Nov 3

We docked at Corfu Greece, which is a 1 hour time zone ahead of the other areas we've visited.  Corfu has been inhabited for several millennia and has been controlled by Greeks, Romans, Venetians, French & British until being united with Greece in 1864.  It's the land of Greek & Roman gods, Poseidon, Ulysses, Achilles and many other well known historic and fabled names.  It was a sunny & warm day and it was nice to be away from the cold & rain.  We took an excursion to Achilleion Palace which was built in the 1800s by Austria Hungarian Empress Sisi, wife of Emperor Frans Joseph.  Sisi was obsessed by Achilles and themes and statues of him abound.  The grounds are quite extensive and from the upper area one can view the Greek mainland, Albania & Italy, all of which are a few miles away.  At the end of the visit to the palace we drove back to Corfu and had a brief walking tour of the old city which has both an old fortress (several centuries old) and a new fortress (1500s) and also has a cricket ground left by the British and Cricket is still popular with Corfu inhabitants.  The guide left us to explore on our own and we went to a restaurant we visited in June and had a Corfu Beer and saganaki.  Corfu Beer is an unfiltered "real ale" much like an English ale, and saganaki is a baked cheese.  It was about a 30 minute walk around the harbor to the ship.  This evening was the Seven Seas Society party, for those who have sailed previously on Regent.  We had dinner with Captain Stan, whom we've known for several years, the social hostess and another couple and had a great conversation.