It’s probably bizarre, but I’ve never been a big holiday fan. I love my home and am happiest here, and when going away I spend ages trying to settle in to the new place, only to find that, when I’ve finally got everything just so, it’s somehow time to pack up and go back again. So I didn’t have high expectations of Corfu.
But it’s just lovely, and you should all go. In fact, of the five of us on this holiday, I probably enjoyed it the most, and that’s pretty unprecedented. The villa we hired (via Airbnb for the first time) was exactly as advertised, and had a large balcony which was permanently in shade, on which I sat and read through the hottest parts of the day. We made a few attempts at sight-seeing, visiting Princess Sisi of Austria’s rather amazing recreation of a Greek temple, the Achilleon Palace, and then trying to see a genuine temple to Apollo, which turned out to be a couple of stones covered with a tarpaulin. I can only imagine the EU funding ran out, or maybe got diverted to something more pressing.
The rest of the time it was too ragingly hot during the day to do much, which always suits me just fine. By the time 6pm came around, we were ready to find a beach, and all of them had lovely tavernas right down by the sea and seemed happy for us to play cards noisily for hours. One night, we went to the White House, where Gerald Durrell wrote My Family and Other Animals. It seemed rather appropriate to be sitting there with our own particular blend of family life. One other great thing about Corfu, the glasses of wine they serve you are massive. Do go, you’ll love it.
