Gunnar Rundgren på resa / on tour

Happy Easter - this is how I celebrated Easter Day, the rain was pouring.


I staid at the Agriturismo da Pina up to the 13 April. I took the opportunity to sit and write a lot on the nice porch outside my room. I had two sweet dogs encouraging me all the time.




view from the my room.




As the place was a bit away from restaurants etc. I made my own cooking for most day. The day before I left I found a restaurant/bar just 4 km away, which had nice food and staff, but an awfully noisy clientele, loud music a too much drunk people. I also got a through wash of most of my clothes. Most days I made shorter tours in the surroundings. Twice I went to Alghero which is a popular tourist destination, which I can understand. It has a nice old town with small shops and restaurants, it has a very nice long beach and in general good services – BUT THEY HAVE NOT REALLY ANY INTERNET PLACE.



 One beach I visited was Porto Ferro, see picture. It was a really nice sand beach.

I saw a lot of cyclists in this part of Sardinia, even some serious teams both from France and Italy. Perhaps there was some competition or perhaps it is a favoured training spot.

The 13th I wrote up to lunch and took of for Porto Torres on the North Coast. I had a very nice flow in the cycling and did the 40 km in less than two hours. Porto Torres is quite a big town and it was completely DEAD. I guess it has a bit more action normally but all people were out picnicking or something, as the roads were very busy. I noted that in Porto Torres had ferry connections to Barcelona, and for a short while I considered to go there – I do like ships a lot. I have never been in Spain despite having been in 80 countries. Anyway that is for next time.




I continued along the North Coast which was very nice. Sometimes there are dramatic cliffs and sometime very nice sandy beaches with beautiful dunes. The coast is also exploited in a fairly nice way, with hotels etc. being low, not at the beachfront and with a lot of pine forest around. It seems like the area closest to the sea must be protected from construction. Great! When I reached Castelsardo I had made 76 km and considering that I started after 12, that was quite OK, so I found a very nice Albergo where I now sit and wait for the restaurant to open.




You can note my nice tan! This is outside my hotel in front of Castelsardo at sunset.

I will eat fish and seafood today as a change. Considering that I have had a rather frugal diet the last five days when I have been cooking, I will treat myself to the best tonight. Castelsardo is a really beautiful old town and the town was completely packed on this last night of Easter. Now the streets are full of cars leaving, have no idea where they are going. My plans for the coming days look something like this: 14 Apr Castelsardo Terme de CastelDoria-Isola Rossa 15 Apr Isola Rossa - Vignola - Santa Terese 16 Apr Ferry Santa Teresa - Bonifacio (Korsica) 10:00 But plans might change……. Have now done 4000 km on the bicycle in total, but most of it was on the trip before Christmas. I have been more lazy this time. I spend more time writing as I brought the laptop. Saturday and Sunday were rainy and a bit cold. Today the weather was brilliant, and the right temperature for cycling.

OK, now I am in Tempio one day later.....I sit on a bench in the PIazza d'Italia and use sombodies internet connection.
I went by bike from Castelsardo to the hotsprings in Casteldoria. They were OK, but not very well organised. The water was something like 70 degress, so it needed to be mixed with cold water and it was hard to get the right mix in the river.....They are constructing a spa there.... From there I decided to go inland, so I targeted Tempio. It was uphil almost constantly for 2 hours and I was pretty exhausted on arrival. The city was extremely "dead", but as I sat on a café I soon realised why. there came a funeral procession of perhaps 500 people. Somebody loved or important (can those two be combined?) must have been in the coffin....

On the way to Tempio I saw some really beautiful landscapes. Most fascinating was the Valle della Luna (moon valley)




The moon valley




The cork oaks. Not only do they make good wines here they also make the cork to seal the bottles.
Salut.

Tomorrow I will roll towards the Nothern tip of Sardinia, and then cross over to Corsica the day after - or one more day later. Ciao for now.