Sardinia

The trip was better than we hoped for. RyanAir has some pretty incredible deals on flights, so the whole deal cost around 500 Euros for the two of us - including the plane ticket, renting a car, food, and the B&B. The funny thing is it cost as much for the two of us to travel from Eindhoven to Goor (about two hours by train) as it did to travel all the way from Eindhoven to Sardinia. Something seems strange about that...

Corsica.

One of the main streets in Bosa.

The castle staircase of Bosa.

We disembarked the plane to mild weather and a setting sun. Everything went smoothly in getting to the B&B in Alghero and our host, Mario, was most gracious. After a quick stroll to the old city, we sat down at a pizzeria complete with a brick oven (fairly standard). The food was delicious (we ended up eating pizza at almost every meal) and there was plenty left for lunch the next day.

We woke to an overcast morning. After a huge breakfast, Mario suggested we check out the nearby caves to the North. I guess they were quite impressive. Unfortunately we never got to see them as they were closed for some unknown reason. Instead, we had a nice walk along a rugged coastline and wandered over to an old guard tower. The island was heavily defended; reminders of a distant era spotted the shores.

Inside of Alghero's cathedral with a brilliant,
multicolored roof on the dome.

All the shop owners sweep their part of Alghero's streets.

Alghero's coastline looking toward Bosa. 

We headed back though Alghero to follow a road that twisted through the mountains that rose from the sea to the south of Alghero. Our destination was the sleepy town of Bosa. The structures were centuries old and a formidable castle ruled over the city-scape. The castle was closed, just like the caves, but we snuck around the fence anyway. As far as castles go, it did not seem all that impressive, so we walked through the old city and made our way down to the river for some ice cream. The coastal road was the most impressive part of this day especially as there was almost no traffic. So we took it back to Alghero to find some more Italian cuisine.

Giant guard tower in downtown Alghero.

The developed side of Castelsardo.

Italian Chopper.

The night cleared away all of the clouds and we awoke to a beautiful day. We spent the morning touring the old part of Alghero. It is a beautiful city. After a few hours we hopped in the car and headed up to the North coast. We did not have a particular destination in mind, but discovered it when we came upon a town called Castlesardo. It was incredible. Built upon a huge rock formation that towered above the surf, this ancient town must have been incredibly difficult to construct - but easy to defend. It had a nice little harbor and, as the name implies, an impressive castle wall towering above the landscape. We had a wonderful time exploring the tiny, shaded  streets and staircases that seemed to randomly explode into sunny vistas of the sea.

The undeveloped side of Castlesardo.

Castelsardo's fortress from the sea.

Castelsardo's church.

That night we returned to Alghero for the sunset and while Naomi was shopping for some clothes, I stumbled into a nice little jewelry shop. As we had planned to begin looking for wedding rings when we returned to the Netherlands, I figured we might as well get started a couple days early. I collected Naomi and we returned. The mom&pop who owned the place did not speak any English, but they referred us to their son who seemed to do much of the work. He was an extremely nice guy by the name of Daniel, quite helpful but not pushy, who answered all our questions. He made the rings himself. He brought us to the workshop and resized the ones we liked - a rose gold. As they were trying to close down the shop for the night, we explained that we would sleep on it and come back the next morning if we wanted to buy them.

Alghero's marina.

Engraving the rings.

Alghero by night.

Sleep we did. After yet another pizza. The next day was again beautiful, and we had made the decision for the rings. We returned to the shop where Daniel had them ready and waiting - polished perfectly. His dad did the engraving. He even engraved Naomi's engagement ring. Very nice guy as well. We walked out smiling and quite surprised at this major purchase.

The flight back to the cloudy country afforded us another incredible view of the Alps. Sometime soon we will need to visit them. Naomi's dad picked us up at the airport and after a short visit we hopped on a train to her mother's place on the East side. We had a busy time buying clothes for the wedding - everyone got something and we picked out my suit! The shirt is being custom made so I will need to return in six weeks or so to have everything finalized. It will be good to finally own a suit!

Friday morning we stopped by a second hand shop and got an amazing deal on picture frames. 11 nice frames from an 8x10" to something like 30x40" for only 50 Euros! We will need to order a mat cutter so that we can really get into this photography hobby of ours.

We met a friend for dinner in Utrecht on the way home. The timing worked out nicely as she goes to Michigan and is only here visiting her family for spring break. We finally made it home around 9 and after unpacking, crashed. We sure need this weekend to recover from our vacation!