Day 21 Nice to London to Dallas to SFO

It's been a long day, but after almost 20 hours of traveling we are now home. The trip home was relatively easy. We are just tired. On the flight home we talked about where our next trip would be some day. It will either be Iceland or Alaska. That's all for now until the next adventure.

Day 20 - Nice

We walked the city for 8 hours today. My favorite stop was the Marc Chagall Museum. It was more than I could have imagined. It was such a remarkable collection and so beautifully exhibited. Studying his paintings in art books is one thing, but seeing them as huge canvases (12 ft x 14 ft) left me speechless. It took a bit of time to regroup and absorb them so I could explain the stories behind them to Matt. They also had a theatre that showed a 1-hour biography on Marc Chagall and even though it was all in French, it was wonderful. An entire full wall of the theatre was one of his famous stained glass windows and it was truly beautiful. I would love to be able to go back again tomorrow. If I’m ever back in Nice, it is the first place I’m going. Bonus today: the museum was free!

From there we walked to Eglise Rousse which is the huge Russian Orthodox Cathedral. We only saw the outside, but it was impressive. The rest of the day we wandered through old and new neighborhoods and explored all the little nooks and found some of the best Gelato ever!!! Finnocchios Gelateria had 96 flavors to choose from and if you like such flavors as Cactus, Lavendar, Lilac, Rose, Beer, Hot Pepper Chocolate, Tomato, or Olive Oil/Basil, then this is the spot for you. We however stuck to a scoop of Amaretto and a scoop of Cinnamon, but it was a tough decision. We also discovered the coolest Chocolateria. All the candy and cookies looked like pieces of art. We tried to choose very wisely but quickly hit 200 grams (7 pieces) which equated to some sticker shock at the register.

Back in the hotel room, I was able to listen to the Giants pre-show online, but that feed stopped once game time began. Go Giants! We had a really good day in Nice.

Day 19 Goodbye Corsica…Hello Nice

Returning the campervan this morning went smoothly. Mr. Brunel was happy to see his campervan and us in one piece. He informed us that the entire island was out of diesel. For the past 4 days there has been a gas strike. This happened to me in 1997 when I drove through France. I guess they still go on strike every year. Mr. Brunel gave us a pass on the gas. We had about half a tank and from our last filling, that was 70euro, so that’s what we paid him.

Landing in Nice started out easy. The shuttle bus to Terminal 1 was exactly where it should be. Bus #98 was waiting there to take us into town and was only 4 euro each. I had the bus stop name to get off at for the hotel. Other than some bad smells from fellow travelers, we were zipping right along. Then all of a sudden, the bus stopped and the driver said, “Last stop, everybody out!” There were many confused faces and a lot of elderly travelers. Some people got off and others refused to move. I showed the driver my map and the bus stop I needed and he motioned that it was 20-minute walk up the Promenade. He reiterated to everyone to get off the bus and to start walking. All the busses were dumping people off in the same spot. I thought perhaps they were on a gas strike to and the busses were trying to conserve fuel. Turns out the entire transportation system is on strike today. No taxis. Not trams. No trolleys and limited bus routes. The transportation department chose to strike on Saturday because there would be more people affected on a weekend. The strike is suppose to be over on Monday. We have a cab reserved to pick us up at the hotel at 5am Monday morning.

After getting settled into Hotel Helvetica, we got some lunch and wondered the streets. This evening will explore more of the area, but tomorrow is the big exploration day. It’s time to rest now and Matt is already napping.

--------- 6 hours later -----------

After a power nap, we were ready to head out and explore. We headed to the old town of Nice, which is all things European that I love…pedestrian streets, narrow cobblestone alleys, church bells ringing, cafes, cool little shops, a dog peering into the butcher’s window dreaming of a big steak and of course a courtyard with the farmers selling their produce. Ahead, was the Coline du Chateau and our hope was to capture sunset from there. The Coline du Chateau/Castle Hill is the site of the old citadel that was destroyed in 1706. We climbed the 302 steps to reach the top and the panoramic view was worth it. The area has been turned into a park with a waterfall, but the waterfall was closed. We were all set up for our sunset light show, when a little man with a very loud whistle stopped everything to aggressively herd us down the castle steps. There were some really cranky tourists. It actually was a bit much. I guess he wanted to go home early. The area was suppose to be open until 7pm and at 6:50, he was doing his roundup. After that, it we wandered some pedestrian streets, found a spot for a simple dinner and then made our way home. It will be nice to have a hot shower tonight. First one in 13 days! (Campground showers don’t have hot water. It’s either cold or slightly cold.)

Day 18 Random Campsite to Ajaccio

In the morning we woke up to find that our campsite was next to a large family of donkeys, non of whom were friendly like Sparks & Stitch, the donkeys on my uncle’s ranch. The little orange and white kitty was waiting at the door for breakfast. I had given him milk for dinner and he was patiently waiting for another saucer of milk at 9am. The owner of the campsite was very nice and was able to recommend an area outside of Ajaccio for us to stay tonight. The only goal for today was to find the location of the photo on the Lonely Planet book cover.

The photo on the cover is Pointe de la Parata with the iles de Sanguinaires right off the coast. We managed to successfully find Pointe de la Parata, only I would not be getting the photo I had hoped for because of 2 reasons. First, today is “national control-burn day,” or at least that’s what I’m calling it. Everyone is allowed to burn rubbish today. The hills with all the plumes of smoke look like something from “Apocalypse Now.” The entire area is enveloped in a smoky haze. Second, no blue sky what so ever, only a flat white sky and the threat of rain clouds coming from the mountains. This is our last day in Corsica, so I won’t be getting the photo I had hoped to come home with.

After hiking up and down the mountain opposite the Tower to get the Lonely Planet photo, we proceeded to hike out to the point. The path takes you to a good viewing spot of the islands and a steep look up at the tower. Here’s our conversation regarding the tower:

Matt: “So you wanna go up”

Suzanne: “Of course”

Matt: “I have a feeling it will look the same as it does from here only it will be closer.”

Suzanne: “Well, I’m going up.”

[Lots and lots of steep rocky steps later that left me sucking wind, we reached the top.]

Matt: “Yup, looks like the same tower only closer up.”

Tonight we are camping in Porticcio. The campsite is nice and we have a chance to do laundry, but there is no wi-fi. We will be returning the camper tomorrow at 9am, the only problem is that we are suppose to return it with a full tank of gas and the entire island seems to be out of diesel.

Day 17 St. Florent to Somewhere on the Golfe de Sagone

Our first destination of the day was Calvi. The winding road to Calvi went through the Agriates Desert. It’s a rocky area that looks completely sun-scorched. The area used to be the most fertile on the island, but it was destroyed by the practice of ecobuage (cultivation on burnt stubble). Finally, we reached Calvi. Calvi is one of the main cities, but does not feel big. The city sits at the end of a huge shallow bay and spreads out from the Citadel as well as on top of it. Atop the citadel is a maze of buildings spanning various centuries. The French Foreign Legion uses one of the large halls as it’s mess hall. Little military jeeps were zipping up the narrow cobblestone roads. We could not figure out why they were acting like they had to defend something. The citadel was last attacked in 1794 by it’s own people in an uprising. Calvi is also the birth place of Christopher Columbus, so the town really plays that up. It seems in our travels, Christopher Columbus has been used to promote tourism in 3 towns…Calvi (birthplace), Sevilla, Spain (final resting place) and El Granda, Spain (where he asked for funding from Queen Isabella).

The goal for the rest of the day was as follows: Drive to Porto, explore village, hike 172 stairs to top of Genoese Tower, view Las Callanques (dramatic cliffs) for sunset from the village of Piana, camp in Porto, in the morning, short walk to view Callanques in morning light, 11am boat ride to Coastal Estuary & view collanques from the ocean.

Well, non of that happened due to any of the following reasons:

- Hairpin narrow roads: impossible to stop

- No Campervan parking allowed

- No Campervan access allowed

- No Campervans within a 4km radias allowed

- No campsites (either closed or not equipped for campers)

- No sign that said “next campsite is 2 hours down a winding death road from here”

We both sat silently in camper driving further down the road away from Porto in silence watching the daylight vanish and realizing we were now going to be driving in the dark hoping for a campsite. At 8:45 pm, we finally rolled into a campsite just on the verge of closing for the evening. Neither of us have a clue where we are, but it’s somewhere on the Golfe de Sagone. Matt has gone to bed early, he’s exhausted from the drive and I think he is catching the cold that I am finally getting over. I’m just majorly bummed that I did not get a chance to photograph the Callanques or the Golfe de Porto. It was not one of our best travel days.

Day 16 St; Florent to Centuri and Back

We left the campsite via the main road and not really having any idea where we would end up today. Five minutes down the road, we drove through St. Florent and instantly felt compelled to stop and walk back to the pastry shop in the village center. St. Florent has a beautiful little harbor and diving excursions leave from here. As we walked to the Pastry shop, we spied a Motor Scooter rental shop. Needless to say, we never made it to the pastry shop. We had 6 hours to ride our scooter up and down the coast and visit all the little villages that were inaccessible in the camper.

With Matt driving and me on the back looking my best in my sporty biker helmet, we were off to Centuri. It was great! Matt could actually enjoy the views while I got to notice all the little cool spots we had missed the day before. I was worried that the motor bike zipping around at 45 mph on the few straight-aways, would not be fast enough on a main road, but then I remembered that camper rarely went over 25mph and cyclists are also on the road. For some odd reason, there was hardly any traffic on the narrow road today as opposed to yesterday. Only one bus came towards us in the on-coming lane and there were a few times we actually passed cars when we saw them. It’s so much easier to judge the road on the motorbike. Seeing the road from this perspective with the sheer cliffs really made me wonder how we ever made it down this road at all yesterday. Turns out Matt was thinking the same thing.

1 hour and 45 minutes later, we arrived in the tiny fishing village of Centuri. It was just as pretty as I had hoped. We were both starving, but in a village that centers around fish and lobster, it was hard finding a menu item that was not seafood-based for Matt. Finally, we found a cute little patio restaurant overlooking the harbor. The menu was all in French, but I knew grilled lobster when I saw it. The price…15 euro…or so I thought, until I noticed the “/gram” Hmmm, perhaps a lobster lunch would not be the low price of 15 euros as I had thought. Turns out lobster is 15 euros per 100 grams and a standard lobster which was brought live to the table next to us for inspection weighs in at 500 grams. Therefore, a lobster lunch would be 75 euro or $102.00! Instead, I just enjoyed a nice Dorado fish and Matt had the local pizza. I could have stayed in the village all afternoon taking photos, but we had to get moving.

Next stop, the uber tiny village of Tulare, which we could see way below on the coast yesterday when standing on the Northern most cliffs. I didn’t even know what the village was like, I just wanted to get down to it since we had the bike and check it out. The ride down was really pretty and the road dead ends at the village. The village was very austere and functional. Across the water was a little uninhabited island and a lobster diver was working just off the shore. It felt like a big accomplishment just to have gotten there.

The bike ride back to St. Florent was 2 hours. We stopped to stretch our legs a few times and coasted into St. Florent exactly at 6pm on gas fumes. This was definitely my favorite day of the trip!

Day 15 The Cap Course

We drove the Cap Course today and got out to explore whenever the narrow roads would allow. Perched above the hamlet of Centuri was a windmill. It is so out of place, but marks the Northern Most tip of Cap Course Penninsula. As we hiked up, we joked that maybe there was a hotdog stand at the top. I was really bummed to find that the inside of the windmill was used to sell T-shirts and incense. Oh well, the surrounding views were stunning. The wind on the other hand was another matter. As I made my way further out the point to Mary’s Shrine, I thought I was going to blow right off the cliffs. I could barely keep my camera still due to the high winds.

There were many tiny hamlets above in the higher mountains and below on the water, but the camper could not access them. In order to visit Nonza, we had to park ½ mile outside the village and walk in on the narrow road. We explored the small village and the Genoese Tower it is centered around. From the tower we witnessed a tour bus show-down as they tried to pass each other on a road barely wide enough for a normal car. The busses are ridiculous. There is no parking for campers let alone busses, so they stop in the middle of road and occupy more than half the road as a massive flood of tourist pour from the doors. I can hardly imagine what it is like in summer. In my humble opinion, the busses should only be allowed to travel in a counter-clockwise direction that would avoid the dangerous show-downs. There is only one main road that circles the peninsula and at times it seems like only small vespas should be allowed access.

Below the tower was a beach. On it’s shores were hundreds of shapes and names made with rocks, all facing the villages’ direction. I have no idea how this started. With a storm quickly approaching from the mountains, we made our way back to the camper and breathed a sigh of relief that it was still there in one piece. South of Nonza on the coast, we found a nice campsite in St. Florentine. They rent vespas and we looked into renting one built for two so that we could do the circuit again and have access to all the little villages, but that did not pan out. The beach is supposedly 500 meters in some direction, but it’s dark, so that will have to be discovered tomorrow. The owner here is Italian and has 4 Great Danes. If I understood him correctly, the dogs speak German, he speaks Italian and everyone else speaks French.