Corfu

As the town of Saranda on the southern coast of Albania is very close to Corfu with daily ferries across, we have made an unscheduled quick trip to the island going on the car ferry.  It takes 1hour and 15 minutes.

Impossibly beautiful bays all around the island.   We only have two days so we are sticking to the northern part only.

A restaurant wedged in the rock.

Moni (mount) Theotokos at Palaiokastritsa.   The spelling of place names causes our temperamental GPS difficulties.  We may have this problem when we will drive around the Pelopennese but we will then have a Greek car which may cope with Greek names better - hope so.

Cafe at Sideri.

The beautiful bay of Kouloura.

And, most exciting of all, we came across by chance at Kalami, the white house where the Durrells spent some of their time in Corfu.  We are renting an apartment right across from the house - much modernised of course.  But is is all so evocative for us of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and to see the beach where young Gerry did much of his fossicking.

Plaques of the two authors when they were young.

I came across this house further along the coast which looks of the same vintage as the white house and is likely to be in the state it was when the Durrells rented.  I would very much liked to have also seen the strawberry pink house which is just outside of Corfu Town but it was not possible to go there.  Both houses the Durells lived in on Corfu are beautifully done up and rented out as holiday villas.

On the balcony of our apartment opposite the Durrell white house.

We had a superb meal at the restaurant now attached to  the white house.  We sat right by the waters' edge which, for us, was somewhat reminiscent of the meal we had with Warwick and Diana in Czesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic some three years ago. Both superb experiences.