Cor! Phew! Quite a climb!

Not to scale! Corfu: Area 614.6 sq  km. Fuerteventura: Area 1,660 sq km

This summer's "New Place to Visit During the Journey South" was Corfu. As the Italy-Greece ferries always call at Igoumenitsa just East on the Greek mainland and sometimes at Corfu Town itself we have spied it a good few times. We know several couples who have links with both Corfu and Crete. We saw a travel programme with Joanna Lumley that impressed, and finally we spent time over the winter in discussion with Irish friends and fellow Fuerte residents who go there every summer. It all made sense and thus it was that we disembarked at 8.30 am or so at Igoumenitsa.

The Superfast from Ancona is
 in the distance

Research had of course taken place and - in particular - we had tried many times to find out about the ferry service to the island and had found no way to book and distinct vagueness about the journey time:- all in vain! It is a simple run from the large ferry port down to the one for Corfu and Paxos, the return fare was 90EUR and we got straight on to a smallish ferry which was about to leave. As we left Yvette it started to rain. After about an hour, as we lurked inside but thought the shore looked a fair way away, we got into an "Are we there yet?" conversation with a Brit ex-pat who said that this was the slowest boat and the whole thing would be in excess to two hours!

The view from Athineos-
 note the clouds!

It had stopped raining by the time we got across. We had booked three nights in rooms just north of the town so that we could visit by bus and then decide where to have the remaining week. It wasn't by the beach but had a great view over the marina at Gouvia and was a good choice for the purpose intended, with very helpful owners. They told us about the bus and we set off for an afternoon in Corfu Town dismissing the idea of taking waterproofs. as we orientated ourselves at the bus station it began to rain and that was that! We got in quickly into an unremarkable bar-restaurant and were stuck there for hours as it filled to overflowing! It was sad to see hordes of (other) tourists drenched outside. Eventually it did stop! We got back on bus and that was our first attempt at Corfu Town! We had been warned about the rain in May/June, and it explains the very "green" nature of the island.
Next day it was a bit brighter and Greyrocks sallied forth in Yvette to look for beach resorts that appealed. We went no further than Barbati - not far North - which after the foulness of Ipsos-  through which we passed - seemed like Heaven, and it came with an Irish qualified recommendation and a named suggestion of beachside rooms. We lunched in one of the several good tavernas by the pebble beach and we arranged to stay at the Renata rooms for a good rate from the Sunday. Later we discovered a very good taverna near our base.

One of two fortresses

Magnificent waterfront

No cricket today!

Could be Eastbourne!

The weather had improved yet further by Saturday so we "did" Corfu Town - in all its UNESCO World Heritage site splendour - properly! Very busy, of course, and hot, but we found some interesting back streets and avoided much of the tat, rip-off and Russians.

The rest of our Corfu stay was based in Barbati. The beach itself is disappointing stony, but the sea was gloriously clear, the sunbeds free to patrons of the rooms and it was largely peaceful. We met some delightful locals and workers, and the restaurants were all superb. This was largely a "holiday" for Greyrocks with lazy beach  days reading, occasional dips in the sea and some patronising of local hostelries.

By night though there would have to be the great ascent to the main road for dinner via very steep paths. On one occasion we did it, ate well and struggled down one path only to find we could not get through the beachside gate:-  A Grand Old Duke of York situation. (It wasn't locked we later discovered - just stiff!)

We tried five of the top eight restaurants on Trip Advisor, and they were all up to scratch and with stunning views (Well, yes! Having struggled up there...) . Highlights included Ruth's birthday meal, introducing ourselves to one owner as friends of the Irish couple, and a delightful musical evening.



One of the climbs

Worth the climb



Birthday Chateaubriand

In time we decided we had better see more of this North-East part of the island and set off on the coast road with intended destinations of Agios Stephanos ("Kensington-on-Sea") and Kassiopi. We didn't make it! After twenty minutes of nerve-racking driving the renowned Greyrocks "lily liver" set in and we turned back! On another trip we will take the bus!

The Undersea Tunnel near Prevesa

After the ten days were up we crossed back (on a ferry bound for Paxos) and drove down the E55 for a night in Messolonghi. Another very hot day and a Sunday, but we saw stunning sights and also went through the newish "Undersea Tunnel".  We stayed in the only large hotel for such a cheap pre-booked price that we were shunned by the staff. The name means "between two lakes" and there were more mosquitoes than one can imagine giving Ruth a dramatic set of bites on the legs that took a week to clear up! One reason they may have wanted to charge more was that the whole town (or the bit near the harbour) was en fete. Greyrocks never got an adequate explanation for the Roma horse lorries, Hansel and Gretel performance and racing motors. All very bizarre! Next day we continued on towards Patras necessitating use of a second Greek civil engineering feat:- the Rio bridge:- seen but not traversed before! We killed time as we travelled with several stops including the traditional fish lunch just before Athens:- on this occasion surrounded by many Greeks as it was a Bank Holiday Monday. The ANEK crossing to Chania was better than some we have suffered and we arrived at Votsalo on the pebble beach at Paleochora in good time for breakfast!

What goes up must come down!

There was an uneventful drive down to Dover in good weather and Greyrocks was accepted on the earlier (1400) sailing with DFDS to Dunkerque, where we stayed - as part of the policy of minor upgrading to reflect age - at the Campanile and not the Premiere Classe! (Significantly better rooms, but an over-priced and rather mean breakfast!) Across the road at Poivre Rouge the grilled magret de canard was at half-price, so  a good welcome back to France!

The main Place in Chalons -rather clever and a record of
 famous folk associated! 

The journey down to our summer home in Crete had been planned with military precision and next day it would be a gloriously warm and easy 200 miles exactly to the campsite at Chalons en Champagne where we were assigned a very spacious and well equipped mobile home for its first ever letting. After the plumber had finished we ate our sandwiches (intended for en route) on the veranda and planned tourist visits and cycle rides. We need not have bothered - there were to be none! The rest of the day was fine, and we found a huge supermarket with cafeteria and Wi-Fi, but cycling back we felt some spots of rain, and that is how it carried on! For the remainder of the time there we dodged heavy thunderstorms. We could see that the town would be a good place for cycling - especially on the river banks - but all we managed to do was go over to "wet mode" of taking long late brasserie lunches and lurking in the mobile home in the evening with the BBC i-player!
On the first good-weather day Greyrocks left - declaring that it would be a good stop on a subsequent trip and mumbling about "swings and roundabouts"! The next stop would be an overnight in Mulhouse. Ideally we would have planned to go further but that would mean Switzerland and Swiss hotel prices, so it was a relaxed drive which included going through the longest road tunnel entirely within France - Ste Marie aux Mines. We stayed at the Campanile and enjoyed a meal in the sunshine  - (the last French one for a long time!)

Chocolate box or what?

And so to the big adventure of first ever driving in Switzerland. We left early as we had been warned of queues at the Gothard Tunnel and were soon handing over an extortionate amount of euros for a Swiss vignette (and getting back Swiss francs as change!) - particularly extortionate if one has no intention of returning by that route. Ah well!
The traffic was fairly heavy but the autoroute had good signage and - of course - stunning scenery! The queue for the tunnel was about 40 minutes (late morning on a May Saturday) which was tolerable, the drive through was calm and then we emerged to see German and Italian rather than French and many, many lakes! Lovely! There was a small hold up entering Italy, and then the horrors of the autostrada past Milan, but we made it almost seamlessly to Lake Garda and the lovely Campeggio Bruno.

Moniga is one of the smaller resorts beside the lake and most accommodation is in large campsites. Ours, however was smaller, very friendly and much older. We had an old mobile home, but it was very comfortable and we had a huge veranda with a lake view, and most of the time it was very peaceful. That's the good news. Unfortunately Greyrocks must have lost its marbles in the planning stage! It certainly had not looked at enough maps with contours! There was an attractive promenade with several good restaurants and the potential for short bike rides, but to go anywhere else - including the supermarket - involved a ghastly curvaceous and very steep climb. Bob did it twice:- Ruth once ("Never again") and the village at the top was very pretty. We spent much of a very sunny Sunday afternoon up there with a couple of glasses of Prosecco to fuel our first attempts at urgent banking on the new Hudl (as Bruno had no WiFi!) We ate very well in Moniga:- on two occasions al fresco and on the Monday distinctly not as the storm that had brewed all day happened with great drama and the best Greyrocks could do was run to the nearest pizzeria from where one could watch families of ducks from the shelter of a crowded covered terrace.



Thence a straightforward autostrada run to Riccione south of Rimini. The sun was back and there was not too much traffic. We made good progress, but witnessed - on the other carriageway - the devastation caused minutes earlier by an appalling collision of two trucks. There was stationary traffic for at least 20 kilometres. So relieved was Greyrocks that we decided to kill time by doing the last coastal bit on local roads. We had been here before (2010) but had forgotten that Rimini is complicated, the railway bridges are low, and there is the Rubicon to be crossed. Hence we arrived at our hotel having clocked up rather more miles than expected and with some recriminations! Still, it was a useful efficient place for an overnight, even if the WiFi was down and it was at the extreme end of a very straggling resort. Yvette had been parked up for a rest but had to be brought out again for an emergency e-mail-seeking trip into the centre. After much frustration in very hot weather we found a pleasant bar with WiFi and Prosecco, followed by a restaurant for a good early supper and a supermarket for last supplies of Italian plonk.

 Next stop Ancona and a pleasant surprise! Our reader will recall that Greyrocks was less than impressed with the current ships and sailing times of ANEK Venice-Patras and v.v. so we have returned to the Ancona route, and this is now operated in association with Superfast, and what an improvement! A modern spacious vessel, reasonably priced and functioning WiFi, calm cafeteria, comfortable cabin.... Bliss! We relaxed for the 19 hour crossing to Igoumenitsa and more pastures new!