Counting Calories in Corfu (Not)

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With some extra time in the morning before our tour would be ready, we had breakfast in the formal dining room, a nice change from the hectic pace of the cafeteria style Lido. Since we were arriving from a non-EU country there was a bit of a formality we had to go thru. Our bus picked us up at the ship and drove us to the port-Authority building. We marched into the North-West side of the building and then out the South-East side, showing our papers (driver’s license and boarding card) to no-one. We were however handed a Duty-Free guide to the various shops in Corfu. On the other side of this “passport control” checkpoint we got back on the bus which had driven around to the other side of the building. Corfu is one of seven Ionian Islands that are part of Greece. Corfu is also the name of the port city where we disembarked.
We drove thru Corfu, seeing many of the Venetian style buildings. Back in the fourteenth century the city elders of Corfu asked for protection from Venice against threats from the East. The Venetians came and didn’t leave for 400 years, and had a significant influence on the architecture seen today. Many of the building exteriors are white, pink, yellow and orange all with red tile roofs in the Venetian style. We drove onto the Achillion Palace which was built for the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who suffered from bouts of melancholy (with good reason). The palace was meant to cheer her up, but she was unhappy with the result (some people really are hard to please and high maintenance). Still, she seemed resigned to the result, and the building and grounds really are impressive. Elisabeth, or Sissy as she preferred to be called, was popular with the people because she would go out and mingle; however, she was not popular at court and a number of highly influential detractors, including her childhood guardian and aunt. Her aunt had arranged a marriage of Elisabeth’s older sister with the heir to the Austrian throne. Before the two met at a ball to announce their engagement, the prince had met Sissy on one of her incognito outings to town. Later at the ball, the two could not take their eyes off of each other, and the prince announced at the end of the ball that he much preferred to marry Sissy. They had four children, three girls and one boy. The oldest girl died in an accident which her aunt blamed her for and maneuvered to keep her from the other children. The boy also died an early death. These, and other court intrigue happenings were believed to be the root of her mood swings and depression.
The architecture combines Corinthian Columns, Ionic Columns with Venetian style influences. The smallish rooms contain high magnificently decorated ceilings including frescos, and impressive ornate moldings. Statues adorn the grounds, some added after Sissy was assassinated in Switzerland by an anarchist (she really did have a lot to be depressed about). Sissy’s passion was Greek mythology, and she especially loved the stories of Achilles, which accounts for the name of the palace. There is a large painting of the death of Achilles, shot through the ankle with a poison arrow by Paris (who had been tipped off by Poseidon of his fatal weakness). Also on the grounds was another statue, that Sharon insisted that I write about, of a beautiful naked lady Hermione. She was so beautiful that the artists and sculptures of the day used her as a model when portraying Aphrodite. However, modeling was not her primary occupation… what words did the guide use: she was the paid companion of men. And so, she too had those who did not look favorably on her and some started spreading rumors that Hermione was so vain she was saying that she was more beautiful than Aphrodite. A tribunal was called, and despite her insistence in her innocence it appeared she would likely be convicted and put to death for her sacrilegious remarks. As her final defense she removed all of her clothes and the judges agreed that the charges against her should be dropped and she was freed.
The next part of the tour was to visit a local villa and partake of the hospitality of the owners who provided a traditional Greek feast and native music and dancing. It started with a glass of ouzo for everyone (or orange juice for the more temperant). Neither of course work for Sharon. Okay, so I tried the ouzo. We were encouraged to sample many homemade Greek delicacies, including a Greek casserole, spanakopita, dolmas (rice in grape leaves with mint… best I’ve had), Greek salad, cheese pie, pita and tizaki sauce, tempura style cucumber (very interesting and tasty in its puff pastry-like coating), roast chicken, kabobs and meatballs (Sharon says these were good too, which is high praise because she makes great meatballs). For dessert there was of course baklava (and again best I’ve ever had, these weighed about twice as much as the ones I’m used to at Daphne’s in the states (which are very good) due to the massive amounts of honey that ooze from them. They also served a brandied kumquat with a kumquat liquor chaser that was quite nice. Kumquats are only found on Corfu in Greece, introduced in the nineteenth century and now flourish. We ate out on the veranda overlooking Corfu, overlooking the bay and the Nieuw Amsterdam, and also overlooking an impressive swimming pool and landscaped yard. The tiled pool had an interesting design where the drain surrounded the pool flush with the stone decking and marble coping (between drain and pool) so the water, and surrounding patio are at the same level (very attractive and eye-catching look). All through dinner native musicians serenaded us with their music and songs, and local dancers demonstrated classic Greek dances. More than once they emphasized that these are from the “old days”, the way things used to be. They even encouraged us to join them and learn a few steps, and some did, just not Sharon or me.
Back at the ship we played team trivia… we got 10 points today, improving by one point, but nowhere near the 16 (of 17 possible points) scored by the winner (for third day in a row). Beth, where are you? (she helped us win our hats on the Volendam). At Bingo John got to stand up, needing just one number, but then go to sit down on the next number.
After the Corfu feast we had to lunch, we went to the Pinnacle for dinner, and had another feast to celebrate our one-week anniversary. Sharon had filet mignon (no surprise there) with a baked potato. I ordered the ribeye steak (again no surprise) but the brought an even bigger ribeye with bone in steak, button mushrooms and scalloped potatoes. The meals were superb prime beef. And for dessert we split a chocolate soufflé and a cherry jubilee baked Alaska (with Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia). We both thought that these were about the best we’d ever had, and boy were we stuffed.
We had a bit of time before the show, so we stopped by the casino. Sharon hasn’t found a good machine yet, but I won back most of the money I deposited last night at blackjack. We then went to the cast show called NYC which had the 4 male singers from the earlier show plus a couple of female singers and several dancers. It was very good. At that point we full and tired so headed to our cabin the night.

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Comments

[Erin]

Too much food and fun
Sounds like you two are having way too much fun (and food). It is a good thing calories don't count on vacation. Really enjoying reading about your cruise. John - you can talk to Dennis about the ouzo. He spent a year in Greece.