Cruise Day 9: Ajaccio (Corsica)

Today was to be the start of the more leisurely days. No more hurrying to get on a train, see a site, and then get back to the ship with enough time to be safe. Instead, we were just going to go to a beach. So, we slept a bit late, and just got to breakfast before it closed.
May 23

Today was to be the start of the more leisurely days. No more hurrying to get on a train, see a site, and then get back to the ship with enough time to be safe. Instead, we were just going to go to a beach. So, we slept a bit late, and just got to breakfast before it closed.

Again, we had breakfast at Lumiere's, and again I had the eggs benedict. I have to say, they've got the cooking of the eggs nailed. Each time, the eggs have been perfect, not overcooked and semi-solid, and not undercooked with runny whites.

Ajaccio, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

We'd intended to go to Tahiti beach. According to the Lonely Planet, it was 5km east of town, via the #1 bus, and the bus terminal was the same building as the port terminal. Well, the bus terminal didn't handle the city buses, but we found out we could pick it up a couple blocks uphill. So, we walked up there and found a bus stop for bus #1. We waited about 10 minutes, but no bus came. It was Sunday, so we thought they might be on a reduced schedule. We did notice in a tourist pamphlet that we'd picked up that there were also several beaches right in town, and a string of them heading west. So we decided to check out the closest two, and if neither of those were good, we'd take a bus west to some that had good looking pictures in the brochure.

The first beach, right next to the castle was very rocky. Not huge rocks, but lots of fist sized ones right as you enter the water. There were a lot of people on this beach because it was very close, but it didn't look very inviting. We kept walking. The next beach had very coarse sand, but no stones. Partway down the beach, we ran into Lola (who Danny had met at the pool), and her friends Sky, Michelle, Lindsey, Anthony, John, Andrew, and ultra-pale Alex. They were in the process of sampling as many Corsican wines as they could (perhaps 12 bottles or so), and getting some sun. The weather was very nice - a hot sun but a cool breeze, and you could go in the cool water if you got too hot. We ended up staying there well into the afternoon.

The first beach in town, from Cruise 2010 - Ports

Some people in Lola's group got a bit hungry, so went to the grocery store across the street in search of bread and cheese. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, the grocery store closed around 1, and wouldn't open again until 8, and most of the other small shops had closed as well. They gave up, but Danny and I were getting hungry too, so we went looking for a restaurant I'd read about that sounded good. It turned out to be only open for dinner (as the guidebook said, but I hadn't noticed). We did find a bakery that was open, so we got a baguette to eat with the goat cheese we had.

On the way out of the port terminal, we'd seen some animals and farm equipment for a local agricultural fair. I thought we'd check out the building that also had some things in it to see if there was any food. It was full of yummy treats! Local farmers, most organic, were selling cheeses, meats, honeys, jams, perfumes, and wine. Everyone was offering samples, so we tried quite a few and ended up picking out a sheep cheese, some cured ham, and a jar of candied chestnuts.

In front of the boat, from Cruise 2010 - On the boat

It was late enough that the buffet was closed, so we got fruit plates at Goofy's Galley to accompany the bread, goat cheese, and one of our Spanish wines. We didn't need a lot, since we'd just had a fair number of samples, and dinner would be soon. After lunch, we hit the rain forest room for some relaxation. Danny got a good, hour long nap in the hot stone lounge chairs.

Tonight's dinner was at the Animator's Palette, and the theme was "Flavors of the Mediterranean". Danny tried one of the specialty drinks, rum with honey, lime and basil. It was interesting, but not quite what we were hoping for. A bar earlier in the trip had had a really interesting sounding basil drink, but whenever we went there, they were out of basil. For an appetizer, I had the fried soft shell crab and the Egyptian spinach soup. Danny had the same soup and the frisee salad. We both made a mistake. The soup was great, an interesting and spicy taste. But my crab was overbreaded, the breading wasn't crispy, and the crab was missing all but two legs. One other person at the table got the crab, and she was similarly disappointed. The frisee salad, contrary to its name, was mostly composed of iceberg lettuce. Another person at the table got a lentil appetizer, and its garnish had more frisee than Danny's salad. For the main course, we both got the lamb sirloin. Danny thought it was tough, compared to the wonderful lamb shank he'd had several nights before, but I thought it was fine. Someone else at the table really loved the spinach and filo pie, so we got a side order of that, and they were really good.

For dessert, I got the flourless chocolate cake and Danny got the Barcelona butterscotch sundae. The sundae was good, but my expectations were too high for the cake. One of the special desserts that I make myself is a flourless chocolate cake, and I was expecting the density of this one to match mine. Nope. They either cheated and put flour or a flour substitute in it, or whipped the daylights out of it. Oh well. By now I've learned not to expect too much from their chocolate or their cheesecake.

After a break, we hit Rockin' Bar D for the tail end of Disco 70s night and the regular DJing. Dance, dance, dance! Table 12 made a solid appearance, and the guy running the show put a hard hat on Danny and had him lead part of the YMCA dance on stage (even though Danny looked more like an architect in a suit and hardhat than a construction worker). Then it was time to run a quick load of laundry and head to bed. Fortunately, tomorrow was to be another late start, so a late night didn't hurt too much.