Thursday, 4/28. My 52nd country. A lot to see from the ship. Two large forts fill the eye. Albania is visible in the distance.

Our excursion was to the opposite side of the island, about 40 minutes away. From there we boarded small boats. The area is famous for small caves that the boats enter. They aren’t deep caves, but it’s still an event. The famous one is the “Blue Cave”, where sunlight reflects up through the water under a section of the cave. That was very cool. The driver threw food in the water and suddenly hundreds of fish appeared. I wouldn’t call this a wonder of the world, but it was a good time.

We then took a tour of downtown Corfu. The guide, who impressed me with her ability to put me to sleep during her talk on the bus, was unimpressive during the walk. Her lack of comfortable English was a problem. So too was her willingness to let one or two passengers dominate her with their life stories. Rude. The high point of the city tour was (I suppose) visiting an Orthodox Church that allowed photography. But since it’s general policy that photos not be taken inside Orthodox Churches, I declined on principle.

A lot of well made wooden products. A guitarist playing for Euros. Poorly maintained buildings next to nicely refurbished ones. Orange cocktails. Gelato! Crowds.

A bit of family connection. On Orthodox Easter (last Sunday), it’s a tradition to fling pottery out the upper story windows. Broken chips are collected and dated as mementos. There were still many small chips scattered around today. My mom’s travel log details that in 1986 they were in Corfu on Easter and saw it happen!

We returned to the ship in a shuttle bus. Jammed. Some people standing. So much for Viking’s pledge to maintain social distancing.

Made full use of the spa pool area. Large hot tub, cold water bucket dump, steam room, snow room. Repeat.

Dinner was sensational. Surf and turf. Baked potato. I went up to the World Cafe to find apple pie (found later on the room service menu), but instead Yoriko discovered the sushi bar. Vastly better than what they had seven years ago. We’ll probably make that a stop before the Restaurant tomorrow. 

I’d felt tired all day, so rather than prowl the ship at night, I turned in early.