Thursday,
August 8th 2002
Destination Corfu North... culture and nature...
Today we were not able to take the windsurfing lessons, due too hard wind and high waves. Pity, for windsurfing one needs wind, eh?
So we took "plan B": destination North; Paleokastritsa, Krini and Sidari. Why? just keep on reading and convince yourself....
We started our trip as usual, with a quiet ride through the green country side, enjoying the landscape with small villages scattered around the hills.....
After short time (the island indeed is quite small !) we arrived at the extreme tourist village Paleokastritsa. No pictures of the enormous amounts of cars, scooters and tourist shops, Actually I think in the meantime it is overdone (remember, I was here more than 20 years ago and most of it was NOT existent than !!) any way, one of the most visited "attractions" is the 16th century Monastery of the holy Mariah. From the balcony are views of incomparable coastal scenery... The Monastery also includes a small museum with great Icon's, religious relics and an old olive oil mill...
The atmosphere inside is one of quietness and meditation....
For religious reasons the women are obliged to dress in long skirt and keep their shoulders covered. For those (like Suzan) not normally dressed this way, at the entrance a monk was providing the necessary pieces....... cute, eh??
At the left some more of the monastery and at the right another scenery of the beautiful bay Paleokastritsa.......
Now we moved on through a very small coast road to visit the village "Krini", where we were supposed to find the old Byzantine fortress of Angelokastro. The small road was so busy, that in one of the small main streets, the traffic was totally jammed. Needed more than half an hour to pass the opposite traffic.... Therefore we decided, immediately after this delay, to have some nice lunch at a tavern with superb view over the coast of Corfu. Thanks to the wind of the last days, we could overlook the whole coast till the south end...
Strengthened by a really good meal and refreshed by the necessary liquids, we were ready to climb the rock to the fortress, pffffffff.........
But, huge reward getting these views......
agree ???
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Although it was getting quite late already, I insisted to drive another 20km north (sounds little, but with all the curving roads, still quite something...) to the town Sidari. This village lies at the most north west tip of the island and shows another natural phenomenon; the Sidari Rock formations. The streams, waves and winds have been forming wonderful rock formations in the layers of sand and lime stone over the last millions of years. I always wanted to see these with my own eyes. For what ever reason I never came to do so during my other Corfu visits, so I pushed myself this time. I was glad I did........
This section above is called, for unclear reasons to me (??), the "Love Channel".....
Tomorrow, we will try to finally get our windsurfing lessons !!! Lets cross thumbs.... Just check tomorrow again !!