Now we are back to where the narrow-gauge railway CFC (Chemin des Fer de la Corse, now part of SNCF) disgorged us when we started out: at AJACCIO.
And we are sitting in front of the comfortable Hotel Dauphin looking on the hectic activities at the harbour.
Since my vacation diary has suffered a little from disorder lately, here is a chronology of our travels so far and then a short report of what happened today:
- Holy Saturday: arrival in Livorno, the train was late, so we missed the ferry. We continued our journey in the evening and stayed overnight in Bastia.
- Easter Sunday: due to the weather forecast talking about rain, we went to Ajaccio by train. From there we went to Porto Pollo (by bike, 60 kilometres, and more than 1,000 metres of altitude). We stayed overnight there.
On Easter Monday we went from Porto Pollo to Bonifacio (80 kilometres, around 2,000 height metres). A dream, sun, a wonderful evening there.
- Tuesday, April, 6th: from Bonifacio to Propriano via Porto-Vecchio and Zonso. Especially the incline to L’Ospedale was quite hard. On the whole we did 100 kilometres, more than 2,000 metres of altitude.
Today: from Popriane back to Ajaccio via Filitosa (site préhistorique) – sunshine, just like summer, 70 kilometres, a lot more than 100 metres of altitude, highest incline 630 metres above sea level.
Tomorrow: provided it does not rain, we are going north along the west coast to Porto via Sagone (82 kilometres, height metres?).
- And then the day after tomorrow (Friday), we hope to reach Calvi.
On Saturday we would like to get as close to Bastia as possible. After all, we are eager to catch the Sunday Noon ferry to Livorno.
Incidentally, you will find a beautiful map of Korsika (Corsica) on wikipedia. You can find all the places I mentioned.
So what is there to report today?
Filitosa is a place you must have seen. 10,000 years of the history of mankind are presented to the visitor. Along with it, you will hear esoteric music on dozens (hundreds?) of open-air loudspeakers from Bose. It really sounds great. Mind you, this is not supposed to sound negative. In this dream-world, even the extra-spherical sounds somehow or other make sense.
In general, you have two kinds of streets on Corsica: the first category are those that are chronically overcrowded and an atrocity. The second category are those that are empty. Today, we were lucky enough to have the second category to deal with for 90% of our time. It was just great!
The only regrettable thing today was that only two remote villages were situated on our route from Filitosa high over the mountains and than back down to the airport of Ajaccio: Pila Canale and Cognocoli. Before we started the incline up from the river Taravo, we saw posters advertising shopping and restaurants in those two villages.
After our long incline to Pila Canale (height around 590 metres above sea level), both the restaurant (due to the season) and the shop (lunch break) were closed. Neither did the interim decline to Cognocoli (height around 530 metres above sea level) result in any shopping opportunities. Restaurants with the most beautiful terraces were still closed.
What a delight it was when we reached the pass at 830 metres and we went down a really steep and fast decline down to Ajaccio!
For staying overnight, we found the Hotel Dauphin. It is situated directly across from the harbour. It costs 74 Euros for two people sharing one room and bed, breakfast included. The bikes can be parked in the hotel garage for free.
To finish the day, we enjoyed a delicious touristic outdoor menu and observed the great ferries leaving for far-away places. It always makes a huge impression on me to see one of those big ships leave harbour.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
Loading ...