Ajaccio, Corsica

We had a little excitement this morning just before getting off the ship. We were all ready to go and I told the boys to wait outside by the elevators for us while we grabbed a couple last minute items from the room. A few minutes later, Brandon came back in sobbing and holding his eye. It seems that there was some rough-housing on the stairway and Justin accidently kicked Brandon in the eye. It was red and starting to swell a bit, so we took a few minutes to get a bag of ice for him to hold on it and gave him a couple Motrin.

We finally got off the ship and met up with our tour group out on the pier. The plan was to take a boat ride to another town on Corsica to tour some churches and get lunch. However, when we met up with the guides, they said the water was pretty rough and suggested a bus instead. Either way, it was about a 2 hour ride one-way. The water was rough and the roads were narrow & winding. Neither sounded appealing.

After a quick conference with Michele, we decided we would rather take a walking tour of Ajaccio instead. Kent & Pi still wanted to go to see the churches, so we split up, one guide going with each group. Our guide, Anna, suggested a short boat ride to see the nearby blood islands followed by a walking tour of the city. That sounded great to us, so we waved goodbye to the rest of the group and headed out.

The boat ride was really nice. The weather was perfect: 70 degrees and sunny with a nice breeze. It was pretty wavy, but the captain went slowly, so the bumps were not too bad. The boys had a great time jumping around the front of the boat like they do back home, while we relaxed and took in the sites in the back. It took about an hour to put-put out there and back and we really enjoyed it!

Next, we walked into the city to see the sites. Ajaccio is probably most famous as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte and there are many statues around town celebrating their famous son. We even visited the church where he was baptized when he was very young.

We stopped and took a lunch break at a nice little outdoor café tucked into a backstreet alley. They had a beautiful awning made of branches with ivy growing all over it. The boys enjoyed their chicken nuggets and fries, but the pizza had blue cheese on it and they wouldn't touch it.

After lunch, we continued walking up a long hill to see another monument to Napoleon. This one was quite large with many steps, a sandy square at the bottom, and a big slab of stone set at an angle with engravings. The boys had a great time running all around and up & down the stairs. Cameron slid down the big slab on his butt and got a whole in his new jean-shorts. Ouch!

Like I told Justin, the good part about walking uphill, is that you eventually get to walk back down. We walked downhill all the way back to the ship with a brief stop for gelato and a little shopping. We got back on the boat around 4pm.

We had a grown-up dinner tonight in Palo's again and we all had fun hearing about each other's adventures. I have to say I was glad I didn't take the bus when Kent & Pi described how bad the roads were and how everyone was getting motion sickness! Other than the ride, they enjoyed their tour, too.

Tomorrow, we will be in Villefranche, France and Monte Carlo. It's hard to believe this is our last port of call already! We are all really looking forward to it. Next, we'll have a day and sea and then back to Barcelona.