Claude on the road

Epilogue

Claude — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:14:05 +0000

Just wanted to let you know, that I just started uploading some of the photos I took to flickr. I don’t have the time to upload them all at once (well, I just can’t upload them with at least some minor post-processing…), so give me a few days…

Local food – extra edition

Claude — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:44:34 +0000

Who said there’s nothing blogworthy in Ulm? Far from…

See below for the delicious dinner I had tonight, cooked to perfection by HP Consulting :-)

That’s it…

Claude — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:29:09 +0000

I’m back in good ol Germany – spent the last Night in Wasserburg / Bodensee (and the night before in Alessandria). As I don’t think that the next days will bring up anything blogworthy, I’d say that this will be more or less my last post here (maybe I’ll find another purpose for this blog but I doubt that…).

Schee wars :-)

Piece of cake…

Claude — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:51:22 +0000

… or even less than that in fact – a piece of cake can make you sick far more easily than this ferry trip could ever do… The sea was completely flat -even in my bathtub the conditions are sometimes rougher ;-)

Wow

Claude — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:17:09 +0000

I’m not sure how I got this front fow seat but for the moment I find it quite cool. It’s actually not “a” front row seat but the center seat in the very first row giving me a panoramic view. I just wonder, is this the worst (as in cinema) or the best seat of the ship. Guess I will find out sooner rather than later… Meanwhile I’m keeping all available fingers crossed (rendering it quite difficult to type this text :-) that the sea will stay calm this time…

This is the end my friend…

Claude — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:38:15 +0000

Well this will be my last day on La Corse :-( Tomorrow at 11:30 I will board the ferry which will bring me back on the continent (to Nice to be more specific) and I’m actually looking forward to seing the Côte d’Azur again. Let’s just hope, the sea will stay calmer this time. Keep your fingers crossed – all of you, I mean it!

Still I’ve got – literally – a long way to go. I plan to be in Ulm on 23rd or 24th – depending on the hospitality I find ;-) And I still have to decide whether I’ll drive through France or go via Italy / Austria to avoid the Swiss’ toll thing.

For your viewing pleasures, here are a few shots from the last days. Finally a PC with a (working) card reader…

Oh, BTW: Yesterday I catched my obligatory wasp – “catched” as in “trapped under my t-shirt while riding my bike – ouch.

Oh and before I forget – see below for the latest installment of our successful “local food” series. Now this is not so much a “Produit Corse” as the others, I know. But as far as breakfast is concerned, the Corsicans are as french as it gets - without at least a Baguette under your arm in the morning, you can be immediatelly identified as tourist…

Windy

Claude — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:08:50 +0000

Today was windy – very windy. This provided an extra rush of adrenalin, for water sports enthusiasts and motor cyclists all the same. Especially on the coastal roads it’s actually quite frightening when you realize that it’s not you alone anymore who decides on the exact angle for the next turn…
I originally intended to go kayaking into the Scandalo national park. See below what convinced me that today was probably not the right day. Maybe tomorrow…
Instead I visited La Laverie later today, which is – sadly – NOT the hottest night club in Town but the local laundry (hot nevertheless). Reminded me of my laundry days in Munich – laundries seem to always attract strange people, no matter in which part of the world…

Hiking again…

Claude — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:52:57 +0000

Not too much to say about today; 12km, 600m up, 4:45h – so much for the hard facts. I spend the whole day in the Vallée de la Restonica national park. I hiked on a beautiful trail to the even more beautiful high altitude lakes Lac de Melu and Lac de Capitellu. Although I actually don’t really know if “hiking” is the correct term – I spend the larger part of this trip on all of my four available limbs!

View Larger Map

Wished I could show you some snaps but although this PC here actually has a card reader it doesn’t let me access it :-( So all I have is this one from my iPhone. Just one comment to the photo: when I took it, I was aware of the black bird in the foreground but NOT of the spooky guy in the back. What a view…

Change!

Claude — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:05:37 +0000

My ride today has been the best of my whole vacation so far – the Alps can’t compete with that one (and not just because it did not rain today…). Although only a distance of about 170km many parts of my body (including quite a few I do not want to explicitely mention here) hurt a lot – my wrists and butt suffering the most… To give said parts some time to recover, tomorrow is hiking time again. This time in the (supposedly very beautiful) Vallée de la Restonica.

View Larger Map

Some of you might wonder why I’m still in Corsica and not already in Sardinia. Some might also wonder why I’m heading north while my planned route should take me south instead. And others might even more wonder what the obamaesque headline is all about… Rightly so…

Well, I figured I like it so much here in La Corse and there are a few things more I would like to do here. So I did to my plan what’s always done to good plans – I changed it! I cancelled my other two ferry trips and I’m now taking a ferry from Calvi to Nice on the 21st (of course I’ll still be in time for the Isar BBQ, don’t worry :-), spending the rest of my days (that is “rest of my days of my vacation” of course) in Galeria, Calvi and here in the hinterlands.

Local food, pt. 3

Claude — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:15:06 +0000

As a small reward for successfully repairing my bike I set out to finally get some fast food after all. But, alas, there’s no single Mc Donald’s or BK anywhere on the island – trust me, I googled…

So I went for the only sensible alternative - Quick - the French Mc Donald’s clone. I would think that this certainly qualifies as local food as well…