In Which We Start Our Mediterranean Adventure

Hobart to Bastia

The Tally So Far:

• Six Days
• Four Flights
• One Broken Handlebar
• One Taxi Shuttle @ 84 Euros
• Four Bike Rides
• One Head Cold

It's been an interesting start to our holiday. We are currently staying at the small town of Saint-Florent, in the northeast corner of Corsica, having arrived after breaking our journey twice with overnight stops in Abu Dhabi and Munich. It's good that we included the latter. Our original plan was to spend a leisurely afternoon wandering around the city, see some sights ...

Munich streetscape

... relax a little ....

Ahhr! Now them's real beers!

... and then get a good night's sleep.

However, when we arrived and collected our luggage we discovered Di's handlebar had been broken in transit. Here's what it looked like after I took it off the bike at our accommodation here in Saint-Florent:

Bike art

I hate to think where we'd have been at we'd come all the way to this sleepy little village and then discovered the damage. Stopping in Munich allowed us to visit a bike shop and collect a replacement, pretty much like for like. So, here's the bike now with the new handlebar installed:

Ready to go again

After a short ride to get the feel of riding on the RIGHT side of the road again and saying hello to a donkey ...

Hello donkey ...

... we wandered into town for a bit of shopping and came back with this nice little haul ...

I didn't mean to put the pastries front an centre ...

Having been out on the pretty hilly terrain hereabouts we're starting to get used to the terrain and also beginning to feel properly oriented going around rond points (roundabouts) and more or less staying on the correct side of the road on long twisting descents. 

Here are a few images from some of our rides so far ...

Stone building amongst the vines

Vines, hills and clouds

Di at Oletta

At Bastia's old port

... and a screenshot which shows where we've ridden so far ...

Four days of riding in northern Corsica

Our friends Chris and Roberta have arrived to spend a few days with us before we all shift over to Bastia on Saturday to join our cycle tour.  I'm about to meet them for a leisurely ride - if we can find such a thing here in this hilly landscape! - while Di rests and tries to recover from the cold which is besieging her body, presumably caught somewhere in transit between Hobart and here - she was hale and hearty when we arrived. With luck she will be right again before Saturday! (Send good karma please everyone.)