Corfu, Greece
Corfu is a great little island in the Ionian chain, off of the northwestern corner of Greece. It is part of Greece, yet the mainland you can see from here is actually Albania.
It is characterized by some very pretty beaches, and at least while
we were there, a heck of a lot of tourists. The island in fact is
much like La Maddalena, although much larger. The town could pass
for a Greek LaMadd or Palau too. Although, once again, it's
significantly bigger and is dominated by two fortresses from circa-
1500ad, built by the Venetians during their rule of the island.
What I mean by being like our local towns is the same "domani" kicked
back lifestyle that is enjoyed by the locals. Once again, with the
exception of some decidedly anti-NATO graffiti down by the harbor,
we
found
the locals to be very friendly indeed.
However, tourists have been visiting these island for many years. Some of the more noteworthy ones were the Myceneans, the Romans in 187 BC, the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire in the 4th century AD, the Venetians in the late l5th century, until their defeat by Napoleon in 1797, then the British from 1809-1864.
We didn't do anything super-exciting while we were here. We toured the old fortress and we went to a beach one day. However, we certainly ate some wonderful food. Once again, however, just like in Crete, there's nothing quite like a Gyro on Pita (gotta order it on Pita. Otherwise, you'll just get a plate of Gyro meat).
Crete, Greece
The ship spent a few days early 2000 in Souda Bay,
Crete, so Dan got a chance to look around a little. Unfortunately
,
the weather was poor during the entire stay, and tensions were somewhat
strained with certain ethnic groups who were displeased with America's
actions in Bosnia.
This was a special stop for Dan, for this wasn't the first time that one of our family had been to Souda Bay. In 1942, Dan's grandfather, Leonard Green, was stationed on the destroyer, HMS Kashmir, which was sunk and the crew machine gunned by axis dive bombers just a few days after leaving Souda Bay harbor. He survived this and went on to be present at all major naval engagements in the Mediterranean theatre, including having the dubious honor of being on four destroyers in one day at the battle of Egypt. Other ships he spent significant time on were the HMS Montclair and the HMS Jervis. We have a book on the Malta campaign that shows the british fleet at anchor in Souda Bay, and it's right where we parked. That's right, the USS Emory S Land may have been sitting in the same berth as the Kashmir all those years ago.
Dan spent alot of his time on shore patrol, trying to head off altercations with the locals (and boy, were there some altercations....but, that's another story.) Curiously, all of the older Cretins (somebody please help me and tell me that "cretin" is correct and not an insult) we VERY friendly to us and made us feel right at home, just like the wonderful locals back in our homeport of La Maddalena. All the troubles we had were with the younger teenage set.
Nevertheless, despite this unfortunate backdrop, Dan very much enjoyed Crete. Even in the midst of some fairly poor weather, it was obvious that is was a very beautiful land. The food, once again, was outstanding. That's yet another one to check off the checklist of life... gyros slapped together right in front of your face in a little dive in Greece. Oh my gosh, my arteries harden just thinking about those wonderful things.
Not too many photos of Crete, as it was a working port, and due to the aforementioned poor weather. However, I feel that some of my best pics are on this page
.
