Corfu, Greece - Friday, 25 October, 2013

S

A more relaxed start to the day.... We did not have to meet in the Queens Room until 9:30 for our tour of the Colonial Palaces of Corfu. We visited 2 sites; one once owned by Kaiser Wilhelm II, was a stunning building with beautiful gardens. The other smaller villa was a bit run down, but in a lovely setting. This was the birth place of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip is Greek! but Corfu was ruled by Great Britain long enough for the game of Cricket to take root. Corfu is the only part of Greece where cricket is played.

The guide knew her stuff, but she would start talking about a room before everyone from the bus had entered the room. Our tour concluded at a cafe overlooking an old fort. Coffee and pop were included. 

At our first stop, a woman saw my Ithaca College Alumni hat. Her daughter went to IC and majored in sociology as did our daughter Emily.

We could have stayed in town, but decided to head back to the ship for lunch, laundry and trying to sort out the airline reservations. So far, Delta, Air France, KLM, our travel agent all agree. We are going to Amsterdam. Fine. The Purser's Office still had Paris as the first destination. But we are CONFIRMED on the Amsterdam leg. 

After dealing with laundry, email and printing out airline stuff, we went over to the lovely Cafe Carinthia on Deck 2 for refreshments. Very good iced cappuccino.

We were the only ones at our table tonight... The others were probably dining in the Lido Restaurant. Our head waiter, Joel, told us he has been with Cunard for 10 years, starting out on the Queen Mary 2, then moving over to the Queen Victoria, and then joining the Queen Elizabeth. He joined ship when it entered service.

We are now heading north with Albania on our starboard side and arrive in Dubrovnik tomorrow morning... According to the ship's log on TV we are steaming at 18 knots... Dubrovnik is part of Croatia and was heavily damaged during the civil war in the 1990s. it has been rebuilt and is a very popular with tourists and cruises.

The Achilleion Palace - next 3 photos

The Mon Repos Palace ( next 3 photos)

The Old Fortess of Corfu

Cunard Bus #9

Making our way back to our ship ( black hull in middle. Thomson Majesty on the right. The large white ship is the MSC Fantasia.

Susan and I were the only ones from our table at dinner, but we sat with Arto and Dee in the theatre... Great British Comedian. Then onto the Golden Lion pub for a trivia game than up to the Lido Restaurant for the Ice Sculpture and Chocolate Fest. I can't imagine eating all that chocolate at 10:30 at night.

Tonight we change the clocks back because we are crossing a time zone. So tomorrow we will only be 6 hours ahead of Columbus. tomorrow night we set the clocks back yet again because Europe moves back to standard time. Good news in this.... We get an extra hour of sleep TWO days in a row, and when we fly out of Venice on Wednesday, Columbus will only be 5 hours behind, which should ease the jet lag problem.

Tomorrow, we anchor off Dubrovnik, Croatia, and then on Sunday, we dock in Ravenna, Italy.