Day 11 Saturday 15th October Corfu
As the clocks had gone back an hour overnight the ship’s arrival in Corfu at 8.30 am did seem early. There was a Royal Caribbean ship already docked as Oceana backed up to her berth.
After breakfast we walked to the terminal building rather than take the port shuttle bus. This was only a distance of about 300 yards or so. After going through the terminal and picking up maps we boarded the P&O provided shuttle.
Corfu Town
We were dropped just past the Old Port Square and walked into the town through the Spilia Gate. We walked through the town heading towards the Old Fortress. This is a UNESCO Word Heritage site. Our maps were all in English which made checking the street names interesting as hardly any could be compared easily to the map.
Street art in Corfu
There was a lot of protest slogans on walls but down a side alley I found this image on the wall.
And this cartoon.
When we reached the Esplanade, which is billed as one of the largest town squares in Europe, we looked for the Liston arcade. This arcade overlooks the square and was built by the French at the beginning of the 19th century. In the middle of the square is a cricket pitch. On Sundays in the Summer games are still played there. This is a legacy from when Corfu was a British Protectorate in the 19th century.
We stopped to rest our feet (our legacy from climbing the walls now Kotor yesterday) and to have some local beer.
We walked down the rest of the Liston and went into the grounds of the Municipal Gallery which overlooked a small beach.
Further along we paused at the entrance of the Old Fortress before walking back through the square towards our pickup point by the Old Town Square. But before that we called at another cafe to sit outside on the street and watch the passers by.
Further down the street the shops were selling T-shirts with Banksy’s art on them.
Walking back to the ship after being dropped at the terminal by the shuttle bus the Old Fortress was visible across the harbour…
… and the two docked cruise ships were ahead.
Our late lunch was from room service and I chose American pizza and Dutch apple pie. It is a good job that I like cold pizza as that is what I had – one not so good meal in a whole cruise was not a problem and anyway cold pizza is not that bad….
Leaving Corfu
At 4.30 pm the Rhapsody of the Seas was ready to sail but clearly didn’t have all of its passengers. One of the two gangplanks had been taken up and we watched ship’s officers pacing backwards and forwards. At 16.40 a car drove up and dropped off the two missing passengers after picking them up from the terminal building.
Our sail away went a little more smoothly as the missing passengers identified themselves to reception when their names were called. The sailaway party was to the music of Next Step who played us away from Corfu with classic rock and roll.
The ship went out past the Old Fortress and we had great views of Corfu Town as we left.
This evening was the second Tropical night of the cruise and was an opportunity for all of us to wear our vividly coloured clothes. Dinner was Caprese salad followed by my standby steak (with extra mushrooms), finishing off with vanilla ice cream. There was no time for tea or coffee as we had to dash to the theatre to get seats as close to the front as possible to see the Flyrights.
The good news is that the clocks changed as we left Greece and we made up for the lost hour of sleep the previous night.
The weather had turned after a warm day in Corfu and during the evening we felt the ship moving around and juddering as the wind hit it. Back in our cabin the balcony was wet where the ship was passing through rain.
The concierge postal rate was £1 and the last post left the ship at 3 pm.
Cruise around Italy – Civitavecchia, Ajaccio and back to Genoa