2004 Europe

Rod & Diana with Mouse Island - Corfu, Greece



May 12 – Corfu, Greece today. Another bright sunny day. I decided to wear shorts ashore for the first time this trip. We aren't visiting any religious sites that require long pants and it's warm. We are headed to Achillion (Achilles) Palace and then lunch in a private villa in Corfu Town. Above is a picture of Diana and I in front of Pondikonissi (Mouse) Island. Surprise, surprise! Guess who our staff escort is for the tour, none other than the inestimable KC Cook.



As we drove through town to the palace the guide gave us its history. Empress Elizabeth of Austria built it. She was a tragic figure. She went with her older sister to visit the young emperor, Franz Joseph of Austria; her older sister was to marry. Unfortunately, he and Elizabeth fell in love at first sight and a year later they were married. A pretty good start that quickly deteriorated. Elizabeth had mother-in-law problems right from the beginning and after her eldest child died of an illness while the family was visiting Bulgaria; the mother-in-law used that as an excuse to take the rest of Elizabeth’s children from her. Elizabeth developed anorexia and became very ill. You can see how thin she was in the statue picture below. Her doctors advised her to travel and she did with a vengeance. She traveled all over Europe and when she visited Corfu, she loved it. Some years later when her youngest child tragically died she came to Corfu and built the palace as a place of seclusion to mourn her losses. Her life ended tragically as well. She was assassinated while visiting Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The assassin, Luigi Luccheni, originally wanted to kill the French Duke of Orleans but when he found out that the Duke had bodyguards he decided to kill Empress Elizabeth because she didn’t.



The palace is over 100 years old and is part museum, part restored residence. She slept in a very small bed but surrounded herself with fine art. In the chapel, over the altar, is a fresco of Christ being judged by Pilate (below). Beautiful colors!! On the main patio she had marble sculptures of the nine muses and the three graces. They were extremely well done. Amazingly the model for one of the graces was Benito Mussolini’s sister. Weird! In 1981 it was used as a set in the James Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only with Roger Moore.



From there we did a short driving tour of Corfu Town and then went out to the villa for lunch. Two musicians and three dancers met us at the gate. They gave short performance and then, still playing, they led us back to the patio area for lunch. I lived on Crete for a year and a half so I was looking forward to some Greek home cooking. It met my every expectation. There was souvalki, meatballs, zedziki, dolmathes, mousaka, pasticcio, Greek salad, calamari, and a dozen other things I recognized but don’t remember their names. A Greek version of a potato pirogue, for example. It’s bad enough that I’ve misspelled the ones I did remember. No Greek dictionary on board to help me out and apparently MS Word doesn’t know any Greek either. I did take the picture of my plate piled high with food that you see below.



They played and danced for us while we ate and then invited us to join the dance when we were finished. Diana said I should dance so she could get some video, so I did. More footage for the cutting room floor! They have a beautiful home. The husband had a collection of pocket watches; there must have been about a hundred, each one unique in some way. From their porch I could see our ship across the bay. You could also see snow covered mountains in Albania. It was a great location. After a very pleasant day we headed back to the bus as the ship is leaving at 4PM today.



Our tablemates, Mary, Seldon and Father John are beginning to bond. Mary reminds me of what my friend Melissa might be like in 15 years or so. She’s very funny, but sometimes it seems I'm the only one who gets it. She usually has a little different spin on things.



Tomorrow, Valetta, Malta. We don’t get there until noon so it’s a chance to catch up on some things.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger