Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Greece

We are currently spending three days in the Greek isles. Today was spent on the island of Corfu, where lemon, orange and olive trees are king. Although the olives are not in bloom yet, the lemons and oranges are about ready to pick and we have been so tempted to pick some. But given that Susan got a bit irritable with a chick who picked a flower at the palace on our tour today, we were able to refrain...

The day began with a tour of Achillion Mansion, former summer home of Empress Elizabeth of Austria and Wilhem II, King of Germany. It was later used as a hospital during the second World War. The Empress had a great love of Greek Mythology, particularly Achillies, whom the property is named for and who also has an enormous statue displayed in the main garden. The surrounding gardens were full of greek statues and fantastic views of the Adriatic Sea and an Albanian Mountain range.





From there we continued on to Kanoni and toured Mon Repo Palace, summer home of the Greek Royal family and birth place of Prince Philip of England. This palace was built for the second British governor of the island.


It was very exciting to see the ruins of a Christian church from Roman times. We discovered that Christianity was first brought to the island by disciples of Paul!


We wrapped our tour in town at one of two forts built by Napoleon during the French occupation, and headed by to our balcony for cocktails and sunset...another great day.



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