Argostoli
Today we docked at the port of Argostoli at 1PM so we had the luxury of sleeping in which was much needed after the past week. We had a leisurely breakfast and spent some time around the ship until lunch time. There was a barbecue on the pool deck where we grabbed a few bites prior to departing for our tour that woudl get us back to the ship close to departure time and less than an hour until our dinner reservation.
Argostoli is a town on the beautiful island of Kelalonia, in the Ionian Sea. Our first stop was at a folklore museum where we learned about some of the history of the island which was totally destroyed by a volcano in 1953. Artifacts removed from the buildings and homes aftre the earthquake are on display at the museum and give a glimpse into what the island was like before the earthquake. We also heard about some of the history of the island from its mention in the Iliad though World War II when battles were fought on the island between Germans and Italian resistance soldiers. On our way back to the bus there was a flowering bush, that had giant caterpillars eating its leaves.
From the museum we traveled up though the hills on countless switchbacks over cliffs to the tiny port town of Symi where we stopped at a harbor side cafe for a nice glass of wine which only cost 5 Euros per glass.
Our next stop was a site were we took a short row boat ride around a cave that’s ceiling collapsed during an earthquake.
As we headed back towards Argostoli we stopped briefly at an overlook where we could see a spectacular beach with aqua colored water. The color comes from the limestone cliffs next to the beach, Periodically the limestone braks off and falls into the sea.
Back on the ship the views from out cabin were beautiful as the sub set over the hills.
Tonight we did the Chef’s table with wine pairing. The theme was French and dinner was spectacular. Every course was excellent as were the wines. There were only 10 people at the dinner and everyone had a great time. With us were 3 couples from Great Britain and one couple form Iowa. We enjoyed the 4 hour experience and highly recommend it.
After dinner we were ready to turn in for the night. Tomorrow we will be in Corfu just up the coast from Argostoli. There we will do the hop on-hop off bus and some shopping.