2025 Greece
The next morning, we caught another Uber from Dubrovnik Pile Gates to the airport, ready for our flight to Athens. Originally, we had wanted to go direct to Corfu, but the travel arrangements just didn’t pan out, so we opted to fly into Athens for one night before flying to Corfu.
Since we had so little time in Athens, once again we did a walking tour that commenced at 4.30pm with a local guide, Alex. Unfortunately, we found the tour disappointing, although we did have long distance views of the acropolis, and visited a small Greek Orthodox church and monastery. The route through the picturesque suburbs on our walk up the hill was pretty. We visited Plaka, the iconic residential neighbourhood. The Mnisikleous stairs are more than three thousand years old. Located around the northeast side of Acropolis hill, the stairs are painted in a beautiful white colour and climb uphill to the picturesque neighbourhood of Anafiotika. Then it was down to the Agora, an archaeological site located beneath the northwest slope of the Acropolis. Contrasting with the austere ruins in the middle of the archaeological site, the humble Temple of Hephaestus stands as a testament to its past glory – the best preserved ancient Greek temples from the Classical era.
After the tour, we found our way back to the Plaka Stairs to enjoy a drink while appreciating the late afternoon sun. You could pick and choose from the various bars and restaurants on the stairs – some of them have pillows for seating while others have wicker chairs – we chose chairs! Then we navigated our way toward the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens – set in a lovely square surrounded by restaurants where we ate dinner. The next day, our flight to Corfu wasn’t until 18:20 so, after a leisurely start, we spent a couple of hours doing laundry at a nearby laundromat, guided by Google Maps.
In Corfu, we had booked into the Mon Repos Palace, an ‘adults only’ resort, for three nights. It had lovely timber-panelled walls, marble floors, a pool and shaded arcade with seating out the front. Over the road was a great café where we ended up eating a few times. There was also a bus stop for the Hop On/Hop Off tourist bus, so we did one complete circuit to get our bearings and then went around again hopping off at Kanoni with views of the church of Panagia Vlacherna below and Mouse Island. Kanoni is actually a district of Corfu Town, just a couple of kilometres from the city centre. It took its name from an old cannon that stands on top of the hill. It was interesting to see airplanes landing and taking off from this spot, as the airport of Corfu is right next to the church and the runway extends out into the bay.
The Old Fortress of Corfu is one of the most impressive fortification works in Greece. It stands on the eastern side of the town, on a rocky peninsula that juts out into the sea. This fortress is called Old in contrast to the New Fortress (of Saint Mark), which was also built to protect the town from enemies and pirates. The fortifications were constructed over a period of about 15 centuries. During this time frame, three phases stand out regarding the works – the Byzantine, the Early Venetian and the Late Venetian period. The town was under Venetian rule until 1797 when Napoleon conquered the Venetian Republic. From 1807 to 1814, the island was ruled by the French. The English succeeded them, remaining in Corfu until 1864 when the island became a part of the Greek state.
It was during the Late Venetian period that the buildings in front of the fortress were levelled, and the Spianada Square was created. Around the 16th century, the Venetians decided to tear down all structures around the Old Fortress for the locals to have increased visibility and a larger field of fire in the case of an invasion.
We meandered our way through the city and ended up at Dimarchiou Square – a pretty square with bougainvillea and jacaranda trees. On one side is the elegant Town Hall, one of the best and most impressive Venetian architectural structures on the island. It was constructed between 1663 and 1693 when the island was under the Venetian occupation. On another side is the new Catholic Metropolis Church of Saints Jacob and Christopher.
We stopped at one of the bars for a welcome refresher and enjoyed people watching in the beautiful square. Continuing our stroll, we came across the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, now the Museum of Asian Art. This is the most significant building from the period of English rule and was originally built as the luxury residence of the then British Lord High Commissioner.
Then it was down to the waterfront to the Boschetto Garden. In 2006, the Municipality of Corfu placed a plaque at the main entrance to honour the two British writers Lawrence and Gerald Durrell who lived in Corfu during the period between 1935 and 1939. From the garden you can get a remarkable view of the sea and the Old Fortress.
From here we again hopped on the tourist bus and carried on around the island before alighting at Mon Repos Palace, a short distance from our hotel. Mon Repos was built as a summer residence for the British Lord High Commissioner of the United States of the Ionian Islands, Frederick Adam, and his second wife (a Corfiot), in 1828 to 1831. The villa was rarely used as a residence for the later British governors. In 1833, it housed a school of fine arts while, in 1834, the park was opened to the public. Empress Elisabeth of Austria stayed there in 1863. It was here that she fell in love with the island, where she later built the Achilleion Palace. After the union with Greece in 1864, the Corfu villa where Prince Philip was born was granted to King George I of the Hellenes as a summer residence. He renamed it ‘Mon Repos’ (French for ‘My Rest’). The royal family used Mon Repos as a summer residence up until King Constantine II fled the country in 1967. The villa subsequently became derelict but was restored in the 1990s. The Mon Repos estate covers an area of about 250 acres and includes a large garden with rare trees and plants, as well as a small lake and spectacular sea views of the eastern coast of Corfu Island.
After a lovely stroll through the gardens, we re-joined the tourist bus and returned to our hotel – feeling that we’d done the sights of Corfu justice – and deserving a couple of days of complete rest after a month of gadding about.
From Corfu we flew back to Heathrow and stayed at the very convenient Thistle Hotel close to Terminal 5. There is a clever transport ‘Pod’ that departs from the Hotel carpark and takes you direct to the Terminal. The pods are electric, driverless vehicles that produce zero carbon emissions, and you are whisked away from the carpark within 30 seconds of ordering one. Seven minutes later you are in Terminal 5. Each Pod can fit four passengers including their luggage.
Unfortunately, our return trip to Australia involved a night flight to Dubai, so we stopped overnight before flying to Singapore the next evening. Neither of us got much sleep on that overnight flight so by the time we reached the Jayleen Hotel in Singapore we were both knackered. Fortunately, for a small additional fee, the hotel allowed us early entry to our room, and we were able to catch up on some sleep. The hotel had a rooftop bar with spectacular views over the city so, after some liquid refreshments, we took the Singapore MRT to the Gardens by the Bay to enjoy a stroll followed by the impressive light and sound show.