Parga, Greece
21 August 2017 | Venetian Fort, Parga
Dierk & Sabrina
Parga
18 August
Parga is a village on the mainland coast. It's main attraction is an old Venetian fort built on the headland. Alan, one of our friends we met in Preveza told us it was a must see.
The town has also quite a number of resorts with numerous water sport activities available to their guests. Parasailing, water skiing and wake boarding to name a few.
Anyway, the bay here affords good protection from the prevailing wind, so we anchored close to the quay in about 6 meters of water.
Late in the afternoon I took Mike ashore and he undertook some reconnaissance around the fort, taking many pictures across the bay from numerous vantage points.
We had a beautiful risotto on board that night and the most pleasant evening you could imagine. The reflection of the lights over a flat calm sea with a cool balmy temperature. We had a couple of wines and chatted away well into the night.
The next day we got up and in Quack Quack headed for the beach that had a track leading to the fort. Once up there, there were numerous alley ways lined with quaint buildings. It was absolutely stunning. None of this could be seen from the anchorage.
We ended up having breakfast in a quaint little cafe propped on a cliff. Nicky and Sabrina loved their fruit salad. We got thee just as they were opening. One of the owners kept coming with bird cages and locating them in strategic locations around the garden. Now, that is something you don't see very much of at home, bird cages with chirping canaries. But, they did add a sort of ambience to the garden setting. You could not help feeling sorry for the little birds gazing over an amazing vista as they hopped incessantly from perch to perch. I wonder what they were thinking.
In fact, I thought if I was one of them, I would do a "Shawshank Redemption" thing and chip away at the cage bars with my beak with the hope of a break out....
Anyway, back to the fort. What can you say but truly spectacular. This fort is mentioned as early as 1337 and would appear to have been Venetian. The Turks captured the town in 1452 only to lose it two years later When the towns people rebelled. The Venetians at the time regarded the castle as pivotal for protection of their trade route bringing back spices, silks, precious metals and stones back to Venice. Parga was called the eye and ear of Corfu.
We explored this fantastic fort and took heaps of pictures. As well as the above ground aspect, there were numerous tunnels and labyrinths underground.