Moving again.........

Well, knock me down with a feather - we're moving house again! This time, hopefully, for the last time! The house we're in has developed many problems during the winter months, the rain storms etc, and has become unpleasant, not to say unhealthy, to live in. We're heading for the seaside this time and will be just yards/meters from a very nice little beach.

Our negotiations are complete, lease signed etc and all that remains is for us to make the move and the phone company to get their finger out and relocate our phone number and the internet connection that goes with it! Might take all of 3 weeks to do that!

So I will keep the blog updated with photos and comments as we progress through our latest move. As and when I can...... Just as well that we're in Greece as that is now in the hands of the Gods.

My new project

I've started a project of taking photographs around Corfu in early morning light. My first attempt was in the previous post - the picture of St Spiridon Church. For anyone who's interested I'm using the HDR technique, taking 3 photographs at different exposures and using Photoshop to merge them into an HDR image. If you want to know more about this - contact me. These are two I took today - it's the Old Citadel from across Garitsa Bay and the Windmill at the opposite side of the bay.



And the windmill.



The view across to the mainland.

Very quiet here.........

Took this in Old Corfu Town yesterday morning, very early.

The latest - at 15th Jan 2011

We're waking up to cool, crisp sunny days now - no rain!!
Yesterday we took a table at a table-top sale and made €28 - big business comes back to Corfu! Met some nice people and probably bought just as much as we sold! So we had some lovely home-baked pies for our late lunch.

Back to what I try to do best, photography and website design....
Lots to do to get more photographs resized and onto my website.

The bridge to the main road is looking the worse for wear after the storms last month and if the council don't come to repair it soon, we'll be forced to make the longish detour as our only way out of here to Corfu and civilisation!

First trip to Ioannina - part 6

Yes, IKEA - one of the main reasons for going on this trip! The next morning, after a pretty hellish night in our miserable room, the hotel actually provided us with a very decent buffet breakfast, but not the full American one they promised - a leanish continental with lots of decent coffee. We rushed off to rescue the car from the public garage and raced back to the hotel to return the pass key and retrieve our bags which the proprietor had cunningly managed to keep as guarantee we would return with the car park pass! Glad to be on the road again, we arrived just after IKEA had opened to be met by a charming young lady who told us we could have breakfast there from 9:00 a.m. for €1.4 with as many refills of their Dow Egbert's coffee as we could drink! Lesson to remember for the next time!!


Some not very interesting photographs of the IKEA store - here to satisfy the curiosity of Corfu dwellers who've been waiting years for this to happen!



The usual three hour trip around and about IKEA found us a few Euros less in pocket but happy as we just can't get reasonably priced bits and pieces in Corfu. Load up the car and head for Igoumenitsa in the hopes of getting on an earlier ferry which, at this time of year, shouldn't be a problem - and it wasn't, just a one hour wait drinking coffee opposite the entrance to the port.









We saw Santa's little helper trying to get a lift - different!!











On the ferry back to Corfu we had some lovely views of the island, the water seemed to have an oily, lazy look about it - dead calm until the ship cut through giving us these soft waves.








And beautiful sunsets.













Back home and our own bed......

First trip to Ioannina - part 5

Within the castle in Ioannina is the mosque of Ali Pasha, the last of the sultans to rule over the Greek people. Here are some images -






During the Greek War of Independence Ali PAsha was "holed up" in the Island on Ioannina Lake, "holding out" against the Greeks. In fact, they were quite happy for him to stay there for three years, out of the way, so to speak. After the three years they arrested and beheaded him.

The castle also has a Byzantine Museum where there are some amazing relics which were somehow preserved during the Sultanate rule and the German occupation during the Second World War.










But soon we were back in the streets if Ioannina where the Christmas decorations were still up.....






And it was off to do some shopping and find dinner.........

First trip to Ioannina - part 4

Now we've got here, we spend over one hour circling where our hotel is meant to be. The directions are quite clear, after all the preliminaries, we should turn left at a certain junction and the hotel is literally a few metres from where we should be! Down the side-road five times in succession trying, first to find the hotel and, second to find the private parking they boast about! Only on the 6th attempt do I spot the building, 20 metres back up the road we had been driving down to the now infamous junction. In a place we would least expect it and no sign of any available parking. So, it's round once more, slow the car down so Barbara can rush across to this hotel whilst I do the circuit one more time. This time the owner rushes over with Barbara, gets in the front seat and directs me around a block of back alleys which bring me onto the main road again now pointing in the opposite direction. Double park outside the hotel - "put alarm!!" Hazard lights on, we unload our bags and are now joined by a stalwart of the hotel owner who will now accompany me to this private parking which turns out to be a public parking garage! We get the car parked up and I'm glad the next time I see it will be when we leave the hotel and head for IKEA to do some shopping!

Dump our stuff in the room, a back room over-looking nothing very nice, in fact something quite horrible. The front rooms facing over the beautiful park are not in our price range this time round, so put up and shut up. Fortunately, there's lovely coffee shop nearby where we salve our minds and bodies before heading out to the old castle.

I know this is a bit out of sequence, but I had to mention the hotel bit!!

First trip to Ioannina - part 3

The castle at Ioannina overlooks the Limni Ioanninon, or the Lake of Ioannina. On an island on this lake the Sultan Ali Pasha hid up for three years during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. As the poet Rigas wrote in his war song poem -

"Better one hour of free life,
Than forty years of slavery and prison."

A sentiment being expressed perhaps by the rioters in Athens at this moment against the EU "bailout" of the Greek economy.








More....... later when I resize some pix

First trip to Ioannina - part 2

One of the reasons for this trip was to see the snow on the mountains.....







....and the castle.





Once you get into the town, it is very pleasant.
Apparently the first human remains found here go back 38,000 years. But the thing that makes Ioannina famous is it's part played in the Byzantine period and its fame for producing scholars during the period of Greek Enlightenment which followed.


We decided to visit the castle and the Old Town which unfortunately has been "redeveloped" under a European Union grant into something resembling a modern housing estate ringed with occasional pieces of antiquity.



However, one of the sleepy residents didn't seem to care what the EU did, or does for that matter.




















As we approached the castle we saw this ancient tree providing shade for a kiosk.








An interesting fact emerged as we read more about the history of Iaonnina - "The city was conquered in 1082 by the Normans under the leadership of Bohemond of Taranto, who repaired the existing city walls in order to repel the offensive of emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118). Alexios I nonetheless recovered the city in 1108." So not only did the Normans conquer England in 1066, but they were very active in the east too!!




The castle is surrounded by lovely lanes which reflect the style of life lived in the past. Many of these lanes house very interesting restaurants and what looks like a very active night life.









More to come.......