- Getting ready to hit the road!
- Some thoughts on Hong Kong…
- A day in Danang and Hue, Vietnam
- Saigon River and Saigon, Vietnam
- Siem Reap and Temples, Cambodia
- The Floating Village — Kompong Phluk, Cambodia
- Phnom Penh and the road to Sihanoukville, Cambodia
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Day 2 in Bangkok — Ayutthaya, Thailand
- Singapore
- Langkawi Island, Malaysia
- Phuket, Thailand — or sort of…
- New Delhi, India
- Agra and the Taj Mahal
- The road to — and Jaipur, India
- India — a few closing thoughts.
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Oman (The Sultanate of)
- Luxor, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, Egypt
- Petra, Jordan
- Sharm el Sheik and St. Catherine’s Monastery, Egypt
- Cairo and Giza, Egypt
- Egypt — Some final thoughts…
- Zooming around Israel
- Bodrum, Kusadasi, and Ephesus, Turkey
- Corfu, Greece
- Dubrovnik and Zadar, Croatia
- Venice, Italy — the last hurrah!
One of our last stops on the cruise was the Greek island of Corfu, the second largest island in the Ionian Sea. Corfu really marks the northwestern corner of Greece and, if you look at a map, you will see most of the island is actually across from Albania. Like so many other places we visited, Corfu was always an attractive target and was the subject of conquests frequently throughout its history. This is really noticeable when you look at the number of forts and battlements over the island. Interestingly enough, these forts aren’t just located by the sea as is often the case with islands, but also on mountaintops. One of the examples was the Byzantine castle of Angelokastro, that sits atop a mountain on the western side of the island. Here, the Ottomans were held off in three major sieges and thus the Turks were never able to effectively establish a beachhead on the island.
Because this is such a beautiful island, we decided to go outside of the Old City and explore the countryside. This is where you learn a lot more about the island. First of all, the island was occupied for several years by Venice and, as a result, there is a sense of kinship with Italy and the influences can be seen in their food, language, architecture, and even culture. Secondly, most residents of the island live in small villages in the mountains and come down to the seaside area to work. Most homes by the sea are for tourists or are owned by off-island people. Thirdly, the locals are fiercely independent and identify much more with their island than Greece. Lastly, they are all about olives and grapes (and, of course, tourism!). In fact, we heard that there were four million (yes, that’s right – million) olive trees on the island and their olive oil is rated as some of the best in the world.
As an editorial note, in Corfu we continued our “James Bond Movie Location Tour” of the world. In this case, we visited The Achilleion, originally a summer palace of Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, with the mythical hero Achilles as the central theme throughout the palace and grounds. After her assassination, it was owned by Kaiser Wilhelm II and ultimately the Greek government – who initially ran it as a museum during the day and a casino at night (gotta love those Greeks!). It was the casino that was featured in “For Your Eyes Only,” as well as the underwater temple.
While these are a slight bit out of order, effectively the cruise was over at that point and we headed to Venice to disembark.
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
