Sardinia, Italy

I’m back to the blog after our four week travel hiatus. The weekend after our wonderful week in Spain, we had Sarah, Kevin and Cole back with us in London after their cruise through the Med. They were exhausted and it was cold and rainy here so we were all happy to hang out in the flat playing games and playing with Cole the whole time. We did venture out to browse the shops in Ealing and we drove to Windsor Castle. Sarah and I didn’t think it was possible but we managed to lose every cribbage game we played against the guys.

We were very sad to see them go at the end of May; they were the last of our steady string of visitors until September. It took me a few weeks to get over it.

Over the past three weeks, John has been playing hockey, including a tournament in the Isle of Wight, we started our summer league of Ultimate Frisbee and our team is doing well so far, I ran a 5km for Cancer (slowly, but I did it!), with the help and hard work of John’s Dad we found new tenants for our basement suite in Vancouver, we visited Hampton Court Palace, and hit up several pubs throughout London with our friends. Pics of our recent London activities are on the website in the London 2006/07 set...

Last year, when we were doing research on moving to London and possible traveling opportunities, we came across a water sports all inclusive getaway in Sardinia, Italy on http://www.activitybreaks.com/. It looked like the perfect trip for us; fun in the sun (and water). Back in April, together with Andrew and Jess, we tried to get into a beach Ultimate tournament in Portugal for the weekend of June 23rd and 24th. We didn’t get in so instead we booked the Sardinia activity break. We took the Friday and Monday off to make it a nice long weekend.

We left our place at 3:00a.m. last Friday morning to pick up A&J and head to Stansted airport for our 6:15 departure. It had been (and still is) cold and rainy in London so we were all looking forward to the sun and heat of Sardinia. Sardinia is an Italian island in the Mediterranean, just south of the French island of Corsica. The island is hot, rugged and dry with beautiful beaches and rocky coastlines. We flew into Alghero, on the west side of the island and then drove our rental car two hours to the east side of the island where we were staying. (John had a much easier time driving compared to Sorrento, Italy).

We stayed just outside the small coastal town of Santa Lucia in a big group campground, called Amfibi Treks, owned and run by a Dutch family. Our accommodation consisted of a tent and mattress (we brought sleeping bags), toilets and showers were outside, as was the big group dining area. There was a bar and games area, and a place to snooze in hammocks known as “chill hill”. About a 5 minute walk away was the beach with snorkel gear, windsurfers, kayaks and beach umbrellas included for our use. Our friend Denise said it sounded like Club Med but with Canadian National Parks bathrooms – that’s about right.

We had just missed lunch when we arrived so after moving into our tents we found a little restaurant and had some good Italian fare in Santa Lucia. We were all moving very slowly, partly due to the lack of sleep and partly due to the heat. It was over 30 degrees and sunny every day! Then we headed straight to the beach. John and I don’t always shy away from the sun as we should so it was good to have some Aussie influence to make sure we had plenty of shade and plenty of sunscreen. The Amfibi gear hut on the beach supplied us with umbrellas, and as we set up our little lounging area, Jess and I started singing Rihanna’s new song, Umbrella (pronounced in the song as umbarella). That became our song of the weekend. I don’t think it ever left our brains. I’m still singing it now back in London but for different reasons; to quote the song “now that it’s raining more than ever”.

The boys went straight out on the windsurfers while Jess and I lounged and read. Jess devours books and has given me many good recommendations. For John’s birthday she gave him Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I read it during the trip and loved it. Thanks Jess! It was an awesome read. I highly recommend. We all went for a long, late afternoon swim in the Med. I LOVE swimming the Mediterranean. It was so warm and blue and clear. I was in heaven.

Back at the camp, we met up at the bar for Happy Hour and free drinks. We befriended a fun Brit named Andy who was there on his own. He was having a “rediscover windsurfing” weekend away from his wife and three kids.

Given that it was the end of the school year, the camp was filled with a bunch of 16 year olds on a school trip. We had a great time observing them; the suave Italian boys with perfect hair and stylish clothes, and the girls with their outfit coordination, one night seemed to be frilly skirt night, the other short shorts night. Man, those girls sure could move their hips on the dance floor! Their teacher was a huge, solid, bald, tanned former professional rugby player, who wore blue Crocks. Jess and I thought he looked like a pirate.

Friday night was limbo competition night at the bar, organized by one of the Dutch windsurfing employees with dreadlocks. John, Andrew and I entered. I guess John was a bit of a limbo pro back in the day. He was focused but had some stiff competition, including a few young boys who had a definite height advantage (they were short), and the school girls who seemed to have been born without spines (they were bendy). John made it the top ten but in the end a girl with very big hair took the victory and all John got was a sore back. We were all reassured to know that John is not built like a 16 year old Italian school girl – a fact we celebrated with several beers.

We were all in rough shape Saturday morning but we made it up for the 8:00 breakfast call. Then we went straight to the beach and under our umbarellas for a nap. We spent the day there; reading, windsurfing, snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, throwing the disc, chatting, backgammoning, snoozing. We didn’t even have to walk back to camp for lunch; it came to us. We knew that there was a lot to see and explore on the island but we were content just to relax and enjoy the heat and the beach.

We had happy hour at the outdoor bar again and John and Andrew played some darts. After dinner we set up at a table in the bar area and played diminishing whist. We taught Andy the Brit how to play and he did very well. Saturday night was Disco night at the bar so, in addition to playing cards, we were further entertained by the dynamics of the 16 year olds dancing and mingling on the dance floor.

Sunday was more of the same at the beach but it was much windier. By the afternoon they had to bring the windsurfers and sailboats in and our umbarella kept blowing away. We cut the beach day short as a result. A&J went back to camp for some hammock time and John and I walked into town for some very delicious gelato. We then set up at Chill Hill for some reading and snooze time.

I guess the Italian school kids partied a bit too hard on Saturday night so they were under strict orders from the Pirate to be well behaved on Sunday night. That made it a lot easier for us to access the beer boat at happy hour. Jess and I read while the boys began the Sardinian Heptathlon. It consisted of ping pong, darts, pool, backgammon, cribbage, pentago, and foosball. The heptathlon turned into a quadathlon because Andrew went undefeated in the first four matches. Too bad limbo wasn’t one of the sports. We ended our last night in Sardinia with a few rounds of diminishing whist and a rousing discussion of time travel theory.

We all wanted a few more days of relaxing beach time so it was tough to get packed up on Monday morning. We decided to leave in good time so we could see more of the island before going to the airport. Andrew scoured the guide book and found us an amazing historical site to visit which was on our route, Nuraghe Santu Antine. It was a stone complex built in 16th century BC (3500 years ago!), consisting of a central palace/fortress and remnants of a surrounding village. We saw several conical stone fortress things across the island but this was much larger. We had so much fun exploring all of the well preserved passageways. Inside the main tower were two domed rooms on top of each other and a stair case spiraled around the outside leading to the top where another domed room used to be. It was so impressive! The site was in the interior of the island and it was very hot and dry. I loved the feeling of the hot wind on my face.

The drive from there back to Alghero was picturesque. We would have liked more time to explore the sites of Alghero; it has Spanish, Catalan and Italian influences. Unfortunately, all we had time to do was devour an amazing Italian lunch before heading to the airport. We frantically managed to fill the car with gas; all of the stations were closed for siesta so we had to make out the Italian auto pay instructions at the pump. It would have been funnier if we weren’t so tight on time.

We made it back to London with no problems, we just missed some severe London traffic jams on the drive home, and then A&J treated us to our first dinner of Portuguese chicken.

Our weekends away are usually go go go, so it was nice to have one that was slower paced. The highlight was being outside all of the time, in the fresh warm air. Another excellent trip. Thanks for the great company A&J!

It’s now been a year since we moved out of our house, finished work in Vancouver and left for Manitoba for our summer at the lake. Wow, how time flies! Last night (Friday, June 29th) we went to Canada Day in London at Trafalgar square. We had some Moosehead beer, took in some Canadian music, and scanned the crowds for familiar faces. The highlight for me was meeting Tanya Kim from CTV’s E Talk! She was emceeing the event and in town for the Princess Diana concert tomorrow. Today, John is away at a hockey tournament in Swindon and I’m at home, free to blog away.