Golfo di Orosei - Part II

The next top was Cala Mariolu and during the boat ride the beauty continued. We even passed a number of tiny coves where people with small boats or kayaks simply staked claim to their own private spot for the day.

Cala Mariolu was another small beach only accessible by sea. The landscape was slightly different, but it was equally tranquil. As with our previous beach stop, we took full advantage of our two hour visit with a lot of swimming, reading and eating.



















I even took a picture from our spot on the beach and the picture turned out to be nearly identical to one on a postcard in the hotel…

The final beach stop was Cala Luna, which was on the way back towards Cala Gonone. Before heading back, however, the boat took us further south to Cala Goloritzé. The beach is surrounded by some beautiful rock formations, which allowed for some nice pictures.




















Cala Luna was by far the most populated beach of the three, but was nonetheless still very nice and perhaps my favorite for swimming. And we were fortunate in that the majority of the crowd left shortly after we arrived. The only major change in terms of what we did during our final beach visit was the absence of food, which we had finished at Cala Mariolu.





























The boat picked us up shortly before 7pm and we were back at Cala Gonone within an hour. The ride back was nice, though we were definitely ready for a return to the hotel after an exhausting day of relaxation. Here are some pictures taken along the way.










For dinner we walked back down to the harbor and picked a restaurant that tied in well with our visit from earlier in the day – the Bue Marino. During the walk I forced Emilie into the following picture in order to celebrate her heritage.

We had calamari for the starter, followed by lobster and spider crab spaghetti for the main course. The spaghetti was very good, but you definitely had to earn it (I felt like I was a surgeon given all the tools that came with the meal). And somehow we managed to not completely ruin our clothes despite all the sawing that was taking place.

Golfo di Orosei - Part I

On Sunday we took a full-day boat tour of the Golfo di Orosei. The tour included three beach stops (Cala Biriola, Cala Mariolu and Cala Luna – with a couple of hours at each) as well as a tour of one of the largest sea caves on the island (the Grotta del Bue Marino). Through the hotel we were able to get a full picnic-style lunch to take with us, which worked out perfectly since there weren’t any places to get food on the beaches otherwise.

The boat probably could have accommodated 60 people, but there were only about 30 on board including the crew. Here are some photos of Cala Godone from sea.










As we made our way south, we had unobstructed views of the pristine coastline that is largely inaccessible except by sea. The combination of the beautiful blue water, the scattered secluded beaches and the countless sea caves was incredible.





























Our first stop was the Grotta del Bue Marino (cave of the sea cow). According to our guide, the total length of the cave is 17km and it used to be a favorite spot of the native monk seals.

The tour only took us 1km into the cave, but it was nonetheless a pretty incredible experience. You basically felt like you were in a scene from The Count of Monte Cristo. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take any pictures (“copyright reasons”) but trust me that it’s definitely worth a visit. Here’s one photo that I was able to track down online.

There were three main areas of the cave section that we toured, and they were named after their physical features: the organ pipes room, the candle room and the mirrors room. I liked the mirror room in particular as the water literally reflected everything like a mirror.

Next we headed to our first beach stop – Cala Biriola. Here are some pictures taken along the way. The scenery and the color of the water were beautiful.




























Cala Biriola is a small cove accessible only by sea. The captain effectively beached the boat so we could get off and then left us behind. Fortunately, the secluded beach was a nice place to be stranded for a couple of hours.










Emilie and I quickly found a spot and set up our gear (umbrella, towels, etc.) steps from the water.



















For the most part we just ate, read and swam, and before we knew it, the boat was back to pick us up for the next stop.

Welcome to Paradise

The flight from Geneva to Sardinia is just over an hour and it seemed like we were already starting our descent before the flight attendants had even finished with the beverage service. As we passed over Corsica and then the Costa Smerelda (Emerald Coast) of Northern Sardinia, I new that we had picked the right spot for a couple of days of relaxation. Everything was beautiful.

By the time we picked up the rental car it was only 8am and we were ready to make the drive down to Cala Gonone from Olbia. The drive took us down the eastern side of Sardinia and the geography reminded me a lot of certain areas in Southern / Baja California – very arid and almost desert-like at times. But there were also small mountains and the coastal areas consisted primarily of cliffs with little direct accessibility to the beach.

After roughly two hours on the road, we finally arrived at our hotel. It was a very nice resort-style setup that was a 10 minute walk from the beach. The rooms were basically bungalows with private entrances and we had a nice spot facing the main pool.

After getting settled, we decided to head to the beach and stop for a quick lunch along the way. Here’s a photo of the view from our table at the restaurant.

The food was good, but all we could think about was the beach. As a result, we rushed through lunch so we could let the true relaxation begin.

Once we were at the beach, we absolutely collapsed. The combination of the early flight and the airport madness definitely took its toll. And for the next seven hours we more or less just slept, read and swam in various iterations.



















The weather was perfect – sunny and warm. And when it got too warm, we simply cooled off in the water or took advantage of the complementary umbrella from the hotel.

In a few respects, the beach reminded me a bit of the Cote d’Azur in France. First, the beach was rocky. This isn’t really my preferences, but given how nice it was I couldn’t complain (aside from the misc. stubbed toe here and there). Second, there were far too many middle-aged (and over) women who were far too comfortable with their bodies. I’m not sure where specifically the line for wearing bikinis / going topless should be drawn, but I’m pretty sure that there should be a line somewhere…

After we reached our beach saturation point for the day, we headed back up to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. Here are some pictures that I took during the walk back.










For dinner we ate in the heart of the port area of Cala Gonone. Since we hadn’t made a reservation, we unfortunately weren’t able to get a table outside. But the atmosphere in the restaurant was very nice and the food was good as well. The only problem was that there was a too much food. While we had ordered both a primi and a secondi, we didn’t expect both courses to effectively be main courses. Thankfully we had a nice walk back to the hotel to partially make up for our gluttony.

Final Boarding...

We arrived at Geneva airport at 5:00am for our 6:15am flight to Sardinia. Typically this is sufficient advance time (at least based on Emilie’s arrival preferences – see my final post from Nice) and we figured that the early hour of our departure would reduce the check-in time required.

It turned out that we were wrong…very wrong. Upon entering the terminal there was a line for the Easyjet check-in that rivaled the worst Southwest Airlines queues at LAX. It seems that all of Western Switzerland was apparently departing early on Saturday morning…

Panic (at least for me) immediately set in. If we missed our flight, we were basically screwed. There was no back up flight or Plan B. If we weren’t able to get on the plane in time, then we’d be spending the holiday weekend at home while the nonrefundable cost of our flights and the hotel would simply add insult to injury.

As we struggled with the automated ticketing machine (it wouldn’t recognize any of my information), a warning was played over the loud speaker for our flight's final check-in, which apparently closed in five minutes. Yep, there was now no doubt that we were screwed. We didn’t even have our boarding pass and we still needed to check Emilie’s bag due to Easyjet’s hyper-restrictive carry-on rules. The queue alone would take 15 minutes.

And then a glimmer of hope came complements of the public address system: “Any passengers traveling to Lisbon or Olbia (Sardinia), please immediately go to check-in counter 1”. While that was the literal translation, I understood the underlying message:

For all of you unprepared and inconsiderate passengers who didn’t take the time to arrive early enough to check in properly, we are going to bail you out for no good reason and let you cut in front of all the respectful travelers who thoughtfully made the commitment to arrive on time for their flights.

Though I hate being that guy, if it meant being able to get on my flight then so be it.

It turned out that the razor thin margin on our “timely” check-in was not the final hurdle as the security line held us up further. As each minute passed and the line crept along at a snail’s pace, I continued to fear the worst. With every unnecessary delay, my patience wore thinner and thinner (yes, sir, you DO have to take your lap top out of your bag…no ma’am, you CANNOT take a 12oz bottle of hair spray in your carry-on luggage…).

After finally getting through security, the sprint began. Though Geneva airport is not large by international airport standards, it still required a good five minute sprint-jog to get to our gate. And we made it. The plane was in the final stages of boarding, but it was still boarding thankfully. A few passengers even boarded behind us, but not many. We had about five minutes to spare. Had we not made it, I think I would have cried. Seriously.