Been too long.....

Yes, it's been a few weeks since I gave an update of what's happening here in Corfu. The tourists are here now, enjoying the sun and the beaches. The mix has changed considerably in the last couple of years, most visible tourists in our area now coming from Russia and Eastern European countries reflecting the rise in their fortunes and the decline in the traditional British and Italian fortunes!

They're all welcome as Corfu needs every tourist Euro it can get. A rising and worrying trend is the All-Inclusive holiday where people pay for hotel, food and drinks in advance and as long as they stay in their hotels around the pool, they can eat and drink themselves senseless on terrible food and the cheapest hooch. The local tavernas and bars see little or none of their business as these "tourists" come with almost empty pockets.

BUT, many of the Eastern Europeans seem to be giving their trade to the local businesses, the restaurants and car rental companies advertise their menus and price lists in Russian, Serbian, Polish and a few other languages in addition to the more traditional English and Italian.

The ferries are still running, the planes arriving and the buses taking them all to their hotels pass us in droves at times, so it can't all be bad in this economic climate.....

It's July and HOT

Lat week we went down to the huge sandy beach at the lagoon, Limni Konsia, which is on the south-west coast of Corfu. Here you are looking out onto the Ionian Sea and if you crane your neck, you'll be looking directly up towards Venice! The sun was hot, but the water too cold for swimming. Perhaps that's because we went in the early morning to avoid other people, but even then, I don't believe there would have been many people later in the day. Spent an hour ot two beach combing for shells and strangely-shaped pebbles.

Tomorrow we drive to southern tip of the island - the starting point of my bottom-to top walking route - next year!

July is here...

The 4th of July and my birthday treat is dinner in the rooftop garden of the Cavalieri Hotel in Corfu Town. We've been looking forward to doing this for a long time. It is positively summer now, over 30C every day and just lovely. Last week Barbara attended a 5 day course in mosaics run by two English ladies and taught by two maestros from Ravenna in italy. I would like to have done it myself since my art is confined to my photographic attempts and this would be a nice variation, perhaps next year when they do another course! Barbara created a very good copy of an ancient mosaic of a fish - well, I think so...

Here's her fish...