On our various trips to England Ann had seen London and East Anglia so I thought some where in the west would be good for our 3 month stay.  As a teenager I had spent summers riding with family friends who ran a large B&B outside Ross-on-Wye.  Those summers of riding the Welsh border and canoeing the Wye had made an indelible impression, and not much could have changed in 50 years – right?  Some researching actually confirmed the Ross area had remained largely unchanged – quite amazing – and reassuring.  This area of Herefordshire was the land of the Welsh Marches and liberally scattered with castles and houses dating back a thousand years.  Fertile ground for Ann to explore and also continue her research into cider!  Our creed of locating near a small town in order to have the blend of countryside with all necessary facilities close by was achieved with the cottage we found in Glewstone, 4 miles from Ross.

Watchmakers Cottage was the original coachman’s house in the stable block in the grounds of Daffaluke House, which had become the home and workshop of the local watchmaker, before being turned into a holiday rental by Jenny & Max Clark.  This little cottage was to be home for the next 3 months until returning to London for a family Christmas.

The Wye valley at Symond’s Yat.

It was a great location with the views from our windows onto the walled kitchen garden and across the fields dotted with sheep and horses.  Also, there were two good pubs within minutes of the cottage through really narrow country lanes, one of which made its own cider.  Ross-on-Wye is a neat little town which had an excellent gym and water aerobics centre, good super markets, a fabulous old school butchers, and expensive parking!  Also, the biggest collection of charity shops we had ever seen, but a user-friendly town.

We had literally just settled in and only done one castle and a couple of pubs, before we received an email from our friends Kathy & Wishart Robson telling us they had rented a huge villa on Corfu for a week and would we care to join them!  Well they did ask – and we did accept!  BA did direct flights our of LHR so we secured some business class seats, booked a car, and were set to go.  We told Jenny and Max that we were off to Corfu for a week at which they said their friends who lived two fields over had gone to Corfu on holiday for years and they would have us all round for dinner so we could get the local info. We duly rocked up to the big house for an amazing meal of roast rib of beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes; the works!  Super evening where we received some really good info on what to do, and not do, on Corfu together with a map of the island.  So, well equipped for our Greek jaunt we drove up and stayed the night at the Hilton Heathrow. It’s minutes from Terminal 5, and they had a great deal for staying at the hotel on your way in and out, and leaving your car in their car park. After a great meal at Mr Todiwala’s, a seriously good Indian restaurant in the hotel, we left the next morning for the island of Corfu. BA business class was basically the same seat configuration as economy except the centre seat was a table – I’ve had more leg room cattle class on Jet Blue!  Anyway, the food and booze were good and the flight trouble free.  Corfu airport was a step back in time as there were no jet ways and you were bussed to and from the terminal, but the weather was warm and sunny and immigration a doddle.  Met by the car hire guy and whisked off to the Olympic Car Hire office just outside the airport, where we were “greeted” by a girl who said we couldn’t have a car unless we had an international driving permit!  A short argument about them letting people know about this requirement before getting the driver to take us back to the airport. 20 mins later we driving one of Mr Hertz’s nice cars through the streets of Corfu town on our way to Villa Thalia on the north-east of the island.  We had received detailed driving instructions on how to get to the house and those and the TomTom had us ducking and diving through suburbs of Corfu town and out onto the coast road.  A beautiful drive along the narrow, hilly, road to Kassiopi after which we had to find the track that lead to the villa. Found it – despite it looking like a turning into a building site.  Our driving instructions said we would need to turn off the AC and go into 1st gear to get up the hill!  It was steep and narrow but nothing major, and we actually made it in 2nd gear. Found the gates into the development where Villa Thalia was located and then down an extremely narrow, and angled drive to the small parking area where Wish’s Jeep was parked.  We would worry how to get out in the morning!

What a house! Built on the side of a hill, in what was once an olive grove, with staggering views of the Ionian Sea and the Albanian coast; all of which could be viewed from the infinity pool outside the living room.  Our room was a king suite in a separate building one level below the main house and all quite splendid.  The villa came with a concierge and daily maid service, plus a chef if needed! The final touch was the fantastic weather – warm and sunny – yes.  Wish & Cathy had been on the island for a few days and had found the island’s best wine shop and stocked up on some good Greek wine.  Then there was a great little grocery shop in Kassiopi (listed by our UK friends as the best) so we had the basics covered and quickly settled into life on Corfu.

A truly lovely island and you understand why the Durrells made it home for so many years. We visited The White House, their last house on the island, where Laurence wrote a number of his unreadable books, and Gerald wrote his lovely family memoirs.  Now a popular bar and restaurant.

We also visited Paleokastritsa Monastery on the north of the island – quite a drive over narrow mountain roads – made more interesting by the odd tourist coach suddenly lurching round a bend and heading straight towards you!  The views from the monastery were quite spectacular.  Spent a day in Corfu Old Town which is quite chaotic with its traffic and lack of parking.  The only place to park is the main car park next to the fort where we queued for 20 odd minutes before a slot became available. The car park runs right along the side of the cricket pitch, which is still in active use!  Visited the Fort and the Art Museum which has an amazing Asian collection put together by a Greek who never visited China or Japan, just bought at auction. Unfortunately the Archaeological Museum is permanently closed.

The Fort looking back to the town.

The Fort was interesting though almost no information on what you were viewing, but gave you some good views across the old town. Had lunch beside the cricket pitch where we had fun people watching, but no cricket!  On our way back to the villa we located and stopped at the wine shop, as one of the bottles that Wish had bought was corked; plus we needed to stock up on wine.  The owner was there and spoke good English so we soon bonded over wine.  The wine we had returned was the most expensive Greek wine he stocked so that was replaced in an instant.  Our visit then turned into a Greek wine tasting where we tasted some really nice wines.  Not outstanding but you could certainly drink well on the local produce.  We bought 6 bottles, plus we were given the bottles he had opened for the tasting, in addition to a bonus bottle for Wish to compensate for the bad bottle!  Messing about with wine, apart from drinking it, is just some much fun!

Our final site-seeing spot was the Achilleion Palace/Museum – a 19C pile with spectacular views over the ocean and Corfu Town.  The rest of our visit was taken up by eating and drinking at local restaurants and the house.  I mean sampling the local wines and cuisine with friends in beautiful location is just wonderful – one of life’s real pleasures. The eating and drinking was capped off by having the villa’s chef doing a meal for us – great fun – with Wish bonding with the chef’s father on fishing!  Apart from one day when the most amazing thunderstorm came through, we had fabulous weather and were sorry to return to England for the onset of winter.  Anyway, a hassle free trip back to Heathrow with a night at the Hilton before heading off down the M4 to Ross.