Another travel day today.  We were able to stay longer than normal checkout time as our flight back to London isn’t until 6pm, so it was nice to have a bit of extra time in this morning.

We headed off about 10:30.   Can’t help take one last photo of Bosa from the hill outside of town.

We arrived a a place called Porto Rotondo about 2 hours later.  We have some time (5 hours) before our flight, so we stop for our last sunny outdoor lunch.  A couple paninis and a couple of expensive beer.  They do come with their own ice bucket!!

Our plane is delayed by an hour due to an air traffic control strike in France.  It affects how many aircraft can be in the air over France at any given time.  Delays for lots of flights.  We were supposed to pick up the luggage that we stored in our guesthouse near Gatwick.  It is later than we expected, and Stu has picked up a cold.  We just want to get to our hotel and settle in.  We arrange to pick up the bags tomorrow.  We plan to grab a train back to Gatwick, go get the bags and head back into Soho where we are staying.

We arrive at our hotel at about 10:50 pm.   The street leading to our hotel is hopping, the bar at the hotel is hopping!!  The hotel entrance is locked (only accessible with your key card).  We aren’t familiar with the doors, so we and another arriving guest knock on the door.  A couple of times.  By some miracle the front desk guy hears us!!!  Amazing.  He tells us the bar is only serving wine and alcohol for another 10 minutes.  They can serve beer to guests for another couple of hours.  So while Stu finishes the check in I go to the bar and order a bottle of wine.  The bartender gives me the bill.  It is over 40 GBP and translates to about 75 CAD!!!!!   WOW.  Knew it would be a bit more than we are used to (3.20 Euros hahahah), but WOW!!   Not in Sardinia any more  🙂  We have a glass in the bar, watching the goings on, then get the bartender to cork it up and we head up to our room.  The noise in the bar and the street is still incredible.  When we booked this room we knew that it didn’t have windows.  As we wanted to stay in Soho near the theatres and knew what a party area it is the windowless room was quite appealing.  This is what we find when we get to the room.

Wall to wall king size bed!! It is higher than normal, so that we can store our bags underneath.

Towards the bathroom

This is what you get for $215 CAD in Soho.  The bed linens and towels are luxurious.  They have high end shampoo, soaps and lotions (in dispensers so that we don’t run off with them 🙂 )

The best news is it is completely SILENT!!!  Amazing!  We know what is going on out there and hear nothing of it in here!

Off to bed knowing that if someone needs to get up in the middle of the night the other will certainly notice them climbing over them  🙂  But it’s quiet, love it.

We head south to explore the coast and take a hike that our host Marco told us about.

We find the trail

We pass this beach on our way up the hill. Notice the dog in the water on the left.

Following the trail along the coast

Going towards one of the many towers built by the Spanish hundreds of years ago

A beautiful hillside

This is that same dog, in that same pool in the same position. Not sure what he was doing, but he was there for a least an hour 🙂

After this hike, we head back into Bosa to have lunch at the food truck that Marco told us about.

Al Duccio, Risorante Itinerante

Our meatball sandwich. Pretty huge.

Lunch in the sunshine

Herb crates along the seating area

Near the food truck is the area where the motorhomes park. We aren’t sure but we don’t think they are charged to park here

Another example of the trash that has been dumped beside the pedestrian bridge. We just don’t understand this. There are trash receptacles everywhere in this town.

After our lunch we get back in the car to drive a bit north for another hike near another beach.  We are finding that the beaches here are not always easy to access.  🙂

Beautiful secluded beach. Long hike down (and back up again 🙂 )

The coast to the south

Back in Bosa we find a gelateria for a couple of limone gelatos.  mmmmm.  We sit and watch the goings on for a while before continuing our stroll around the city.

We examine the different styles of architecture.

Bosa makes good use of it’s tomato tins. Another great example

I keep telling Stu that you can just park anywhere!!

We stop for a glass of wine at this little spot just a couple doors from our little apartment. 2 glasses of wine, a dish of peanuts and a dish of chips 3.00 Euros!! The wine was HORRID. I had to eat a handful of peanuts and not breath before drinking some. We didn’t want to offend the owner 🙁

This is the result of what Stu was doing in the previous shot.

Today is our last full day in Sardinia.  We are flying tomorrow at 6pm back to London.  I’m sure we will need to layer up again!!  🙂  Oh well.  We shall see what plays we can see!!

Were awakened about 2:30 by a big thunderstorm.  Lots of booming and pouring rain.  We lost power in our little apartment.   There are a couple of steps up from the bedroom and since we closed all of the shutters it was dark dark dark.  A trip to the loo was dangerous!!  We went down to find Marco, our very helpful host, who told us so much about the town, that we have forgotten so much already.  He wasn’t at his desk yet.  We entered our lobby again, and I tried the light switch there and it worked!!  Soooo, we went back up to investigate the breaker box in the flat.  Tried one and voila!!  Let there be coffee!!  🙂

We decided that we will walk up to the Castle today.  It is a bit of a trek and the road is definitely not a straight one!!  We wiggle our way through the little streets until we get to the Castle Malaspina.

Cars on streets we think can only accommodate pedestrians!!

Up streets of steps

Finally the steps to the castle.

The views from the castle are spectacular.  Rain however is threatening.  We get some great photos none the less.

The view towards the ocean

Closer on the River Temo

Walking along the castle walls

An interesting cemetery down below

A nasty hairpin curve in this road

In the center of this photo see a street that we think we need to find.

The rain slows down and we head down with the idea to head towards a street that we could see from the castle.  It looks like lots of awnings and umbrellas.  We think is may be a street with many restaurants and cafes.

In Bosa they hang plants on walls in painted tin cans, presumably tinned tomato cans.

We pass this adorable little patio

The middle age Sardinians were even shorter than the medieval Irish people

The streets are made up of stones like these. After long walks our feet feel each one 🙂

We do manage to find the street and discover that it is a very large street market.  Selling anything that you can imagine.  Clothing, cheeses, shoes, umbrellas, deli meats.

Just after we pass through the market street the skies opened up and just poured.  We found a bit of shelter and stood there waiting for the rain to stop.

The rain in the street. We thought we left this in the UK!!

Water flowing through the gutters

The storm sewer over flowing.

After the rain we try to find a pizza restaurant that our host Marco told us about.  We find it.  Stu goes in and orders our pizza and a couple of beers.  I go outside and grab a table and wait for him to bring the pizza.  As I sit a man comes and asks if I would like to order drinks.  I tell him that my husband is waiting for pizza and has ordered beer.  He tells me with his hands that (pointing to the pizza place) is pizza and that (pointing to the shop next door and the tables that I am sitting at) is drinks.  Ah Yes!!  It comes back to me now.  Marco did tell us the story.  Da Giovanni’s (the pizza place) has been operating for over 30 years in this location.  They didn’t have any seating, but have an overwhelming business with the pizza.  (they do sell beer, but mostly as a takeout item).  So a couple of bars decided to set up next door, put out tables for the pizza people to sit and eat and to buy their beverages from the bar guys!!   OK OK  I get it now, so I also order beer from the bar/table guy.  Stu, from inside the pizza place waiting for our order sees me at the table with 2 beers and is now very confused.  I run in to explain the “system” and find that a German fellow is also explaining the “system”!!  So it is a 2 beer and pizza lunch for us!!  We put the first 2 empties in by satchel bag so the bar/table guy doesn’t think we bought both from him 🙂  By the time Stu comes out with the pizza and other beers, there is a big line up to order pizza.  They are only open between 12 and 2pm for lunch, later for dinner.  This lunch cost us 4.80 Euros for 2 pieces of pizza, 3 Euros for the pizza guy beer and 4 Euros for the bar/table guy beer.  This is what all the fuss is about.  It is a folded pizza.  Depending on the filling it runs from 1.80 to 4.00 per very generous piece.

Here are a few more random shots of our day.  We walked to the Marina area and have logged 16km on our little feet.

The river, a sunken boat on the left and fish on the right feeding on something at the surface.

This cool old German motorhome. It is parked in an area where many many motorhomes are. We assume they are allowed to park for free

An nice re-purposing of some old boots.

Kodak signs keep popping up from time to time

This is building where our apartment is.

Here are a couple of shots of our little apartment from last night.  We were cleaning up our dishes and thought that this was design GENIUS!!

Washing dishes by hand, the cabinets above have racks.

Place the wet dishes on the racks, that drip into the sink below. Close the cabinet, all clean and done 🙂

We have been looking for a feel here in Sardinia that we recall from the Amalfi Coast, which is one of our favourite vacations ever!!  Everywhere we have been so far has fallen short.  My friend Penny posted some photos from Bosa on Facebook.  It looked like what we were looking for 😉 .  We googled images of Bosa and decided that this would be a great place.  Here is our route today, back to the west coast  😉

Oh Boy!!   From the moment we came over the hill to see the city of Bosa, we were sold.  Stu is in photographic heaven.  Here are some of our shots from this afternoon.

Ponte Vecchio

Buildings along the River Temo

Duomo

Our laundry obsession

Dying plants

Bosa with the Castle behind

Another view

Our street

Such quaint streets.

Beautiful house

Another street scene

This is mine 🙂 The moon and the Ponte Vecchio in the waning light

Mine too. Sun setting along the river

More. Such a beautiful place!!

We have booked an apartment for the next 3 nights, our last 3 nights in Sardinia.  It is right in the middle of the old town.  It was built likely in the late 1700’s and renovated into vacation apartments in the 1990’s.  It is amazing!

The kitchen. It features the same drain board cabinet above the sink

Our sitting area with TV

The passageway to the bedroom

The bedroom

The unique ceiling

The same ceiling going back out the passageway

The large bathroom

The view out of our window.

We had a very nice lunch in a little restaurant in the streets behind our place.  Definitely somewhere you can only walk to.  Very yummy food, with very large beer  🙂

 Another reminder that we aren’t in Ireland anymore is this.  This Sardinian wine was on sale at the little grocery store for 3.19 Euros (4.65 CAD) , recalling that a teeny tiny glass of wine in Dublin was 7.60 Euro!! Hahaha Love it  🙂

Sunday in Sardinia.  The church bells were tolling at 9 this morning.  We are off to the east coast for tonight.  Looking for a bit larger town with more action.  🙂  This is our route.

Google maps took us on an interesting road today.  Pretty sure not many tourists have seen this part of Sardinia!!  The photos through the windshield don’t do it justice!  It was like Lombard Street in San Francisco, but gravel!!  Crazy.  This is what I took, but it looks too tame compared to reality  🙂

This is a sharp narrrow left curve

The road has changed to gravel and we are going over a narrow bridge

We eventually hit a large major highway and the rest of the journey is  uneventful.  We find the place that we booked.  We try to arrive before 1pm as that is the beginning of a 3 hour siesta time and many things are closed.  We don’t know if we can check in between 1 and 4.  We make it in time and are shown to our little apartment.  It is very nice.

The kitchen/dining area

A sitting area

The bedroom

The deck and the view!!

We head out for a walk to explore the area.  We aren’t sure if we want to spend 2 nights here or not.  We are looking for an Amalfi Coast feel here and haven’t really found that.

A boat along the canal

Our bulding on the right

The beach

More pine trees on the beach

Sunday evening fisihing

The tower

The marina

We found a nice little restaurant right next to the tower.  We  ordered ravioli and steak and mushrooms to share.  Very nice.  The restaurant doesn’t even open until 7:30.  We are there shortly after.  It isn’t long before all of the outdoor seating is full.  Another popular spot  🙂

Today after I made coffee in our new little coffee percolator (2 cups each  :)) we relaxed and read our books.  Stu is not usually a big reader (except hockey books), but he is really into the book he chose at WH Smith at Gatwick!  It is hard to drag him away from it 🙂  We decide to drive to Santa Teresa which is about an hour north of us.  We go a bit further to Porto Rafael before heading back to our little apartment.

We park our little Opel in Santa Teresa and walk towards the ocean.  WOW.  A beautiful sight!!  This is what we see as we get to the top of the hill!!

It is a beautiful beach to be sure.  It is however a bit touristy and busy for us.

Rental umbrellas, neat and orderly along the beautiful sea.

The colour of the ocean is so magnificent!

Lovely bay

Stu working his magic!

WOW just WOW 🙂

Nothing bad here

Sailboat on the Med

More gorgeousness!!

Ditto!!

We had a lite bite to eat in Porto Rafael.  We paid 6 Euros for the same beer that we could have paid 2.50 for in the beach bar near us if it was open.  6 Euros is over 8.00 CAD for a regular sized beer.  We don’t really think we want to stay in this very lovely place if a beer is 6 Euros.  What is everything else????  We decide to head back to our little place and try to find a new place for tomorrow night.  🙂

Along the way we are on a very ziggy zaggy road.  It is great as there is really no other traffic coming towards or coming behind us.  Stu is quite enjoying driving the ess curves.  We do meet some motorcyclists coming towards us and think that they too are enjoying the curvy roads.

We are back by 3:30 (mid siesta time here) and grab our books and sit in the sun with our cheaper beer.  Nice day!!

We decide to go back to the restaurant that is closest to us for dinner tonight.  When we arrive (8 pm) there are  quite a few people, but also quite a lot of empty tables as it is a large restaurant.  It isn’t long before most of the tables are full.  We order our dinner (seafood risotto, yum yum).  Mussels, calamari, scampi!!

It is a very entertaining evening as the place is just hopping.  Very fun night as well.

We slept in today!!  We woke up a bit around 8:20, but since the shutters kept the light out we slept for another hour!! Wow.  That does not happen.  We had our breakfast of yogurt, fruit and juice and sat on our little patio.  We didn’t buy coffee, so Stu went across the road with the phrase “due caffe per andare per favore” (two coffees to go please).  A short time later he comes back with 3 cups, 2 coffee and 1 warm milk.   We enjoy the coffee as we sit in the sun and read our books.

About 11 we decide to go for a drive to a town about an hour south of here.  About half way there we come to a beach bar and a lot of cars, so we decide to see what the attraction is.  There is a long stretch of beach.  We think we need to take a walk.  Some beautiful sandy shores.

We get to Porto Torres and decide that this isn’t a town that we would like to stay in so we head back.  We get some good photos along the way.

We walk to dinner to a place right on the beach.  We checked out the menu this afternoon.  There are really only 2 restaurants in this little town.  We did the other one last night, so tonight we come to La Locanda del mare.  They have this gizmo at the front door.  It is a charging station for devices/cell phones.  Each cubicle has a cord with multiple types of connectors and a key to lock your device in while you eat your dinner  🙂  cool.  We have a very nice meal.  Stu has grilled swordfish and I have grilled lemon sole.

A nice stroll home has us clocking 12,746 steps for almost 10km.  Not bad for a driving day!

We have a breakfast of different foods than we have been eating (the FULLS from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England).  There are poached eggs with prosciutto and cheese, hard boiled eggs, fresh croissants and cold meats (salami and prosciutto) and cheese.  I am over my bad day 🙂  We hop into our Opel car and head across the island to the small town of La Ciaccia where we have 3 nights in a small apartment booked.  We will have a kitchen, control over our breakfast and a fridge in which to store some Italian beer!

We are finding driving here much different than in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.  There the speed limits are crazy high, but the drivers don’t normally do the limit and are patient with those of us who definitely are not comfortable at those speeds, on those roads!!  Here the limits seem slow to us while the drivers seem to routinely go double the limits.  They are aggressive and sit on your butt!!

We find a spot with a nice view and pull over for a photo.

Beautiful!!

Disappointing!!

From what I have been reading it is an issue in Sardinia and other parts of the world obviously.  Still is sad to see what people do to a beautiful place.

We arrive at our little town at about 11:30 and struggle a bit to find our place.  Eventually we do and decide to see if our room is ready.  Luckily it is and we are able to check in.  The young lady at Reception is very nice and spends some time explaining the history of Sardinia and that it too has Neolithic era ruins.  She told us that for about 400 years Sardinia was part of Spain.  They speak a Catalonian dialect in parts of Sardinia and have a very Spanish influence in their cuisine.  Interesting.

After a bit of a history lesson we get down to the really important questions.  Where can we buy beach clothes!!!  We have shorts (I have a skort), but we haven’t worn them.  As we drove here I watched the temperature gauge on the car go from 19c when we started up to 22c and then back down to 19c when we were in the mountains.  Back up to 22c and then to 25c!!!!   We didn’t get past 15c in the British Isles.  This feels wonderful.  She tells us that there is a “Superstore” in the next larger town called Villadoria.  So off we go, but not before she warns us that the Reception will be closed between 1 and 4.  Ah yes we remember now, Siesta Time in Italy.  Sure enough most businesses are closed when we return.  We picked up a swim suit and flip flops for me.  Then down to the grocery department to pick up breakfast fixings, lunch fixings, beer and 2 bottles of wine.  We paid less for each bottle of Sardinian wine than we paid for one teeny tiny glass in Dublin!!  Seriously!!  We paid 7.60  (11.20 CAD) Euros for the glass and 3.69 (5.44 CAD) and 4.89 (7.21 CAD)  Euros for the bottles!!  We also bought a couple of 3 packs of Peroni (weird 3 packs, bottles 3 in a line, very unstable on the checkout line) and a two pack of a beer called Ichnusa which is a Sardinian beer.  I checked in at Reception with a 3 pack of Peroni in my hands and the lady tells me that I shouldn’t buy Peroni, I should buy the Sardinian beer.  I was happy to be able to tell her that we did buy some and did enjoy it shortly on our little patio!!

Here is our little place.

The bed. Obviously 🙂

This room!

The TV where we did find a movie in English

Out little kitchenette

Our patio

More patio

The exterior. Our room is on the bottom on the left. Difficult see as it behind a big olive tree!

We respect “Siesta Time” and have a siesta ourselves.  We are also reading the books we picked up in London.  Nice recharge time.  After that we head out for a walk to check out our area.  We are sitting in the sun wearing much less clothing than 48 hours ago!!  Happily  🙂  Stu gets some great shots.

The beach near us.

Fishing happening along with walking, swimming and sun bathing

More beach.

Later on we head out to dinner.  It is cooler, so we put our jeans back on.  There is really only 2 restaurants in this town.  So we walk to the closest one.  We order pasta, me Ravioli and Mussels, Stu spaghetti with clams.  Both very good.  This is so different than in Britain where kitchens close at 9 or before.  We are finishing around 9 and people are still arriving.  Yes that is most of Europe for you.  Very civilized  🙂

Well today was quite a day.  It started off with me getting my hair cut.  We have been on the road a while and I was getting a bit shaggy.  I made an appointment yesterday for 11:30.  Our flight isn’t until 4:55 this afternoon, so we do have some time to kill.  We wander around Horley for a while.  Find a couple of geocaches along the way.

A magnetic one attached to a fence post

Another magnetic one on the back side of this grey metal box

We are paring down our luggage so that we only have carry on.  This saves us about 30 GBP for each bag we do not check in.  I bought a new tube of sun screen for this trip.  It is a virgin tube of sun screen.  We have not even looked at it.  Now that we are going to sunnier climes, I will need it.  Guess what, it is more than 100 ml.  The limit for carry on liquids!!  Ha ha ha.  I have to leave it.  I gather all of our other liquids, the shampoos, conditioners  and lotions that we have taken from other hotels, toner, moisturizers, hand sanitizers etc. and put them into a zip lock bag.

We have a few stories today  🙂  🙁

1.  OK, every time we leave on vacation, before we leave the driveway, Stu always, ALWAYS asks if I have the passports.  I always ALWAYS say “YES” as I roll my eyes.  Duh duh!!  Well, I kept the passports in a zipped pocket in my camera bag, that I usually wear over my shoulder.  When we were at the Cliffs Of Moher, one of  the clasps that hooked onto the bag broke, so it was not a shoulder bag any longer.  So I decided that I didn’t need to take this bag as it was heavy and now awkward to carry.  I packed it into the bag we left at our guesthouse.  We arrived at the airport and Stu now asks “Do you have the passports??”  Oh CRAP!!!  No I don’t.  We have a lot of time thankfully.  So Stu stays at the airport with the bags we took and I grab a cab back to the guesthouse, grab the passports and back in less than an hour.  Whew!
2. We head to security.  As you probably have heard England is on high alert.  We put our belongings into the bins and head through the security gates.  They have a system for placing your things in security bins which is different than we have seen before.  There are numbers on the floor and an attendant assigns you to a number behind someone else.  Stu is in line 3 and I am in line 2.  The woman in front of me is very very slow in putting her things in the bins.  Stu is finished and she is still futsing around, so I am able to move to Stu’s line as he has moved onto the next thing, the scanner.  So by the time I get my things in the bin he is waiting for me.  I walk through the scanner.  Things beep and they ask me to take off my shoes and place them on an xray belt, and me through the 3D scanner.  I seem to set off alarms there too.  I have a female security agent patting my down, waving her wand all over my body, running her fingers around my waistband, around my bra.  Basically a full body pat down.  Finally she is satisfied and lets me through.  Stu is there waiting for me with some of my stuff from the bins.  My laptop and other carry on are not there.  I see them on the other side of the belt.  Items on the other side require further investigation!!  Crap, it turns our that I bought a bottle of water while we walked around Horley this morning and forgot it was in my bag.  The same woman who patted my down, now is going through my bag.  I can’t believe I forgot the water  🙁
3. We still have a at least 4 hours before our flight.  The gates are not even posted for quite a while.  We find some seats and decide that one of us will go to WH Smith to find a book for our relaxing days in Sardinia, then the other will watch the bags while the next one chooses a book.  Finally our gate is announced so we head towards it.  We board the plane and take off.  Part way through I notice that we are missing a bag.  The bag with the liquids.  Shampoo, condition, my perfume, face cream.  Some chips, cookies, a hat.  Somehow lost along the way.

What a day????

Since we are going to Italy the plugs are different than England.  We did not bring any adapters for the European continent.   The shops at the airport carry UK to US (Canada) adapters or UK to Europe.  So I buy UK to Europe.  This is what we have now.  North America adapted to UK then adapted to Europe.

Before the adaption

After 🙂

We get our car and drive to our place for tonight, which is thankfully not far.  Was have lost an hour since London and it is dark and the roads are windy.    We move tomorrow to the west side of the island. Hopefully the day will go smoother!!  🙂

Had a very crazy day today.  We arrived in Sardinia, picked up a rental car and found our accommodation for tonight.  We lost an hour in this time zone.  Grabbed some dinner and are bushed!!  I will catch up tomorrow after we move to our new digs.  🙂