First trip to Ioannina - part 1

[ If you've reached this post via a Google search for IKEA in Yanina (Ioannina) - you can contact me for a more detailed description of where it is and how to get there. ]

A journey of discovery, not far, to rediscover mainland Greece. The last time we drove in Greece proper was back in 2001 when it was part of our drive from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to Amsterdam. So we were going to recreate the last few kilometers of that trip to Igoumenitsa in reverse! Plus, of course, there was the added incentive of visiting the newly opened IKEA and getting some goodies in addition to visiting the ancient town of Ioannina.



First pleasant surprise was how easy it was to get the ferry from Corfu. We arrived at the Kerkyra Ferries kiosk at 9:20 a..m. and were soon on the 9:30 ferry.



























Some different views of Corfu from the sea added to our joy of being on our way so quickly.






































A little bit of Chinese told us of the origins of the ferry!!














And true to the timetable, one hour twenty minutes later, we were docking in Igoumenitsa.

First Christmas in Corfu

Very quiet so far. It's the norm at this time of year that workers get paid extra in Christmas bonuses. That in turn affects the shopping etc. Also the last Sunday before Christmas is a day when all the shops open, normally they are closed on a Sunday. Last Sunday, all the shops were open, but very few customers showed up. All a sign of the austerity measures now beginning to strike home.

Talking of strikes, the garbage collectors in Corfu Town have been on one - the result being uncollected piles of rubbish which in turn attracts rats etc. Fortunately our local "demos" or council has had enough money to pay out salaries and bonuses, so our garbage is being collected - not so for the poor people of Corfu Town.

We don't see much of the demonstrations that have been hitting Athens and the large cities in Greece. As I said before, Corfu is a sort of law unto it's own, thus its charm.

Our main concern is that the bridge we use to access the main road is all but wrecked. The bridge crosses a normally dry stream bed which in the last deluge became a torrent that lifted the tarmac from the bridge and the approach road and left it in a rather fragile state.


A week or so ago someone came along and strung up some plastic netting that delimited the safe part of the bridge. We now squeeze our car across the bridge, hoping all will be well with the concrete substructure. The alternative is a 5 mile detour.

We're still driving over it, as are the bin men in their truck!!

The first real post about Greece

Corfu isn't really Greece. In fact many people in Greece consider it a semi-autonomous island that owes its loyalty more to Italy than Greece, some even think that loyalty leans more towards Britain. A little history come in handy when talking about these things so....

Here's Corfu's basic timeline

1. Korkyra - Phaeceans ... 735 BC - 229 BC
2. Roman Corfu ... 229 BC - 565 AD
3. Byzantine Corfu ... 565 - 1386
4. Venetian Corfu ... 1386 - 1796
5. French Corfu ... 1796 - 1799
6. Russian Corfu ... 1799 - 1807
7. French Corfu ... 1807 - 1815
8. British Corfu ... 1815 - 1864
9. Greek Corfu ... 1864 - Present day

So, it's had a varied set of occupiers, the last being Italy and Germany in WW2. The Venetians left the biggest mark on the place (in my humble opinion, that is) and built the huge Palaio Frourio or Old Citadel which dominates Corfu Old Town. Then there is the New Citadel which is huge also. It's a place that has been fought over for many years!!

Today it is peaceful and the nearest we get to any kind of dispute is when the bin men go on strike and the rubbish lies around for a few days. Not quite the Turkish army laying siege to the island.

We live in a very sprawling village called Pikoulatika, the center of which I'm still trying to locate! It's probably the most laid-back place I've every lived in, and I've lived in quite a few places. So, life is very pleasant, if a bit quiet.......

More to come when something happens.....

At last.....

The ferry sailed into Corfu as we passed Pantokrator which was being pummeled by lightning!

Fortunately the sun shone on us as we disembarked and set off homewards, just fifteen minutes drive from the port.




Well, the wonderful thing that awaited us when we arrived home was a fridge full of semi-rotting food. Since we had rushed off at such short notice we hadn't had time to clear the fridge by eating our way through it all. So, we left it to providence that things would be OK on our return. It seems that one of the storms had caused a power outage that in turn had flipped the fuse for that part of the house where the kitchen is! Bang went all our frozen stuff and whatever had been edible in the cool part. Fortunately we had raided Sainsbury's before leaving the UK, so a quick trip to Sconto for some chicken and a jar of Mrs Patak's best saw us OK for dinner.

The next day we picked up the cat from our vet and finally thought we were back home!!!

Venice and home to Corfu.....

Sorry this post has taken so long in the making, but - excuses, excuses etc., I've been working on my website...


I've been plastering the posts with photographs rather than text, so I hope to remedy things a bit here as this will be the last post on the theme of our trip to the UK. After driving through the Saint Gothard Pass Tunnel - 10.5 miles long - we decided to take what looked like a short cut using one of Italy's "red roads" and not the motorway system that would have taken us around Milan - not a great idea! As it turned out taking the red road wasn't such a good idea either. We somehow forgot that we were in north Italy, the foothills of the Alps, and, yes, there are hills and valleys and endless little villages dotted along the red roads! Needless to say, at times, the Venice ferry looked a very distant vaporous idea that we had dreamt up more than one month past. As we trudged through yet another village and drove up hill and down dale along seemingly endless zig-zag roads, the zig-zags didn't appear on the map, we started thanking God that we had actually booked a hotel in Padova for the night, hoping to see Padova in the evening! - Wishful thinking!

Now Padova would have been a very interesting place to visit hadn't our hotel been somewhere in a commercial/industrial estate in its far-distant suburbs. Next time - yes - we'll visit Venice and Padova. Padova is the site of the first University in the western world where Galileo once lectured.

The hotel was actually very nice and they even served us a very decent dinner, when we eventually arrived. Needless to say, I was all for just getting to the ferry port first thing in the morning rather than try to do a mini-tour in the car around Padova. We had discovered that the Italian powers-that-be were actively discouraging such car-bound visits and had blocked off many towns, such as Verona, to car-bound tourists who just wanted to have a look before going on their way. So, I was in no mood to risk whatever they could do in the way of traffic rules that could stop us catching our ferry now that we were so close!!

We got to the ferry with loads of time to spare, but that didn't prevent the ferry loaders from putting us on three or four from the last. Waiting, watching all sorts of trucks, motor-homes, caravans, boat trailers, cross-country-safari-looking vehicles that could have reached the Everest base camp et al being loaded before us added even more to the frustrations of taking Italian red roads. However, sense seemed to prevail as we realised that most of those other vehicles were probably going to mainland Greece, the second stop for the ferry and that we were going to be the first to get off the damned ship! At least this time we would be three hours quicker than the last as we wouldn't have to sail to Igoumenitsa and back before the ferry landed at Corfu.

The ferry trip was an uneventful, boring 23 hour confinement broken only by some semi-decent food and a good book, plus a reasonable night's sleep.

As we approached Corfu a storm over the hills reminded us that we were returning to the Corfu winter months and we should be ready for lots of rain, electric storms, mudslides, fallen trees, people's homes being swept down hills and all the other delights we had been warned of before we left o the is trip!

Sure enough it rained and lightning struck the hills.

More to come - the plumber is knocking at the door!!

.........

More in Switzerland

Milk Chocolate!!






Going towards Italy it's inevitable you'll drive through one of the famous Swiss/Italy passes. We chose the St. Gothard Tunnel which is about 10.5 miles long - quite an experience! Waiting for us at the other end was our friend above outside a little village we stopped at for some coffee.

As we had a sort of deadline in Venice - we couldn't risk missing our ferry to Corfu, I just stpopped the car here and there and tried to capture the wonder of what we promised ourselves we will visit again with a lot more time to spare.
Here are some of the photographs.





































































Next stop - Venice and our return to Corfu.........

On to Switzerland

Over the channel and a quick dash to Switzerland. Neither of us had been there for many years and we were eager to see it again, thus the dash south. We stopped again at our hotel in Dinant in South Belgium, it is the ONLY hotel in Dinant, so not much option. Thankfully, it's very pleasant.

So Switzerland here we come, heading for Locarno on Lago Maggiore.....

At the border of Switzerland and Germany we have a little surprise! Since we had loaded the car further up with some "bits and pieces" at IKEA in Strasbourg, the back seat was piled high with flat-packs and I was expecting some kind of Customs reaction.
So when asked "What's in the packages and where are you going?", we quickly replied "Oh, just some IKEA stuff we're taking to Greece." The reply of "OK, now please give me 40 Euros for the sticker for the roads" was met with some relief!

The lady police officer took the money and then stuck our 2010 road sticker on the inside of the windshield. On we go.....

The drive through northern Switzerland is nothing to write home about, far less mention it here. So when we arrived at the "Lakes" we began to see the Switzerland everyone relates to - mountains, alps, lakes, happy grazing cows etc.

First stop, Lucerne for lunch overlooking the lake and the medieval bridge.


And Tower...



There to meet us was this beautiful swan...


























Some photographs of Locarno and Lago Maggiore...














More to come.......

Before we leave England....

Just a few images I took in the New Forest which add a little to our journey...




A New Forest Pony















His friends...










Toadstools and Flint



















A wild flower











Oak Leaves - a little part of England.....



And for those lucky enough to live in the New Forest - a lovely house...

Devon - eastward towards Dover

Going east towards Dover meant we had to spend a night around the Bournemouth area, so we opted for Poole where there was a hotel in the chain we had been using, so booking was relatively simple, the receptionist at our Torquay hotel did it for us! We were only going to there one nigh as a sleepover so the hotel didn't matter that much - somewhere to lay our heads!

Our next destination was Hastings where we would stay two nights and then "scoot" along to Dover when we went to get the ferry. Our plan was to go up to visit Winston Churchill's Home at Chartwell.



But first there was Arundel, a beautiful historic town, where we stopped for some tea and a bite to eat.





And the inevitable Tearooms....










But on to Chartwell and its beautiful gardens.






































































What direction next???

Even more in Devon

When in Devon - try a steam train journey through the past - and what better place to do it than Buckfastleigh

So here's a load of photographs that say much more than I could (maybe!!)...
































And finally...