Yesterday evening, I was really annoyed with the internet connection. In my hotel at Porto, the WLAN I had been promised did not exist (it had not yet been installed). Naturally, the connection of the password-protected networks in three other hotels was perfect. I just could not enter any of them.
The “fall back solution” in the form of my UMTS stick was so unacceptably slow that I resigned to the inevitable and refrained from both answering my emails and indulging in my hobby. So, here is my appeal: Open your WLANs!
Today, everything is better.
I am staying at the Belvedere in Calvi (directly beneath the citadel, I strongly recommend it). Since my room is above the breakfast lounge – which provides free WLAN access – I am well provided for. Consequently, I catch up on what is left to do of yesterday.
And today was really a dream day. We had no end of sun, even though the forecast had called for cloudy skies. First, we rode 60 kilometres on roads with hardly any traffic. And then the beautiful views: we stopped frequently to enjoy the wonders of nature.
Then – roughly beginning after the Fango valley and crossing the river after which the valley is named – it got harder. The small road surprised us for having a devilish road surface. And all of a sudden there was an enormous gust of head winds. There were still two smaller passes and several inclines along the coastline ahead of us.
Pedalling got a little tough. But the unblemished beauty of the scenery made up for the hardships. 10 kilometres before Calvi, the road surface improved. From there, the way was almost exclusively downhill. Delightful!
We found the beautiful “Hotel Belvedere” immediately (the price for two was 66 Euros, the “petit dejeuner” for both of us together 14 Euros). We ended the day with a short stroll through the “mundane” Calvi and a beer at the harbour.
Quite by accident, we also found a ticket office of the “Corsica ferries” and were able to buy the ticket for our way back on Sunday at 1.30 p.m. from Bastia to Livorno. Having finished organizing the way home on the ferry on Sunday gave me a feeling of comfort.
I was surprised to see that the ticket for the way back was a lot less expensive than the ticket for the way out we had bought in Italy had been. It seems like the public transportation system will remain a mystery to me.
After a delicious dinner at the “U Calellu” (you must go there, I strongly recommend it), another wonderful day was at its end. Isn’t it strange that we only met four vacation cyclists during the entire journey (a young couple and two individual cyclists)?
After having gone more than 500 kilometres by bike, all I can say is that there is no nicer way of travelling when on vacation. Why don’t you take heart? After all:
„It is not the difficulty of a task that prevents us from doing it but our failure to do it makes it difficult”.
RMD
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