Adventures of Beth and Dan: The Durrells (Davis’!!) in Corfu

If you are a PBS fan like we are maybe you have watched the Durrells in Corfu. It’s a story about a single mother from England who brings her four children to this island before WW 2. The book was written by a Durrell with some similarities to their life but much more elaboration and fantasy. Anyway we were excited to actually get to this destination and see it for ourselves. Our tour was with Corfu Taxi Tours and the fellow we communicated with was Spiros the same name as one of the main characters in the show. Our driver was a very neatly dressed man with a black Mercedes Benz car. His English was fairly good although there were times we both were in a quandry over language!

We asked a lot of questions about the PBS show and he offered to take us to some of the areas where they filmed. The house where they lived is privately owned and gated surrounded by the large trees one would see in the show. The island is so completely different with a large population and of course much more modern although much of the same structures like tight narrow streets and small cafes and markets still exist.

He took us to overviews of the city, told us that each village had a church , a school of sorts and an olive press. Olives and tourism are their main economic revenues. People still live very simply and seem to barely make ends meet. Often their homes in the country are passed down from generation to generation and they all live together or if enough land is there they divide it with just enough land for a home and small garden or orchard of olives. The olives are small and green and are caught by draping nets on the ground under them. The ones for eating are picked by hand but the ones for oil are shaken by a machine and then collected in the nets. They must be pressed the same day they are picked and then stored. They pride themselves on extra virgin olive oil. When they bring their olives to the press they can be reimbursed a number of ways: crop sharing for a portion of the oil or sell all the oil outright. They say their oil when capped is good for at least two years. The olive trees only produce every other year so you have to plan ahead!

The weather was perfect and our driver a delight. When we stopped for a tour or overview he dusted off his car and even cleaned the floor mats! Maybe a bit of a perfectionist? But he said he owns the car and works for the company. He has two young boys and lives on the outskirts of the city.

All in all we really enjoyed our time here and seeing all of the sights we saw with our personal guide.

First overlook of the island

Ships in the harbor

Our ship

Our car with the driver checking out his tires!!

The fog hanging in the valleys

Beautiful gates and old doors

Small villages with the stone streets

Each community tries to sell their wares

Lots of small cafes

We hiked up to an old castle and fortress

View from the top of the castle

A stop for refreshments

The donkey is still an important means of transportation

Our driver treated us to home made fresh bread, home grown tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. We also had olives and sweet cumquats.

A little cumquat wine!

A visit to a summer palace of the empress of Austria.

Empress Elizabeth. She was infatuated with her looks and figure. Her only son died and she never got over it. She only stayed in this palace for two summers after it was built!