I have fallen behind on my blogging because I've simply been enjoying the trip. I reached a point last weekend when I just didn't feel like writing about it anymore; I just wanted to focus on living it. But we had our farewell dinner last night (Wednesday), and as I sit and write this, almost everyone on the tour has left to go to the airport to return to their various homes, and now it's time to catch up.
We left Corte on Sunday morning - which seems an eternity ago now - and headed toward Solenzara in the southeastern part of the island. The following map shows the location of the town, as well as other cities and areas through which we have cycled.
By way of a brief review, we started out in Porticcio, below Ajaccio. We then cycled inland to the southern portion of the "Parc Naturel Regional" (in green) before heading north to Corte. Then it was west to Porto, then north to Calvi, then east to St-Florent, where we cycled around the Cap Corse. Then south through the Castagniccia, back to Corte, then southeast to Solenzara.
It was another beautiful sunny morning as we headed out of Corte. We hadn't gone more than six or seven miles, however, when we again ran into a road rally and had to backtrack. Otherwise, the ride was fairly uneventful, and we pulled into Solenzara around 2:30 - just in time for most of the eating establishments to have closed for the afternoon. We did find one place that was open, however, and had a hearty plate of carbonara pasta.
The owner of this restaurant, unlike most of the other places where we had eaten lunch on the trip, actually acted like he appreciated our business. We, as well as others on the tour, have grumbled about how long it takes to eat a lunch. First, you sit down. Then you wait 10-15 minutes for the server to acknowledge your presence and bring you a menu. Then you wait another 10-15 minutes for the server to come back and take your order. Then you wait for the food. But the most annoying part was waiting for the check. We usually had to finally ask the server to bring the "addition." Then you had to wait for it, then wait for the waiter to come back and take the money, then bring the change, etc., etc.
The guy in Solenzara, however, was very attentive and he even offered to find some cycling race coverage on his big screen TV for us to watch. Because he was so friendly and accommodating, I asked him if there was someplace in the village where we might be able to purchase a bottle of gin. (It being Sunday, everything was closed.) He replied that all of the stores were closed, but he would be happy to sell us a bottle from his stock (at a slight premium).
Thus fortified, we cycled the block to our hotel, the bottle of Gordon's gin safely tucked in Mark's cycling shorts:
Upon checking in at the hotel - which was a conglomeration of several small buildings - the receptionist said she would show us our room. She then walked out the door, across a small parking lot towards a two-story building. We approached a set of stairs leading up to a door on the second floor. "Your room is up there." She seemed to me to smile a little bid oddly, and I wondered why she hadn't given us a key.
We went up the stairs, and I could see that the door was slightly ajar. I pushed it open and looked around the corner and saw what appeared to be an apartment. I then saw through an open doorway, a pair of legs lying on a bed. WTF? I thought there must be some mistake and turned to say as much to Mark. Then I heard the voice of one of the other cyclists on the trip. He came out and explained that the two gay couples had been assigned to a "suite." They had one part, and Mark and I had the other part.
As we got over the initial shock, we thought it wouldn't be too bad. At least our "half" had a door onto it so that we could have some privacy. We also discovered that there were two bedrooms in our part of the suite - a large one with a king bed and a window that opened onto the parking lot, and a smaller one with a double bed and a window that opened onto a field with the sea not far away. We opted for the smaller room, enabling us to sleep with the window open all night, the sound of the surf in the distance.
After washing our cycling gear in the sink - the first chore every afternoon of the tour - we got into our swim suits and headed down to the beach, which wasn't particularly great but it felt refreshing just to get in for a few minutes.
Dinner that night for the group was at a local restaurant and was distinctly unmemorable - except for the crepes we had afterward at the place across the street.
I took the lead photo of this post the following morning (Monday) when I went down early for breakfast (so as to be able to take advantage of the wifi hotspot). All of us were a bit apprehensive as we ate and prepared to head out because we knew we would have the biggest climb of the trip that day - over the Col of Bavella: 4100 feet in approximately 18.5 miles. As it turned out, there was reason to be apprehensive. It was a challenging climb, but it was beautiful.
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| On our way across southern Corsica |
We arrived at our hotel outside Propriano in time to go for a dip before cocktail hour and dinner. Unlike Solenzara, there were was a nice sandy beach here, and the water was clean and inviting.
That evening, our group watched a spectacular sunset as we prepared to go in for dinner. It had been quite cloudy most of the afternoon, and Mark and I had thought while in the mountains before our descent that we would get rained on - a first for the trip. But it didn't rain, and as sunset approached, the skies had cleared, allowing us to experience this:
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