Yikes, the cruise of port cancellations! Now it is Katakalon we are missing, due to weather, yet again.  There is a huge storm ripping up the coast of Greece, so in an abundance of caution, we are going to have a surprise overnight in Corfu.  Bummer – but at least it isn’t another day at sea.  We had a car booked for Katakalon, and when we emailed to cancel, the lady there said it was the best thing because the weather has been absolutely horrible. 

We had the HoHo bus booked through the ship in Corfu for the 1^st, but since we will be here all day today, the bus ticket has been moved to today from tomorrow.  Works for us, gives us more time to wander around town and explore along with the bus.  We hit the theater, wait for our tour, then get escorted out to the bus which is parked at the very end of the parking lot, way far away from the terminal building.  We don’t mind the walk, but oh boy is it cold and windy.  Puffy coats are definitely the right move for today. Obviously the storm was here and this is the after effect. 

There are 3 buses, and fortunately the one we are on is covered so we are sheltered from the worst of the weather.  Because we are out early and on the first bus (there is a second tour 30 minutes after ours), we decide to just do the circle route, staying on the bus and figuring out the route and things to see and do.  Then we’ll use the 2^nd time around to get off and see the sights.  There is only one route running at this time of year, so we don’t get to go inland past the Achilleion Palace (it is closed for season), just along the coast and past the old town.  Fine by us.

We plug in our earphones and listen to the audio tour was we move along the route.  The funny thing is that none of the bus stop numbers match the map.  They  must change them in the winter and not make as many stops so it is a little confusing at first, but in the end, we know we where we want to get off by the name, not the number.  The first pass around is pretty quick and easy, as there isn’t much traffic out yet.

Back at the port, we have to get on the next bus, which of course is full of the 2^nd tour.  Oh well, we find seats at least, upstairs, although this bus is open, so it’s a bit cold and windy.  We hunker down and stay out of the wind as much as we can, hopping off the bus at Kanoni, where we have views of the Vlacherna monastery, accessed by a little causeway in the bay, and the famous Mouse Island with the little 13^th Century chapel perched on the top of the island rocks.  Why famous you ask? We will tell you!  Supposedly the island is what is left of Odysseus’s ship when it was turned to stone by Poseidon, and the reason why Odysseus was stranded on Phaeacia (or Corfu) in Homer’s Odyssey.  Mythology.  A wonderful thing!

The views here are stunning, if you can avoid the wind, which is brutal.  By walking behind the coffee bar that occupies the best spot on the peninsula, we can get out of the wind and bask in the sunshine (of course after we have bought cappuccino from said coffee bar!).  The airport is just to the right of the point, literally right on the water and when planes come in they fly right past you – even closer than Reagan National airport in DC. We just missed one coming in on our first bus circle ride, and even from the bus, you could see it was totally low and close.  We are hoping for another while we are here, but get no joy this time.  We time our walk back to the bus stop just as it rounds the corner to Kanoni, which is perfect.  The bus driver sees us – and others – coming  and nicely waits for all of us.  Back on the route, we past Mon Repos Palace, the birthplace of Prince Charles, and the cool ruins of Auia Kerkyra, the 5^th Century church of the old city.

Then its back down to Anemomylos, with the little windmill perched at the end of the pier and great views across to the Old Fortress (which predates the “new” fortress a mere 30 years).  We decide to hop off at the Old Fortress stop and go explore, then walk into town from there.  The Old Fortress was built by the Venetians in the mid-1500s on the site of a Byzantine castle.  It sits on a promontory and rises dramatically above the old city.  We cross the moat to enter, trying to avoid the PITA couple that we think intentionally gets in our way for photos – honestly – people are so annoying – and make our way inside to one of the exhibition halls displaying old Venetian and Byzantine artifacts.  Most of the fortifications were destroyed by the British when they invaded, and replaced with their own structures, including the Church of St. George which is built to look like an ancient Doric temple. 

Its really cool inside the grounds, with great views up to the main part of the fortress and prison cells. But it is cold.  And it is windy.  And I mean windy!!! Whipping, tearing winds that make it hard to walk at times, especially near the waterfront.  We brave the gale force winds to explore as much as we can, and take as many pictures as we can, but it is just too much – and we abandon our explorations without even hiking up to the top of the fortress.  We’ll be back here twice in the next year or so, we’ll come back on a better day!

Leaving the fortress, we pass through the Spianada Square and the Esplanade, bordered by Venetian and Georgian houses as well as the Liston building, built by the French and meant to resemble the Rue du Rivoli in Paris.  But to be honest, we don’t see most of it because it is so windy, it is a challenge to look straight ahead, much less wander around and see the sights around us. 

Deciding to head toward the Jewish quarter and the synagogue, we meander our way through town, perusing different cafes and stores along the way. It is still too early for lunch, and quite frankly too freaking cold to eat outside, so we have a dilemma on what to actually do, but figure we’ll keep walking and decide as we go.  The old town is a maze of little streets, winding this way and that, filled with lots of great architecture and photo opportunities, which of course we take!

We reach the synagogue, which is really quite nondescript.  It is 300 years old, but looks like just another building to us.  Very unassuming.  But across the street, the ruin of some sort of a tower captivates us.  Standing in the middle of street, just this one wall with one single doric column at the top.  Picturesque.  And across the street from that, a building that looks like it was torn in half – with the remnants of the other half still attached.  Pretty wild – almost like a façade, but it isn’t, its a fully functioning building. 

From here we wander a bit more, but the skies look threatening so we decide to head back to the ship and eat – not our typical decision, which is a bummer coz we were looking forward to some good Corfu food, but we’d prefer not to eat inside if we can avoid it, and today, there is no avoiding it. As we begin our trek back, the skies open up.  Yikes!  We pull out our umbrellas and high tail it to a portico lined portion of the street to stay under cover as much as possible.  Sadly, or course, the portico ends and we are left on our own devices to navigate the sudden downpour and get out of the city to the seaside promenade to make our way back to the ship.

This becomes a death march back to the port!  The wind whips, the skies open up, our umbrellas go upside down, the skies clear, the wind whips, we freeze, we get soaked, the skies open up again.  If only I could have taken a picture!  The two of us were zipped up tight in our puffy coats, hoods up, masks on, you could barely see us as we walked against the wind back to the port. Yes, we probably could have hopped the bus back, but we didn’t relish waiting at a bus stop – without cover – for the next bus, and well, it was exercise.  Brutal exercise, but exercise nonetheless.

Of course once back to the ship,  the skies cleared, and we could have ventured out again, but we figured, what the heck? We have all morning tomorrow, we can wait until then to do more exploring in what looks like will be much better weather.

So it is a half “sea-day” for us as we have a nice light lunch in the buffet, hang out in the cabin, and generally just relax the day away.