Alghero

November 3, 2023

Waiting out Storm Ciaran

A weather update: when we woke up, rain showers were forecast in Alghero for throughout the day, but not all day. The winds were still high, but less wild than yesterday.

We set ourselves very few goals for our layover here. We’d do a bit of planning, exploring, and resting.

First off, we did some planning. We’ve decided to head inland for a couple of days. That’ll give us a tailwind going uphill, which we surely deserve. Secondly, we hope the winds will have abated even more in a couple of days and we can enjoy cycling the spectacular coast down to Bosa in good weather. Being inland will also let us stay at an agriturismo, which was one of my goals for the trip.

Planning complete, we visited a bike shop around the corner to buy a patch kit as insurance. The proprietor reported that Alghero hosted the start of stage 1 of the Giro d’Italia in 2017. The pros biked to Olbia in one day, and it took us four. They don’t get to stop for gelato, poor things. I tightened the screws on my bike saddle. Fingers crossed that will end the awful creaking I’ve been subjected to lately.

Biking-related chores complete, we visited a coffee shop. This is the first accommodation we’ve had that hadn’t served us breakfast. But at a total of 73 euros for 2 nights, we’re not complaining. We had fun watching a cute wee kid with his Spider-Man figurine, hanging out with his Dad. He was obviously a local, being greeted by several people who came into the shop. We ordered cornettos and witnessed a miracle - they used a countertop injection machine to add the jam, pistachio cream, or Nutella to a plain cornetto. Why are we not using these amazing devices in Canada???

Then it was off to the grocery store to pick up items for dinner. Even a small chain store had an amazing fish display.

Following grocery drop off, we walked along the shore and explored the massive marina with boats of all shapes and sizes. There were a few people checking that boats hadn’t been damaged by the wind. We didn’t see any catastrophes, just a few flapping bits and bobs. The fishing fleet was all tied up today. Good thing, since waves were still crashing over the breakwater.

We also visited the local indoor market. It was small and unspectacular. Just a few vendors: fish, fruit, and local packaged ingredients like pasta and oil.

Cardoons for sale. We saw fields of them a few days ago.

Amazing fish display in a small grocery store.

Commemorating the Giro staring here in 2017, the 100th anniversary of the first Giro.

Some of the boats won’t be going anywhere soon.

We went back to the to old town in hopes of a gelato. But the amazing looking place we had spied yesterday was closed, so we wandered in search of beer. Instead, we found a porchetta sandwich shop. Oh my. SO. GOOD. Perfect pork on perfect bread. Rain started just after we’d ordered our lunch in the tiny shop, so we couldn’t sit outside on their bench. We shared the single stool inside.

Our bellies full (and with leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch), we had restful afternoon of reading and napping. Then we went out for gelato despite the rainy cool weather. Our target gelateria was still not open, so we settled on another one which was very good. Sue had pine nut gelato, which was unusual, delicious and definitely worth repeating. We had an at-home dinner of prosciutto, cheese, olives, and a caprese salad in the shared kitchen of our accommodation, then sat inside listening to the wind, rain, and occasional thunder.

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