Monday 18th February 2019
Our sleepy spot in Igoumenitsa port car park turned out ok.
We watched the various ferries come and go while we ate breakfast. We cleaned up and drove round to the Ferry entrance. On the right were a row of single story buildings and we were told we needed hut no. 5. The lady spoke perfect English and sold us a single ticket for €87.80 (7m van). There were approx 6 sailings a day and the next sailing would be 13:30. The boat wasn’t a roll on roll off type vessel, so we had to back on with the aid of the staff. We were able to stay in Harriet the whole 2 hour crossing, and looked out over the sea, which I thought was lovely. Corfu Island soon came into view and the sea looked like a mill pond.
We disembarked in Corfu Town and found Corfu Carpark 2, courtesy of good old park4night (€5). It was so peaceful, we stayed there the night. They even had a water tap on site. The old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was closed on Mondays, so we waited until the following day to go out and explore.
We walked to the old town which wasn’t far from where we’d parked. We wandered around the narrow streets looking at all the 4 & 5 story Venetian style buildings. Some were lovely and others needed quite a bit of TLC.
Washing hung from the upper floors on lines across the streets and it was nice to see locals going about their business.
People were sat outside the cafes chatting to their friends in the sunshine but unlike us, they were wearing big coats and thick jumpers. We didn’t see many tourists which was nice. We came across a small park garden honouring Gerald Durrell (My Family & Other Animals fame), who made Corfu his home.
Then walking through the wrought iron gate we could see the Old Venetian Fortress. We paid the €6 entrance fee, crossed over the sea moat and walked inside.
The views from the walls and over the sea moat were lovely.
One of the old barracks had been turned into a music college. We could hear students playing various instruments, whilst we sat and ate a picnic lunch. It was so peaceful.
We carried on wandering around, and after having a coffee and using their free WiFi, we made our way back to Harriet for tea.
We spent most of Wednesday sightseeing. First of all we walked to Mon Repos, the place where the Duke of Edinburgh was born.
We walked along the sea edge in view of the Old Fortress (where we visited yesterday) and made a detour to the windmill where we watched 3 guys strip off to their trunks and go swimming in the sea.
Nothing exciting about that you say, apart from the rest of the Corfiots were rugged up in thick jumpers, coats and scarves lol. Mon Repos was free to enter and have a look around the outside.
Then we drove through some narrow roads to Vlachema Monastery where the sun was so bright it was hard to take a decent photo, but great for a lunch stop.
As we walked back to Harriet we both laughed at where we’d parked. It looked as though we were trying to hide the van but not quite succeeding.
Carrying on along the coast we called in to Achilleion Palace.
It was built in the late 1800’s for the Austrian Emperess, Elizabeth, Sisi.
She visited the palace twice a year until her assassination. We learnt quite a bit listening to the free audio guide. We’d first come across the story of Sisi back in Austria, so we knew a bit about her and her husband, Franz Joseph.
Although the interior wasn't to my taste it was good to look around. The management just needed to get the staff to stop smoking inside and push a hoover round.
The gardens were my favourite, and the views through the trees were fab.
Then we made our way through even narrower roads, across the Island to Palaiokastrotsa, where the coastal scenery was just stunning! The hotels and restaurants were closed for the winter so we found a small car park for our sleepy spot with a view of the sea and the beach.
While Andy had a siesta (he definitely got into the Greek way of life), I went to play on the beach lol.
We watched the sun go down on another amazing day.
We spent a lovely peaceful night in our sleepy spot, and in the morning we went for a walk up the hill to the Monastery. The views were amazing and so was the colour of the water.
The little Monastery was closed to visitors until April but we didn’t mind as the scenery alone was worth the effort.
We spent the rest of the day chilling, researching Albania and updating the blog and just enjoying the warmth and sunshine.
The following morning we met an English couple who’d made Corfu their home. They had a Motorhome parked on the other side of the bay. It was lovely to chat to them and get their suggestions on what to see. They even sent us this panorama of the bay (including Harriet) at midnight!!
We left our little slice of paradise and headed back to Corfu Town so we could top up with water and empty our waste. We called in at Lidl’s and headed over to the North East coast.
The roads were narrow and as we wound our way around the steep coastline we could see the Greek mainland and Albania.
At one point EE sent us a text message saying welcome to Albania!
We parked up along one of the beaches and went to stretch our legs. It had been raining all morning and it had finally stopped so it was good to go for a walk in the countryside. We saw plenty of olive trees and on one of the hillsides were lots of wooden beehives sat on tyres.
We spent the night there, next to the beach.
Saturday morning we drove back to Corfu Town admiring the views along the coast. We parked back at the original car park and went a walk again around the town.
It was a bit chilly so found a cafe and ordered two lattes. We asked for the WiFi code and was told I love you lol. Small letters all joined. We downloaded an off line map of Albania from google maps and some more tv from Netflix.
We’d enjoyed our Corfu adventure but it was time to leave and catch the ferry back to the mainland.
We paid for a single ticket at the port and caught the 12:15 back to Igoumenitsa. This time we weren’t able to stay in Harriet but the upper lounge was comfortable and least there was no smoking allowed.
We put Sarande into google maps and set off for country no.23. It was a decent road to the Greek/Albanian border through the lovely countryside with huge mountains in the distance.
Reaching the Greek border, we showed our passports and were waved through. A little further on we came to the Albanian border. We gave the lady the passports and V5 and she couldn’t have been nicer. She spoke great English and wished us a pleasant stay. She asked us where we were heading, so told her we were going to Croatia but hoping to look around Albania too. She suggested we kept to the coast road in the Motorhome. We thanked her and then followed the man to the office to buy vehicle insurance. We paid €49 for the minimum 2 week stay and that was it. We were free to go. The simplest border crossing we’ve been through so far.
The road surface to Sarande was great with hardly any traffic. There were no street lights that we saw though, and only a yellow line down the centre of the road, so not sure how safe it would be in the dark. We did notice that the metal covers that go over the drains in the gutter were missing, leaving fairly big holes, but apart from that, everything was OK.
We followed the SH97 to Sarande.
Then when we arrived, we went in search of an ATM. The first two we found wouldn’t accept our Halifax MasterCard (only Visa) but at the third one, we managed to take out 5000 lekke. We filled up with Auto Gas (LPG) at a fuel station (1300 lekke for 22 ltrs) and on the way to our sleepy spot, we tried to find a Vodaphone shop that was open so we could buy a SIM card. They were all closed, probably because it was Sunday.
We followed google maps to the castle car park and once there, went to explore.
The panoramic views were out of this world. Raw natural beauty from the mountains down to the sea and Corfu island in the distance.
The town of Sarande lay below us spreading up the hill sides. The castle next to us had been made into a beautiful restaurant which unfortunately was closed, but the lovely man (who we think was the owner) didn’t seem to mind us looking around and even showed us the best view of all.
I don’t know why I was apprehensive about this beautiful country. First impressions, we love it.
