August 15 - 24, 2003

Cruising the Mediterranean

To see more of our cruise, click here. To go to our homepage, click here.

If it's Tuesday, this must be Corfu. So far this hasn't been a very relaxing cruise! Up early to tackle another port! Corfu is a Greek island off the west coast of mainland Greece. We chose the Jeep tour (although, technically they weren't Jeeps - Kevin was heard to mutter "Cheap piece of Japanese *&%@" as he struggled with the Suzuki Samarai's gear shifting.) Anyhow, we had about an hour drive through the mountainous interior of Corfu and lucked out because we were the second car in the convoy (thus not eating everyone else's dust) and Kevin is an expert with manual transmissions and 4-wheel-driving, something that could not be said of all the drivers! Also, note the olive trees behind our vehicle!

Ellen is pictured here with her new friends, Lauren and Katie, who are from Somerset, England. We were seated with their family at dinner and made friends with them over the course of the cruise. As you can see, the terrain behind them is quite arid.

After crossing the mountains, we stopped at a restaurant for samples of Greek food. To the left is the view from the restaurant. The cove in the middle of the picture is where we were heading. The cove was busy (as you can see below), but it was one of the most beautiful settings we've ever been to. This was the town of Palaiokastritsa.

We chose to spend our limited time snorkeling at the cove. The water was warm and clear, and there were many beautiful fish and sea urchins to be found. Will has always loved snorkeling, but this was the day when Ellen really took off and got caught up in the beauty of the ocean. This cove also has many caves that other people were boating into. We would love to return to Corfu and spend a week or two exploring the island and its waters.

Our visit ended with excitement. Somehow we missed the fact that the other 50+ people had gone back to the parking lot, and they were now 50+ angry Italians waiting for us. When I ran back to get Kevin from the snack stand where he was gathering nourishment for the kids, the rest of the caravan left! A Festival Cruise staff member waited for us and waggled her finger at us, and then we took off across Corfu. Happily, we caught up with the group as they reached the cruise ship, and the tour operator was very gracious about the whole thing.

That night was one of the "Gala" nights at dinner, so we got all dressed up. After dinner we went to the show, since our stop at the next port wasn't until noon the next day. The show was good, but others later in the week were fantastic! More on that later...

To see more of our cruise, click here. To go to our homepage, click here.