By the time I woke up on our first Saturday back in Veldhoven, Jeff had already made plans to leave. He had gotten a good taste of the good life skiing in Italy and I guess he decided he needed some more sunshine and good wine. The only requirement was somewhere warm, so Jeff started looking up all of the places that you can fly directly to from Eindhoven on one of the three cheap European airlines. Sardinia is a large island just south of Corsica and easily made the short list. Apparently all of the major European countries around the Mediterranean have claimed an island or two for themselves. Italy, of course has Sicily, but I wasn't familiar with this much bigger island to the north. In the end, the hotel sealed the deal.
This was the view from our room at dusk. We were so reminded of La Jolla with the sunsets and beautiful rocky shoreline. It had already been a long winter in Europe and it was only January!
So, since January was to be my training month and I was starting my monthly half marathon series in February, we spent one morning on a long flat sunny run up the coastline. Not surprisingly, Alghero is a resort community and was pretty dead when we were there. Jeff and I both enjoyed our runs followed by spa time and the most expensive pedicure I have ever had.
On day two we decided to see the countryside and drove across the island to Costa Smeralda. This area is newly developed for the jet-setting crowd who arrive via boat, park in the harbor and enjoy their home away from home. When we got there, it was completely deserted and we couldn't find anything open. So, that was a bit of a bust, but we learned that when we come back to this beautiful island, it should be summer (but before the Europeans are on vacation) and we should charter a sailboat and spend a week sailing around. This idea is right up there with Greece on my "Must return to Europe To Do List".
Yet another Italian church with the green and white marble striping on the exterior. I took this shot while driving by, so I don't know where we were exactly, but it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere in Sardinia?
The scenery was amazing! I even bought a photo book at the airport, which explains the lack of photos on this post. The beauty of this place is impossible to replicate.
Two interesting but unrelated memories of Sardinia involve bacon. When we arrived at the tiny airport, we had to drive a short while through the countryside before we arrived in town. On our way (while the camera was conveniently still packed away) we came across a HUGE PIG running around in the road. Pig probably is not the right word, since this girl was the size of a Shetland Pony!
Our favorite restaurant which we went to two of the three nights we were there had an amazing house wine served in a carafe and grilled mushrooms that absolutely had to have been fried in bacon grease. They were the best things that we have ever tasted and I promise you that the Italian waiter must surly have mis-translated "grilled" and "fried" because they were crispy and OMG delicious; just like you would expect mushrooms fried in bacon grease to be. And, they weren't your run of the mill button mushrooms either, but perhaps some delicacy truffle that our friendly sow was after earlier in the weekend? This will remain one of the memorable mysteries of our year in Europe!
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| Villa Las Tronas Hotel & Spa |
We flew to Alghero and splurged for one of the most enchanting hotels of our year. Alghero is on the north western coast and our hotel sat out on its own peninsula. Unfortunately, it was too cold to enjoy the outdoor pool overlooking the ocean, but we did indulge in the indoor pool and spa. We had a welcome bottle of Prosecco waiting for us in our room when we checked in and we would have been quite happy to never leave the property.
On day two we decided to see the countryside and drove across the island to Costa Smeralda. This area is newly developed for the jet-setting crowd who arrive via boat, park in the harbor and enjoy their home away from home. When we got there, it was completely deserted and we couldn't find anything open. So, that was a bit of a bust, but we learned that when we come back to this beautiful island, it should be summer (but before the Europeans are on vacation) and we should charter a sailboat and spend a week sailing around. This idea is right up there with Greece on my "Must return to Europe To Do List".
The scenery was amazing! I even bought a photo book at the airport, which explains the lack of photos on this post. The beauty of this place is impossible to replicate.
Two interesting but unrelated memories of Sardinia involve bacon. When we arrived at the tiny airport, we had to drive a short while through the countryside before we arrived in town. On our way (while the camera was conveniently still packed away) we came across a HUGE PIG running around in the road. Pig probably is not the right word, since this girl was the size of a Shetland Pony!Our favorite restaurant which we went to two of the three nights we were there had an amazing house wine served in a carafe and grilled mushrooms that absolutely had to have been fried in bacon grease. They were the best things that we have ever tasted and I promise you that the Italian waiter must surly have mis-translated "grilled" and "fried" because they were crispy and OMG delicious; just like you would expect mushrooms fried in bacon grease to be. And, they weren't your run of the mill button mushrooms either, but perhaps some delicacy truffle that our friendly sow was after earlier in the weekend? This will remain one of the memorable mysteries of our year in Europe!
