Romy Sommer

I chose to visit Corfu to experience two things: the setting for Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and the famous Corfiote beaches. I grew up in a seaside town and hated going to the beach - we looked down our noses at the tourists who flocked to the sea to do nothing but sit on the sand. Now I'm one of them! I knew that Corfu is now a top package tourist destination and has become really built up. I also knew not to expect the island to still be anything like what it was in the 1930s when the Durrell family lived there. Even so, I wasn't quite prepared for the urban sprawl of Corfu Town. The run down buildings seemed to sweat in the heat. I was disappointed. Our apartment was in a resort in the built-up town of Gouvia, with an amazing swimming pool but no real beach to speak of. The kids loved it. Gouvia itself was a little seedy, with empty shops and too much litter, but it had character and it was on all the major bus routes. A day trip into Corfu Town revea...

For those who've requested pictures, you'll have to bear with me. I haven't got the digital pics from my husband yet and I still use a film camera, which means I need to get the negative processed, developed & scanned before I can share them with the world. I know it's old-fashioned but I just love the quality of real film! Now here are the 5 main reasons I love Greece (and most particularly the Greek Islands). I know that one tends to experience a place differently when you're there on holiday, but I still think that if I had the means I'd move there tomorrow! 1. FRIENDLY. The Greeks are the friendliest nation. Everywhere we went people smiled and made conversation. And the Greeks love children. So many people chatted to my girls, patted their heads, offered them cakes and sweets ... not exactly what I want to encourage in this dangerous world, but in Greece you truly feel that it's well-intentioned. 2. EASY-GOING. Despite the legendary Mediterranean t...

I'll post more in the following days, with pictures, but for now I'm just popping in to say "hi". This deliciously long and lazy holiday is now nearing its end and I'll be back to the day job on Monday. In the meantime, I'm still feeling so relaxed and deeply contented thanks to my stay in paradise. As much as I love travelling, I haven't really been to that many places. The only continents I've visited are Africa and Europe, unless the Arabian peninsula counts as one these days. So I guess I really should be visiting new places when the opportunity arises (which isn't every day when you have kids and live at the back end of nowhere, geographically speaking). But I'm so glad I've revisited Greece instead of exploring somewhere completely new. Five years ago my husband and I honeymooned in the Greek Islands, and it was simple luck and the roll of a dice that we landed up here rather than Mozambique, Mauritius or Spain. Now I'd be quite h...