more pictures

To see more pictures of our trip to Corsica go to Nathan's blog. 

home safe and sound

Charles de Gaulle airport at 6 am

an exhibit at CDG

Seattle airport

long uneventful flight to Seattle.  They are doing some remodeling so it was a mess.  Took a bit to get through all the various lines

Portland old carport art

Arrived in Portland on time.  Took the MAX to Beaverton and then Lyft ride to the house.  Trying to stay awake.  Nathan was delayed leaving Amsterdam but he arrived safely back to DC.  

Travel Day - All Day

We were up at 4:45 am - ugh. Since CDG is ALWAYS horrendous.  When they say 3 hours they mean it.  The hotel has a free shuttle but it is used by other hotels as well.  Comes by every 15 minutes.  Well we waited longer than that but it finally arrived.  We separated from Nathan right away.  He had terminal 2F and we were 2E.  His was an earlier flight than ours.  Everything went smoothly.  We could do the automated check in.  We only had carry-on.  No lines anywhere.  Got out to M and went through security. lickety-split.  No hassles with any of my stuff.  So now we have A LOT of time to spare.   It is never like this.

We found a breakfast place.  I had hot oatmeal which was pretty bad, OJ and coffee.  George had french bread, butter, jelly, OJ and hot chocolate.  Now we are on our various devices.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Wall of the Calvi citadel, looking up.

Statue at the top near Notre Dame

Notre Dame

I was taking fewer pictures as I got wetter.  I am sure glad that it was not like this earlier on our trip.  It was sure cold, windy, and rainy.  I felt pretty miserable by the time we got to the airport.

Our plane to go to Orly.  

snow in Paris.  It is 35 degrees

our hotel

Sunday, March 18

We had our continental breakfast at 8 am.  Good coffee/hot chocolate and various breads.  We packed up and headed out.  

Porto from the road heading out. Porto's population jumps from 200 people to 10,000 people in peak tourist season.  Half of those extra people are worker bees.  We had no real plan today so George drove and stopped each time Nathan or I thought we saw a good photo stop.  

We started having a light sprinkle which gradually increased

XXX rated picture to follow.  

It was funny with using the "facilities", I am posing here, showing that I am out in the open, just hiding behind a bush, a small bush.  I hope no one around had a telescope.  

Finally got to Galleria, where we thought were were going to have lunch.  

Finally a straight road.  We had hoped to get something to eat there but no such luck so we chose the straight route to Calvi.  By this time it was raining quite steadily and we were getting pretty wet.  

In Calvi, near the Citadelle

We went in for lunch.  The place I had researched was closed.  This place was open.  It was fabulous.  Probably our best meal.   Nathan ordered a very interesting meal.  Penne pasta and flambeed Parmesan cheese wheel.  Tried to get pictures.  They had a huge wheel of cheese that they flambeed and then when the cheese melted they added the pasta.  It was delicious.  

Cheese wheel

end result

Wanderer around Calvi some.  We were getting wetter and wetter.

I am getting discouraged.  It is late.  So I will stop the pictures and maybe if I have time in the airport tomorrow, I will add.  After lunch we drove up to Notre Dame for the view.  Not much of one, but it looked like it would have been pretty under different circumstance.  We were pretty drenched by this time so we decided to just go to the airport.  I asked in the gift shop to buy some Tylenol.  None for sale but the store clerk game me one from her own personal stash.  We had to check our bags because it was a small plane.  We got to Orly, no problem but then finding the hotel proved to be a challenge.  Expedia lied.  Said it was visible from the Terminal 3.  What was visible from terminal 3 was a different Ibis hotel.  Taxi to the correct one ... Oh that one was not right either.  The one across the parking lot was the right one. Whew finally got checked in.  

IT IS SNOWING IN PARIS.

Nathan went straight to bed.  He is catching George's cold.  We ordered a small meal that we had to go down to pick up.  I had a Croque Monsieur and wine, and George had soup.  The wifi is very slow and because of my camera situation I had to go through several steps to download anything.  Getting tired.  We have to be up at 5 am tomorrow.  If I have time to load some pictures tomorrow, I will.

We did it all - Saturday, Mar 17

We had a continental breakfast at the hotel.  Chocolate croissants, bread, butter, jam, OJ, hot chocolate and coffee.

We started the day by driving down to the beach.  It was sunny and warm.

We stopped to get gas.  Notice the instructions on the lower portion.  Quite the translation

started up the valley

Then we drove up the valley through the Gorges of Spelunca,  beautiful scenery with the mountains, valleys and little hamlets. It became very forested.  We made multiple stops.  We saw many "wild" animals like cows, goats and pigs.

We stopped to take pictures of the goats.  We were not paying attention as they gradually meander up the road in front of us.  We realized our mistake when we decided to start driving.  They were unconcerned about the fact that they were in our way.  We even tried honking.  They could care less.

Then there were the pigs, they kept meandering in the street, as well.  I guess it gives new meaning to the term "free range".

The main site was to see the waterfalls of d'Aitone. They were gorgeous.  Not tall ones, but a lot of water rushing though.  We climbed around a bit. We had several other sites on the menu but we could not find them.  Even for this "major" site there was no parking and it was not marked at all. We had rain, fog, hail and sun.

Mayapples I think.  Would not swear to it.

We kept going to get to the highest road in all of Corsica.  The statue of the Col de Verghie was there.  It was about 4,500 feet altitude. Cold, 34 degrees and snowy. 

We came to a Genoan bridge.  That was fun.

View of Monte Cinto at 8,878 ft which is the tallest mountain in Corsica

 The chalet we were going to stop at was closed.  So was every other place we wanted to stop.  Our goal was to get to the lake.  We passed one restaurant that said always open.  So we stopped there.  They had a sign out "open."  So we tried to go in.  "What, we are not open NOW!!"

We also saw dogs, horses, cats and chickens.  We saw a lot of churches, cemeteries ruins as well as old buildings.  Many areas looked deserted. We went through a lot of hamlets.  The lake was called Lac de Salacuccia. We drove around the lake.  When we got so that we could seen the dam we also saw a rainbow.

The rainbow.  

The dam - my last picture and I did not get the rainbow.

 In the process of trying to get a picture of the rainbow, I fell.  Not too badly but my camera hit a rock.  It appears to be ruined.  It won't turn on or off.  It won't do anything, but I was able to get all of my pictures.  After that it was phone pictures.  Not too many because then we headed home.  No places to stop for wine and/or hot chocolate.

We drove back to the hotel, dropped off some stuff and then walked to the grocery store to buy some dinner.  We bought some quiches that we were able to heat up at the hotel.  We walked around to Porto some more.  We did not quite get down to the beach again.

We relaxed with dinner and a bottle of wine.  Watched the sun set.  A great day.  We packed a little of everything in.

I caught George's cold and my hand hurts from my fall.  Otherwise it was a great day with a little bit of everything.