Corsica ⇒
Sorry for the lack of posting, but sometimes a guy just has to get away, you know? We spent the last week on the island of Corsica, the birthplace of Napolean. To get there, one must take an overnight ferry from Toulon to Bastia. We had envisioned a ferry like the ones run by BC Ferries, but instead we got a cruise ship! 7 decks, two restaurants, a bar, a pool, a play room and 1st class cabins (that we weren't in).
Once we got settled into our cabins, we headed out to the restaurant for a little dinner. We discovered that Elise likes baguettes! We also have a video for those that like action over pictures. Unfortunately, none of us got much sleep as Elise couldn't handle being sick and sleeping in yet a new place, so that 6am wake-up call came awfully early.
As we couldn't check into our villa in Porto Vecchio until the evening we decided to do a "quick" drive around the north end of Corsica. That "quick" drive, whicd ended up taking about 8 hours, coupled with some minor confusion as to the location of our villa led to over 12 hours of touring. Note for future Corsican travellers, distances on the map are quite deceiving. Although we didn't go that far, the fact that the roads are so windy and steep that you can't go very fast.
The scenery was amazing; nothing but tiny villages perched on the hills and outstanding ocean vistas everywhere you look. Eventually we made our way to our villa in Porto Vecchio. By this time (approx 7 pm) Elise was not having a very good time as she had been in and out of the car all day and it was bath time (more on travelling with her later). However, once we got there, all was well.
Our villa had two bedrooms and overlooked the ocean (of course) and was only a few minutes from both the beach and the town. We spent the next 5 or 6 days just hanging out in the villa, the beach or visiting the cute towns around there. Bonifacio has a really cool castle with a village in it and some neat caves we visited via boat. We also visited Sartene and Propiano.
We had intended to spend a few days in Porto Vecchio and then move to Ajaccio for 2 more nights, but since Mel was sick and we didn't want another long drive day for Elise we just stayed in PV for the whole time. And boy, was that a good decision. Just relaxing was just what the doctor ordered.
So that Elise didn't have to spend the entire trip back in the car, we headed out in the morning intending to drive all the way to Bastia and just relax there for the day before our ferry at 9pm. We managed to make it all the way there before Elise really woke up. Then we wandered around for a few hours visiting the sites. Bastia is not that big so we got through it by about 3pm and decided to go for a quick drive to see a few more neat towns. Unfortunately, Elise had other ideas and let us know that she did not want to be in the car anymore. So we headed back to town and decided just to hang out by the ferries and let Elise play for a while. Fortunately for us, Nige and Mel had found the best ice cream in town and we went up to join them for some extremely high calorie, high flavour food. By the time we finished it was time to board the ferry and head home.
Further adventures ahead.