Corte, Thursday March 15

We were up early this morning because we had an 8 am train to catch.  We went to a bakery close to the hotel for breakfast, got the car and drove to the train station. Unfortunately, George came down with a cold at the beginning of the trip so he has been feeling pretty miserable.  So far Nathan and I have not caught it.

It was a drizzly sort of day.  Not really quite raining.  We were going to stop at Vizzanova and get off the train to hike to a waterfall but the weather made that a little discouraging.  Also, we would be there for 3 hours waiting for the next train.

So we decided to go on to Corte and just spend the day there.   We got there at 10:30 am and started the meandering up the hill.  We stopped at Grimaldi's for hot chocolate.  I thought it was good but Nathan and George are hot chocolate snobs and it did not quite meet their standards.

street art

Then we went on up to the top of the hill to the Castille.

the goal

too many stairs and my legs are still sore.  Coming down was the worst.

getting there

It was built 1419 by some local Corsican lord but taken over by the Genoans.  and later it was taken over by the French in 1769.  To me it was a very awkward location.  It was interesting.

Looking down

There was a museum there as well. We walked around and then headed down the hill to find a place for lunch.

We poked into several book stores. Little Red Riding Hood 

We found  a place for lunch that specialized in "American" food. They had sandwiches and wraps and fries and vegetarian options. I had a chicken curry wrap which was OK.  Nathan had fish and chips and George had a veggie sandwich.  We poked around some shops and then ended out at a cafe where George and Nathan had hot chocolate and I had a glass of white wine.  We played a card came while we waited for the time to head down to the train station. The cafe was full of other people playing card games at different tables.  We played cards as well. Maybe college kids.  They were all smoking!!! argh.  It is everywhere around here.

A funny translation of a sign in the restroom at the train station.

The scenery was gorgeous but unfortunately the pictures did not do justice to the area.  The train was moving, the windows were not clean and it was sprinkling.  We might be back in the morning with George driving so that we can stop.  It would be nice to do the hike to the waterfall.  I guess our plan for a boat tour for tomorrow afternoon may be canceled, due to windy conditions, so we are thinking about other options.  It was dark by the time we got back to Ajaccio.

Dinner was just up the street from the hotel.  George and I had the fix price dinner.  Of course we had different things.

Then back to the hotel.  Another early night so we could do our various computer things.  

Wednesday, March 14

Argh!! I am so sore today, especially going down anything.

We decided to do breakfast at a Boulangerie.  The breakfast at the hotel had a cost.  I had coffee already at the hotel.  We walked though Sartene

breakfast

wandered through old town.  

back to the hotel for hot chocolate and coffee.  Ah what a life.

The elevator was funny.  Because the hotel was built on a hill the lobby was on the 3rd floor.  We were down 2 floors.  So the lobby was "0" and we were "-2".  We had to push - and then 2. 

Then we started driving toward Ajaccio.  We made a multiple of view stops.

You just can not trust the Internet!! There have been several things that I had looked up and found that what I had looked up turned out to be not true.  The Garden of Bees was one of those things.  It was supposed to be open 10 am to noon during off season.  We were supposed to be able to do honey tasting.  The chestnut honey is supposed to be delicious.  Went on a very narrow curvy road. We got there in time but it was closed.  

We got to the hotel early for check in.  They suggested that we go eat lunch and come back.  

We did that.  Then we could check in.  We went to the Napoleon museum.

Then headed out to the Iles Sanguinaires.  We have been having a perfect day, weather-wise - sunny, coolish and not windy.  

Got my feet into the Mediterranean

We hiked up to the Genoan tower.  There are 90 of them built all over the island around 1530.  

Beautiful day.  

We went to the train station to get information for tomorrow. Then back to the hotel.  Then we went out for dinner at Don Quichotte.  I had the steak frites again.  Very good.  Nathan had a pasta with nuts and George had a seafood soup that was pureed.  It is hard for us to find things to order, partly because of the language. George and Nathan try to figure things out but there are a lot of words they do not know.  We had a delicious red wine.  I think I will look for Corsican wines when I get home.  

We are going to have to be up early tomorrow so I had a chance to blog tonight.  I hope that my legs are not so sore tomorrow.  

  

prehistoric sites

PS. I did add one little thing to the winery blog.  

We then drove to the prehistoric sites.  There were a lot of them on the Plateau of Caurie.  We picked 4.  One we walked a ways and finally gave up.  There was a big puddle in the path.  Nathan splashed through and found the place.  He took some pictures.   

The next three were fairly close.  First was Stantari

On the way to the next site we scared a wild boar.  I was pretty close.  Unfortunately I was not fast enough to take a picture. 

This was Fontanaccia

prehistoric "tiny house" at Renaju

We got to the hotel and check in and then went down for dinner.

George and Nathan each had some fish dish. We shared the house wine.

I did the fixed price meal of: 

pumpkin mushroom soup that was fabulous

Steak frites.  Good but not great

and a traditional Corsican pastry with ice cream. It was quite good as well.  A full day of 21,953 steps!!!

drive towards Sartene with wine tasting

View of the "lion" rock.  We did not have time to hike there.

Stopped at Domaine Saparale for wine tasting.

special edition which is released every 7 years.

pretty location.

We could not do a tour because there was only one person there and she could not leave the tasting room.  She gave us a lot of information in French, so George and Nathan were busy translating for me.  Apparently the owner had traveled to Egypt and was entralled by the elephants.  He made his fortune there.  Came home and started his winery in 1845 and felt like he should give homage to his time in Egypt. Thus the elephants on his logo. Good wine, we bought one of the reds.  We were not allowed to wander around.  They also did olive oil, saffron and soaps.  Fun.