Days 5, 6, and 7

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If you saw Day one of this year’s Tour De France bike race you will recall that one of the first stages ended in the city of Calvi on the island of Corsica.

This is where we started day 5 of the cruise and everything has been very good so far – today was no exception. The weather is still fine, with low to mid 20 degree temperatures.

Our excursion was to some of the islands interesting villages. The first two were in the foothills of the island’s mountains. While in the second one, perched at the top of a hill, Geoff climbed a very steep and rocky pathway to a magnificent view across the flat plain to the sea.

Back on the coast, as we made our way back to Calvi, we stopped for a wee stop near an open-air market in a lovely coastal town.

Most people on the ship chose to visit the tourist towns of Pisa, Lucca and Florence when we docked at Livorno on the Italian coast. This was day 6 and we preferred to check out some of the Tuscan countryside as we had both been to Pisa and Florence before. The group was only small and we had a great time with the tour ending at a small family-run winery, where some of the group hit the fluid especially the local Grappa. It was an interesting trip back to the ship.

Yesterday, Day 7, we visited the Italian island of Sardinia. When we originally booked the cruise we were due to visit Tunis on the north coast of Africa but the cruise company decided that the political scene in Tunisia was a bit uncertain so they rescheduled the itinerary and included Olbia on Sardinia’s east coast. We toured north of the city along what is known as Costa Smeralda – Emerald Coast. Before we arrived in the morning, the ship dog paddled at sea due to a very strong wind, which made entering the port dangerous, so instead of an 8 am arrival we docked at 10.

As we write this blog, the ms Noordam is very slowly moving towards Palermo in Sicily. We don’t arrive until tomorrow, so this is a rest day. Drinkies in the Crows Nest this morning.

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