Lots of great statues around the gardens, this one of Hermes has a gold covered foot and is said to make you ‘fleet of foot’ if you rub it -which I did!
A beautiful private chapel – wonderful paintings on the walls and ceiling!
The view from the gardens – you can see out to the ocean and all over one side if Corfu.
Kaiser Wilhelm put up this statue of Achilles which overlooks the view in the pic above. The helmet was originally plated in gold and he could see it from the ocean as he sailed in to Corfu.
These statues of the muses line the Balcony of Tears – a large marble terrace where Sisi would sit and cry for her son. His body was buried just near the balcony but after her death it was returned to Austria.
This is the view down to the ocean from the spot where Sisi sat on the Balcony of Tears.
This painting on the wall above the main staircase is another representation of Achilles. If you look closely at the wheel on the cart you will see there is no indication of movement of the wheel. The artist who painted it is said to have committed suicide with shame for making such a simple mistake.
More views from the garden…
After the palace visit we spent about half an hour trying to get out of the carpark at the top of the hill – it was one lane wide with buses and cars parked either side and pedestrians walking. Buses were coming in both directions and so we had to back down almost to the bottom of the hill between cars and buses – in reverse- to let another bus go past – then we drove up to the top again only to meet another bus coming towards us – it was a peaceful standoff for about 15 minutes until we ‘won’ and the other bus had to reverse down the hill to let us out – we are such impatient drivers in Australia – people in Europe are really patient when it comes to sharing the road.
Anyway, after that we drove into the old part of Corfu – this is the old fort at the edge of the city overlooking the harbour.
We walked through the old part of Corfu – heaps of shops and narrow little streets…
slingshots for children…
just people everywhere in the narrowest little streets… too many!
fresh fruit everywhere, lots of pomegranates
we walked away from the main area to wider streets and less people
We went down to the main square and had a coffee – Tony tells me its the best coffee he’s had yet – which it should be considering we are in Greece!