I adore the picture above - Corfu is truly a beautiful island. The colours of everything are so clear, vivid and bright ALL the time. This shot was taken at Pelekastratis.
So! We arrived via Thomas Cook airways in our favourite place, Corfu on Monday 29th June. We got a taxi to our apartment complex in Gouvia and were met by 'Mama' who took one look at us and said "I think with the little piccolos (children), the steps in the apartments will be too difficult. Would you mind taking a house 50 metres away?"
So she showed us the house - a beautiful Greek style villa painted pink - so the girls were sold straight away! But instead of what we thought we'd be getting - a basic two bedroomed apartment with a kitchenette and nothing much more, we got a two bedroomed House with sitting / dining room, a fully equipped modern kitchen and a private garden! "Oh, if we have to take it then...!"
Taking the house meant we only had a 50m walk to the hotel complex swimming pool and a 10 minute walk to the main esplanade and beach of Gouvia. Fantastic!!
The first night we arrived, we decided to walk into Gouvia for dinner and got a phone call from Sharon & Wayne who had just arrived at their private villa up the hills in Gouvia, suggesting we meet in town for dinner, so there began Annalise and Juliette's holiday in heaven as they could play with their friends almost everyday!
It was soooooo good to see Sharon again and everything fell into place as if we'd all never been apart! And Jonty, their third baby born last August and who I'd only seen pictures of is absolutely GORGEOUS!! A true mini version of Sharon!!
So, we sat down in a Greek Taverna and stuffed ourselves silly with dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), Tzatziki, Taramasalata, Greek Salads, stuffed peppers, Saganaki feta cheese and chicken souvlaki!! YUM! The taverna we went to is owned by a lovely man who also teaches his dinner guests Greek dancing and plate smashing, so the children were in their element, performing in front of us all!
The next day, we went up to Sharon & Wayne's villa for a BBQ - they were right at the top of the Gouvia Hills and their villa overlooked the majority of one whole side of Corfu Island - absolutely breathtaking. They had a private swimming pool on the roof terrace. Wonderful!
And so began our exciting holiday in Greece, spent between meeting up with Sharon & Wayne and their family who came out in dribs and drabs before the wedding, going on day trips out to the local sandy (which were truly beautiful) or pebble beaches, visiting old monuments and incredibly old historical buildings, eating lots of Greek food and drinking lots of beer and wine and Ouzo!
I do have to say, however, that the cost of food and drink and general expenses in Greece has gone up, I would say, 300% since we were last there in 2003. Extortionate! We really struggled towards the end to afford to eat out. Oh, to be a little bit more well off!
The Wedding!
What a SUPERB day! Although poor Sharon was really quite poorly all day long with the start of flu. She managed to have a great time none-the-less. And she looked BEAUTIFUL!
It started off with us meeting Wayne in Old Corfu Town so that he could lead us all to the Town Hall where the wedding was going to be held.
Sharon turned up with her flower girls (Jasmine & Freya) a little while after and then the actual wedding took no longer than 15 minutes. Nice and short and sweet. After photographs outside in the hot sun, Sharon & Wayne were taken off in their wedding car to have photographs taken at various locations in Corfu and we started the long (and slightly uncomfortable) walk over to the Old Fort and through it to the yacht club. This walk took about 45 minutes in the heat of 45 degrees sun with high heels over cobble stones. Hmmmmm. I wasn't very clever there!
The fort is beautiful though so it was a very scenic route (!) and when we finally arrived at the yacht club it was spectacular.
We were served champagne at first, which was terribly yummy and before I knew it, I had downed 4 glasses! I was so hot and thirsty. Not so good though on an emty stomach. We were all pretty starving by this time (it was getting close to 3pm and we hadn't eaten yet!). However, we (I) carried on drinking regardless!
As Sharon & Wayne came in, canapes were served which was a relief and the party began!!
The Greeks do things a little differently....the cake is cut and served first, before any food. Nice though! Then at about 5pm we had a gorgeous Greek buffet dinner followed by dancing and dancing and more dancing!
We met some wonderful friends of Sharon & Waybne's and their family were all so kind - we were treated as if we were one of the family which was lovely.
I was completely sozzled by the end of the day (not surprising!). The whole wedding party went back to Sharon & Wayne's for post wedding drinks - I don't really remember very much from that part of the night. I do remember that Sharon ended up driving a large party of us in their van back as there were no taxis to be seen and she had to stop for me and all the children to get out and have very public wees by the side of the road next to a set of dustbins! Nice!
I spent the rest of the night when we got home to our villa, lying on the bathroom floor throwing up rather a lot. Very civilised!!
The day after the wedding, was our last day in Gouvia, as we moved to a fully-inclusive hotel resort in Sinarades - a beautiful place about 15km further down the coast, for a bit of R&R. It was actually a welcome relief to have an all inclusive place as we were seriously running out of money and having paid for it ages ago, we didn't have to spend any money the whole 4 days we were there. Daily entertainment, three pools, kids club, shows, three meals, pool snacks, all drinks, alcoholic or soft, ice cream etc were all in the package. I have never been to a place like that and it is FANTASTIC!!! The food was great and Andrew was in heaven being able to order beers left right and centre and the girls could have as much ice cream on demand as they wished!! The room was spectacular with breathtaking views across the sea and horizon. Turquoise sea, brighter than bright blue sky and little else. Superb!!
Sharon & Wayne and the kids even came and spent a day with us there.
We left Corfu on the 11th July - sad. But we were looking forward to getting back and seeing the family again. A fantastic holiday was had.
The Girls' Love Affair with Ice Cream
Fantastic!!
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