Disappointing News….

So…. yesterday evening Great Rail emailed everyone to say, due to expected inclement weather, that our ferry to Sardinia will not be running today and we therefore won’t be going over there until Saturday. This meant that 12 people would be staying put (Ted and I are 2 of those) and the other 16 plus Claire have to move to another hotel for the next 2 nights. We will therefore only have 2 nights in Sardinia instead of 4. Great disappointment all round! We did, however, have to carry out today’s itinerary which was a trip down to Bonifacio (the ferry port) but then we had to come all the way back again to Propriano. An added insult for the 16 is that after they arrive at their new hotel they then have to return to where we are remaining for their dinner tonight in their hotel’s mini buses -a trip of 15 mins each way so we are quite lucky really to be staying, although this is not my favourite hotel so far and on a hillside away from everything. The coach driver, Dan, is departing after today and apparently Great Rail is currently looking for a new coach for us.
Anyway, we had a guided tour around Bonifacio with Pierre the local guide who was very Corsican-looking and who gave us lots more history about the town, Corsica, Napoléon and the fact that Corsica should be Genoese and not French. The town looks like Calvi with its Citadel and ramparts with a beautiful inlet Port, much like a Fjord. Sardinia can be clearly seen from there. We were taken up to the citadel by another Petit Train and had a two-hour tour followed by 2 hours for us to find some lunch and look around but the weather steadily deteriorated and the raincoats and umbrellas came out. Scrambling back onto the Petit Train was a bit of a free-for-all plus a few wet bottoms as the sides of the train were open!
It was pretty miserable back at the hotel temperature wise but we managed to sustain ourselves until time to go to the bar for the pre-dinner pina colada (for me anyway). The “16” arrived in batches from the other hotel, not best pleased with the standard of the substitute hotel and there were a few grumbles. A new coach has been found however and a trip to somewhere nearby has been arranged for tomorrow so onward and upward!Read more