Today we explored the town of Corfu. Corfu was ruled by the Venetians, French, and British, among others. All those cultures are reflected in the town which is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Luckily we had glorious weather for walking around. Although we don’t have a lot of data, it seems like late May is the perfect time to visit Corfu. The weather is nice but not too hot and there aren’t a lot of tourists.
We drove into town and parked the car. We walked towards the old fortress, of course stopped for a coffee along the way. We walked along the esplanade, a large park just to the west of the fortress.
Built by the Venetians in 1546 on the site of a Byzantine castle, the old fortress housed Corfu’s entire population. Most of the old Venetian fortifications were replace by the British in the 1800’s. The British also added structures including Church of St. George that was built to look like an ancient Doric temple. We wandered around the fortress for awhile and climbed up to top. The view from the top was spectacular.
We were hungry after exploring the fortress so we went to a restaurant right on the water and had a delicious lunch including a piece of baklava! There were people swimming next to our lunch spot.
After lunch we wandered around the town. We visited a couple of churches. The streets were very narrow and winding, the area reminded us of Venice. You can definitely see the merging of the cultures in the architecture.
We walked back to the car and decided we would go to a beach, in Glyfada on the west side, which is supposed to be the most beautiful one on the island. It was very pretty and the sun felt great. We can now say that we have dipped our toes in the Adriatic Sea.
After enjoying the beach we returned to the apartment for a light dinner and packing. We leave for Thessaloniki tomorrow.