Vacation trip to Corsica island, May 2005

In early spring 2005, we decided to see Corsica island in spring, before the tourists invasion. For some odd reason, the island seems to get flooded by tourists in middle of june through end of August. The other weeks of the year, you are there all alone.

We drove there in mid May, and found an unforgettable sea of flowers. On the way south through Italy we stopped by the area of the Cinque Terre, also for a first impression from there. From the port of Livorno, we set over to the island on a aged vessel of the Corsica Ferries company, and arrived at the islands Bastia port, from where we continued to the village of Erbalunga just north of Bastia.

 [  Map  ]  [  Photoalbum Cap Corse  ]

For the first few days we made some excursions to and around Cap Corse from our base at Erbalunga.

The Genovese tower at Erbalunga's small port is one of the main attractions of this small fishing village. As this was the first time we visited Corsica island, we decided to concentrate on the northern half. This part has the highest mountains, plenty of lonely beach areas and, of course, the CFC - Chemins der Fer de la Corse - a company that built an alpine railroad line across the island's rugged mountains. Not a bad choice we found, and it turned out to be a very sensible one too. It allowed for enough railfanning, hiking, bicycling and relaxing.
All in all a perfect choice for a short holiday.

 [  Map  ]  [  Photoalbum Cap Corse  ]

The next Section brought us to the Balagne area, where beaches and well hidden villages in the mountains are the main attractions. We stayed at Ile Rousse, which promised to be more of a small town than Calvi, and more promising than some of the more or less sterile holiday resorts that have been built lately along the coast between the two towns.

An amazing feeling to have lunch in a harbour restaurant at Calvi, with the snow-capped mountains of the island as backdrop. And the food is as good as always in Corsica.

 [  Map  ]  [  Photoalbum Tramway de la Balagne  ]  [  Photoalbum Balagne  ] 

Then we moved on to the mountainous area of central Corsica, to the university town of Corte.

From here, we made a few excursions by train, but also some bycicle trips. A very impressive trip is the dowhill part from the Col de Vergio down to the village of Porto. The altitude of the Col is 1477 Meters, and Porto is by the sea.

 [  Map  ]  [  Photoalbum Corte  ]  [  Photoalbum Porto  ] 

The last few days on the island we spent in Ajaccio. That is a lively town with a nice harbor, and plenty of shopping opportunity. We were lucky enough to see a regatta week of vintage sailing ships in he harbor. Real beautiful sight to see them manoevre in he bay.

The way home from Nice was also a bit special. We followed the route across across several steep mountain passes and finally over Tenda pass to Cuneo in Italy, and immediately on up the St Bernard pass across the southern Alps into Switzerland. Shortly after the border, we decided to sleep in the car (we have a camper car, so sleeping in it is comfortable enough) and continue the road only after a hearty breakfast next mourning.