aliholli: CORFU

We woke next morning to the skybluest skyblue sky ever.

And new posh neighbours!

(Silver Seas is luxury cruising)

There is never a dull moment being married to my Husb. Why go on a bus or train or even an organised P+O excursion when YOU CAN HIRE A JEEP!!!!?

It was a cute little jeep but it was the hairiest ride ever! For the first 20 minutes anyway. Sat Nav doesn't ask you if you are tourists or if you are used to a left hand drive or if you are happy to be thrust into the rush hour traffic of Corfu Town.

We wondered if we would see our children again....

busybusy

bikes

dogs

impatient locals

rising blood pressure

yikes and double yikes

phew.

But by the time we arrived at Achillion Palace, Husb had got the hang of the gears, and had resisted the temptation to try out the off-road gadgets.

Achillion Palace shone in the sun. It was named in honour of Achilles (very fitting as I have suffered with my delicate little tendons all my life)

It had nice artwork at the top of the stairs...

and the man himself, pulling the famous arrow from his famous heel...

and standing proud at the end of the garden, on the lookout.

He was a big chap.

This is what he keeps his eye on.

An impressive sight.

But I had a sea to get in!

So with fresh confidence at the jeep wheel, Husb drove to Paleokastritsa, through some stunning scenery. (I doubt he saw much of that though haha) WHAT a very pretty bay.

In fact there are 6 little bays of absolutely beautiful turquoise water that was just crying out for a swimmer.

NO ONE was in the sea.

I soon realised why.

I nearly died.

The freezing cold ice cold water seemed to shut down every working organ inside me, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't speak, Davina McCall suddenly had even more respect from me (though to be fair she DID wear a couple of wetsuits)

I know it was pre-season but I was shocked at how cold the sea was.

"QUICK, HUSB, TAKE A PHOTO!"

BUT ....I can now tick off IONIAN SEA! YAY!

IONIAN SEA - TICK!

What a beautiful place.

I appreciate it would be sooooooo busy at the height of season but it was peacefully quiet when WE visited and so so so sooooo turquoise.

CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER

We walked up the hill for good views from the monastery at the top (would you believe it, it was closed!)

Jeep selfie haha =)

We like to cram a lot into a day so we dropped Jeepyjeep off and then walked into town for a mozey and managed a bit of free wifi at the Black Cat cup of tea place. Although when we thought about it afterwards, £3 for a teabag was actually PAYING for the wifi... hmmmm ..we were so obviously off the cruise ship....

The sailaway was picturesque, sparkly sea and Corfu Castle.

Twinkly water...

and still not a wave in sight.

We even had a sunset.

"Oi Robben, please take a photo"

And the poor boy with a Robben shirt on kindly obliged. :)

DAY AT SEA

Sailing through the Messina straits between Italy and Scicily.

The Strait of Messina is 20 miles (32 km) long and from 2 to 10 miles (3.2-16 km) wide, separating the Italian peninsula from Sicily and connecting the Ionian andTyrrhenian seas. The massive amounts of water being funneled into a relatively small space creates strong currents and whirlpools.