'Pilgrims Progress.....'

“……..I sat me down to write a simple story, which maybe in the end became a song

In trying to find the words which might begin it? I found these were the thoughts I brought along...”

Today it is Election Day in Greece and tonight there is a 'Supermoon'....
will everything here go crazy?  

(Picture taken from our garden)

As Greece goes through the economic hoops set for it by the EU we expect to find more changes and higher prices this year.  Friends who live here have already told us of exceptionally high fuel prices and strikes affecting public services.

One change that has directly affected us, is the ferry service from Italy to Corfu; for the past 5 years we have travelled by Minoan ferry’s from Venice to Corfu, it’s always one of our highlights sailing out of Venice.  So we were more than a little disappointed and confused to get an email telling us that Minoan have withdrawn the service due to financial constraints and that we would have to sail from Ancona instead, (400km further south), plus they will no longer call in to Corfu, so our ferry would drop us off at the Greek mainland port of Igoumanitsa and we would have to catch the local ferry from there to Corfu!

It would take more than this to put us off and we enjoyed the adventure of seeing new sights on the Italian coast on route to Ancona plus the adventure of disembarking at Igumanitsa (mainland Greece) and catching a local ferry

We left behind the cold, wet, windy UK spring weather (Keith & Paddy had to spend 2 very wet and cold hours packing and re-packing the car, (we never travel light)), and we sailed out of Hull for a stormy nights crossing to Holland.  

When we woke up on Monday morning in Rotterdam it was clear blue skies and the temperature rose by the hour as we headed towards Germany; the car temperature gauge reading got as high as 29 degrees!!

We drove down wonderful empty motorways as we crossed from Holland to Germany, because it was the May Day weekend, which is a European wide bank holiday and as on all bank holidays and weekends, heavy goods are not allowed on the motorways.

 The bank holiday was also a bonus because when we arrived in Heidelberg at Paul’s House......

...... there was the culmination of a weeklong festival.  We went into their village square before dinner to watch Lizzy’s niece, Antonia, sing in a local choir....

followed by several other traditional choirs who entertained the local population in a packed park in the middle of the town. We were also treated to a seasonal meal of local asparagus which is a delicacy at this time of year in this part of Germany.

In the old town of Heidelberg there is a tradition at this time of year to celebrate the spring solstice event known as Walpurgis, which featured in many folklore tales and in an epic tune, ‘Repent Walpurgis’ by prog rock band, Procol Harem. Traditionally in the evening, many young people from the town make their way up the hill to a natural amphitheatre, to camp out, celebrate and get drunk etc. as part of the celebrations that form Walpurgis Night!

See below a potted explanation from local historian and Lizzy’s brother Paul!

Walpurgis was an English nun (she died in about 788 AD) who went as a missionary to Germany and became abbess of Heidenheim; she is celebrated on the first of May, which is coincidentally the date of the rites of an earlier (pagan) festival, one of the Celtic quarter-days, in fact. On the night before May Day, Walpurgisnacht, the witch-world holds its most elaborate revels particularly at The Brocken, high-point of the Harz Mountains, in the presence of the Devil

The following day we set off to travel to Milan via Switzerland through impressive scenery of snow capped mountains, beautiful lakes, long tunnels and the sound of cow bells clanking away in the fields at the side of the motorway!

We received the usual warm welcome from Keith’s sister Deborah and family in Milan; we caught up on the winter's gossip, whilst Eleanora created the most delicious pies, with ricotta, gorgonzola cheese and broccoli. We retired fairly early as we needed a 5am start to beat the rush hour traffic of Milan and Bologna on route to the port of Ancona.  Again all went smoothly, and we arrived at the port around 11am straight onto a brand new ferry.

Ancona is a quaint port in a venetian style with some beautiful old buildings and architecture, the ferry was very quiet in terms of passengers , only a party of French school children, 4 or 5 lorry drivers, half a dozen brits and maybe 20 or so others on a 3000 capacity ferry! We upgraded to an outside cabin for less than £100 and had a great night’s sleep, waking up just off the coast of Corfu at approx. 8am.

We also met fellow English travellers Paul & Gail, who were coming back to their home in Corfu  for the summer and we shared the adventure of the switch to the local ferry from Igumanitsa.  Which in the end turned out to be quite painless and we arrived 2 hours earlier in Corfu than if we had taken the original ferry from Venice!  1 hour later we were home, accompanied by nest building swallows and swifts that had, like us, migrated for the summer.

Once we unpacked and stocked up with food, we caught up with friends and bar and hotel owners and Keith has his first gig booked this Tuesday.  So today we had a wonderful long afternoon on the beach with our friends Sue, Keith, Bob & Bev, with a picnic and wine and beer!

Lizzy’s  eldest daughter, Carmel, has come over from Oz to spend 2 weeks in the northern hemisphere for her friend’s wedding and also to visit us in Corfu. 

The night before we caught our ferry from Hull, we had a great family gathering in Leeds followed by Keith’s final UK gig, which many of the family turned up for, (the bar not realising this, thought Keith’s fame had spread far and wide and he had brought many fans to see him and as a consequence booked him for 2 more gigs when we return to the UK).

We are off now to collect our first visitors, Lizzy’s daughters, from the airport.  Pippa is coming over from Leeds & Carmel is in London, after a friend’s wedding so they will travel together from Gatwick to Corfu for a week’s holiday.

It feels good to be here!

“In starting out I thought to go exploring, and set my foot upon the nearest road

In vain I looked to find the promised turning ……….but only saw how far I was from home…………”