due too the high waves this was canceled now....
This means that the "animators" of the hotel would do something "Ancient Greek". Well, not for me, I have seen them for a couple of minutes a few days ago and I guess they should stick to what they are good at; water-gymnastics for seniors and perform silly dances at the disco stage with the small children and other dumb behavior, under the assumption we would be entertained by it.......
listening to "Ich bin der Anton aus Tirol" during Diner is also not my most favorite atmosphere by the way....but that is probably the "price" we have to pay being in an "activity" hotel. Must have overlooked this part when I booked, ahem, ahem, hahaha !!
Tomorrow, we will go north, or Erik and I will take Windsurfing lessons. Will decide tomorrow morning ..... Just check tomorrow again !!