Bari, italy

Bari is in southern Italy but it was as cold as northern Alaska, although the flowers were saying it's spring.

 

It got quite sunny later and warmed up a bit but because it's really a port city, that sea breeze kept coming up and freezing us.😡

Anyway I never saw any interesting sight-seeing tours for this area, so we just took a bus into town and window shopped.

Downtown is like most Italian cities, same kind of architecture, narrow cobble-stoned walkways, apartments upstairs behind huge wooden doors and of course, churches.

Behind these huge doors are lobbies to several apartments.

Sight of spring everywhere except in the temperature 

This is a garage in what looks like an apartment!

The streets were fairly crowded despite the weather.

Trying out Italian gelato aka ice cream cone

It's not the type of weather to be outside, so we went back to the ship did some yoga and rested till dinner time.

Michelle is our yoga instructor.

A struggling student

Sonja did yoga too but volunteered to be the photographer 😁, hence she is missing in the pics.

Corfu Island, Greece.

Corfu island otherwise known as little London because of its weather, had been a a part of the Republic of Venice for some five centuries, hence their local language is still influenced by Italian as much as by Greece.

This Byzantine castle on the highest point was once an important lookout, but it's in ruins now.

Because of its strategic location and high mountains, it became a very well-fortified island for Europe against the Ottoman empire. 

It later fell under British rule and finally ceded to  Greece in 1864.

Because of its mountainous terrain, it is extremely scenic and today is a popular tourism mecca.

An underground spring makes the beautiful turquoise lake extremely cold.

With a population of less than 150,000, it once had a vibrant fishing industry but that has replaced by tourism. 

Thanks to olives, of which there are some 4.5 million trees in this little island, farming and manufacturing remain solid contributors to its economy.

They use these meshes to gather the olives. The longer the olives stay on the ground the less "Virgin" is the oil.

The age of the olive tree is calculated by the number of holes in the trunk. The oldest on Corfu is over 2000 years old and is still producing!

There are many monasteries here. attached to the Greek Orthodox Church, but  Paleokastritsa is the most popular.

The monks operate a restaurant and small farm right there.

The road to get to the monastery is so narrow and winding, so to cope with large buses and traffic visiting that location, they set up timed traffic lights at the narrowest points to prevent traffic jams.

It works perfectly.

Waiting time at the traffic lights at both the top and bottom is 4 minutes. 

We went up even further above the monastery to Castelino, passing through a small village called Lakones. It was first settled by Spartan natives from Lakonia in the 17th century, hence the name. 

However it is virtually abandoned now.  Only a few older people remain there now.

The view from all angles is breathtaking.

Their small burial ground attached to the monastery is surrounded by Cyprus Pine.

Partially abandoned village of Lakones

View of the monastery from Castelonia.

Then it was back to town and Old Corfu.

Part of the shopping area in old Corfu. It's pedestrians only except for delivery vehicles.

The new fort

This is an old fort, operated as part of the Greek archives.

Other memories in picture.

Our cruise ship

Stray cats are very friendly here as most Greeks nurture them.

People drop coins here for good luck. (At the monastery)

Ferry to mainland Greece. You can take your vehicle.

There is a ferry to neighboring Albania but it's people only.

Nb. Pics contributed by: Kadi, Sonja, Camille, Michelle, Joan.