Earthquakes!

From our terrace we look out on the island of Kefalonia. It is the largest of the Ionian islands. We found a tour company that would pick us up at our gates and take us on a day trip around southern Kefalonia. Yesterday was the day.

The small port of St. Nikolas is 5 km away. It's a popular spot for yachts and where we boarded the ferry for the hour and a half trip to Pessada on Kefalonia.

As we motored out of the harbour, we could see the Old Windmill Restaurant high above us.

Just around the corner from the harbour's entrance are the Blue caves, popular for swimming. We're thinking of hiring a boat to takes us there.

The first "site" was the fort of St. George, built high up away from the sea and those pesky pirates. It was the capital of the island, and although it withstood the pirates, it couldn't withstand an earthquake 300 years ago.

The capital was moved to Argostoli, at the mouth of a large bay, which we drove beside until we reached the village of Farsa where we piled out of the bus to admire the view.

Beside the Church of the Virgin Mary, we were told the facts that are the basis of the novel, "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", also a movie starring Nicholas Cage.

In 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allied Forces. This meant that they became the enemies of the Germans with whom they had occupied Kefalonia. The Italian army stationed here started fighting the Germans. They got no help from their new allies, were vastly outnumbered, and soon ran out of ammunition. They surrendered and were told they'd be transported back to Germany as prisoners of war. Instead, over 5000 were massacred at the port just down the road from here.

So, as we sat overlooking the port of Sami, having our very nice lunch of Kefalonia meat pie, we had to push away the gruesome story we'd just heard. Our guide said the movie was filmed here, but because Kefalonia and our island of Zakynthos, were both destroyed in 1953 by an earthquake, with every building having to be totally rebuilt, the set designers recreated Sami 1943 and put the "old" buildings in front of the new. Going to have to watch the movie again.

The view point overlooking Myrtos beach was the next stop. The beach is formed from the powdered limestone that washes down from the mountains. On Monday, we'd had a doozie of a thunder storm, and on Tuesday, it was very blustery. Which meant on Wednesday, we saw a rare sight. The powder washed down on Monday, had been roiled up by the waves of Tuesday, and was now being pulled out to sea by the current.

And I had worn a matching skirt!

Onward and upward to Melissani Cave Lake. Another earthquake had collapsed the roof of this 4000 year old cave about 400 years ago. Now it's a tourist attraction.

The patron saint of Kefalonia is St Gerasimos, who died in the late 1500's. His body is kept in a silver casket in the monastery that he founded. His monastery didn't survive the earthquake of 400 years ago, or the one 300 years ago, or the 1953 one, but the plane tree he planted in 1570 did. As did the casket and body. Let's hope this new monastery is made to last.  

If we had been driving ourselves, we would have stayed for awhile in the old village of Troianata in the valley of the 40 wells. As it was, we had 20 minutes. Still, we managed to enjoy some homemade lemonade and the view.

After a week of just lazing around, we were exhausted by all this activity!Staggered onto the ferry. Couldn't even go for an evening swim.

We're going to have to take it easy for a few days