Day 5: Corfu to Paxos

This morning our time in Corfu Town had come to an end and it was time for us to travel to the second destination of this holiday: Paxos. Paxos is a smaller island, located about 15 miles to the south of the most southern part of Corfu. We were booked on a 9am ferry from Corfu Town, which would take around an hour to reach Gaios, the main town on the island. It was another fairly early start for us, as we had to pack up, take the rubbish from our Airbnb to the nearest municipal waste bins(!) and be at the domestic ferry terminal by 08.30.

The ferry was smaller than the one we'd travelled to Albania on earlier in the week; it was a long, low boat with no open deck area. All the windows had curtains on, which were closed by default I guess to try and stop the inside of the boat getting too hot; we peeked out of ours at various intervals during the journey, but overall it felt more like a journey by coach than by ferry.

It was very efficient though and we arrived on the island of Paxos as promised around 10am. First impressions were that it was a really pretty place.

Although it was a baking hot day today, it seemed to be a very green island.

The port where the ferry had deposited us was a little way outside the town of Gaios, so we had a walk of 15 minutes or so along by the coast to get to the centre of town.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to check into the apartment we were renting until 3pm, so we had quite a bit of time to spend with our suitcases in tow. We sat down at a cafe in the main square, to spend at least part of that time getting a second breakfast.

Helen went for a vegetable omelette, while I chose what was described as "hum and mozzarella tost". Luckily the "hum" did turn out to be ham!

Gaios is only a small town - the total population of Paxos is only 2,500 people - but it seems really lovely.

After breakfast we had a bit of a stroll along the sea front.

Helen had messaged the apartment company to see whether there was anywhere we could leave our luggage. They replied and said we could drop it at a nearby office until 1pm, so we did that and were then able to walk a little bit further.

Once we made our way around the harbour we could look back to the centre of town.

We found a monument of Giorgos Anemogiannis, although we weren't sure who he was or what he'd done because the inscription was only in Greek.

Having now looked it up, it turns out that he was a hero of a Greek battle against the Ottomans in 1821, dying while trying to set fire to Ottoman ships. The statue makes a bit more sense now we know that; we wondered why he was standing on a boat with what appeared to be a flame in his hand!

As we continued around the coast road, the water was an incredible shade of blue.

We were scoping out whether any of the beaches around the town would be suitable for swimming, but most seemed quite rocky.

We followed a path down to one which was just pebbles, so probably a bit more accessible.

And we certainly had some beautiful views while we were exploring!

We were conscious that we needed to retrieve our bags before 1pm, so after a while we turned around and walked back towards the centre of town.

We strolled around some of the small streets, scoping out the best options for lunch.

It was such a hot day that the main criteria was to find somewhere suitably shady! We found a nice place in the end, where Helen had stuffed peppers and tomatoes, while I opted for a spaghetti bolognese. Even sitting down we felt very hot after a while, and got through two litres of water during the course of the meal.

It was around 2pm by the time we finished eating and paid up. That meant we just had one more hour before we were allowed to check into our accommodation. We found a cafe just around the corner from the apartment, where we had iced espressos and the most amazing dark chocolate sorbet...

...all with a view of the sea

When we finally got to the apartment, it was worth the wait. We've got a house with two levels; there's a big living area and kitchen on the ground floor...

...and then two bedrooms on the floor above.

We've even got a little balcony from where we can just about see the sea.

The house if full of helpful signs, like this one advising us not to drink the tap water for our own peace of mind.

We've also got our own little icon hanging on the wall.

We unpacked and relaxed for a bit, enjoying the opportunity to cool down in the air-conditioning, before heading out for an evening stroll around Gaios