A Walk Through Corfu Town

Outside and around the church there were old fashioned stores selling various cheap cards or slightly more expensive pieces of pressed aluminium each with a picture of a part of the body.

The explanation is that if you have a bad knee then you buy a leg picture, a poorly arm an elbow picture, a hangover a brain picture and so on and then you take this to the Church and ask for a cure and then leave it there securely fastened in bunches to railings and picture frames so that God or Jesus or whoever doesn’t just forget about it seconds after you have gone.

In return for this service it is the custom to light a candle and leave it flickering at the door.  Six foot candles were burning away with such intensity it might have been what it was like to be caught in the middle of the Great Fire of London.  It all looked rather dangerous to me but there were men on hand whose job it was to extinguish the flames as soon as the worshipper that had left it there was an appropriate distance away down the street and then whisk the unburned portion away for immediate recycling and to cut down and sell later to another pilgrim!

Emerging from the shady streets back into the sunshine we passed the Esplanade, once the exclusive place for nobles and important residents and then the cricket pitch, which looked lush and green and rather out of place in this dry dusty town and is a quirky legacy of fifty years of British rule from 1814 to 1864 and where matches are still played today.

I don’t suppose many people would expect to find cricket being played in Greece but it was introduced to Corfu in 1823 when a match was played between the British Navy and the local Army garrison. The Hellenic Cricket Federation was founded a hundred and seventy years later in 1996 when Greece became a member of the European Cricket Council and an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council.  There are now twenty-one cricket clubs in Greece, thirteen of which are based in Corfu and Greece competes annually in the European Cricket Championship.

Never mind Captain Cook or Clive of India or Cecil Rhodes, it seems to me that Cricket is probably the most important legacy of the British Empire.  Currently 104 of 193 World Countries have some sort of affiliation to the International Cricket Council. For some reason that I cannot explain there are 211 football countries (?) affiliated to FIFA.  There are about twenty countries that play the pointless game of US Rounders  Baseball.

I certainly wouldn’t park my car that close to the boundary especially in a T20 match…

Close to the harbour we completed our visit to Corfu town with a look inside the old fortress where we wandered around the lower levels where, to be honest there wasn’t a lot to see because seventy- five years ago the German army destroyed most of it to celebrate the end of their occupation of the island.

So then we tackled the long climb to the top where there were some impressive views of the town, the island and the sea but the weather was beginning to change and from out of nowhere a strong wind whipped up the dust and started to rattle the pavement furniture so we left, crossed the canal moat and head once more to the centre of the town where we passed a memorial to the two thousand Jews of Corfu who were deported from the island during the Nazi occupation.

Everywhere in Europe from Iberia to the Baltic to the Balkans we stumble across these sad stories.  In June 1944 the Corfiot Jews were told to present themselves the next morning at the old Fort. When they heard the ultimatum, some escaped to the countryside but most did as they had been told.  There, the Nazis forced them to hand over their possessions and subsequently they were led to the prison inside the Fortress.

The incarceration at the jail of the castle, under horrible conditions and without rudimentary amenities lasted for some time until finally they were transported to concentration camps in Eastern Europe.

Out of the two thousand that were forced to leave Corfu only one hundred and twenty eventually returned.  Let me say that again.  Out of the two thousand that were forced to leave Corfu only one hundred and twenty eventually returned.  I love Europe, I love being a European but when it comes to war and genocide, Europe has a lot to answer for.

It is facts like these that can make me feel temporarily uncomfortable as we nonchalantly drift through history in sandals and shorts enjoying our holidays and our travels, stopping for a coffee or a beer or a cocktail but then occasionally uncovering unpleasant pieces of information that serve to remind that times were not always so good.  Let us hope that we learn from history this time because we haven’t been so good at that previously.

Back now in the cramped shopping streets and back alleys the Kim and Margaret did some souvenir and gift shopping and then to the other side of the town to the New Fortress.

There was a long climb to the entrance and seeing a pay kiosk I was prepared for another entrance fee but bizarrely there was no one there to collect money and a sign in the window saying free admission between nine in the morning and five in the afternoon.  It didn’t explain what the arrangements were if you wanted to visit outside of these hours!

A photograph taken in 1984…

The New Fortress was built by the Venetians to compliment the older one and it was completed by the British during the Protectorate period.  The British liked building fortresses in other people’s countries and also constructed some elaborate sea defences but rather like the Germans in 1944 they blew these up when they left when Corfu was handed over to the new Greek State in 1863.

It was a long hot walk but it was worth the effort for the views from the top of the battlements and from the flat roof of the old barracks and on balance (and I am not just saying this because it was free entrance) I think the New Fortress was more interesting to visit than the Old.

So we made our way back to the jetty and sat and waited in a friendly taverna under wildly flapping parasols for the speed boat and the return journey.  The wind continued to get stronger and a concerned owner came outside several times to examine his umbrellas which seemed to be going through some sort of pre take off routine.  The sea was getting rougher and I began to get nervous about the ride back.

The boat arrived and it looked rather flimsy bobbing about in the water as the hissing wind whipped up meringue peaks on the waves whilst overhead in the sky a fleet of steel grey battleships chased away the flotilla of dainty white sailing boats that scattered towards Albania but clearly the skipper was happy to make the journey and we set off back to Kalami.

I was confident in his nautical abilities of course but I also hoped that Saint Spyridon was watching over us because amongst all his other responsibilities he is also the patron saint of sailors, protecting them from shipwrecks and helping them to safe harbour during storms.

Another picture from 1984…