Thursday, June 21, 2007

Olbia, Sardinia

Hello, Jeff here again. First of all, to Kay, DriveAmalfi doesn’t have a web site – well it does but it just says “Under Construction”. To reach Salvatore, send an email to info@driveamalfi.com.

Today’s report is on the port of Olbia, Sardinia. Sardinia is an island that lies between Italy, Spain and Tunisia, south of Corsica. Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). Olbia has a population of just under 50,000 people. From the port of Olbia, we took the Disney tour called Panoramic Tour of La Maddalena. Here’s Katy’s take on it.

Katy here. Olbia was probably the most boring tour I’ve been on so far, and by the looks of it, I wasn’t the only one. My mom and I slept on most of the drive to the ferry that would take us to La Maddalena. We didn’t miss much from the tour guide Robert. All he seemed to be doing was pointing out granite and various plant life. He even got all excited about a heron - big deal. We see those all the time in Alabama. His two favorite words to say were “Look!” and “Okay”. He would point something out and say something like: “LOOK! That over there is the French Quarry. LOOK! That is where they mined the granite for the base of the Statue of Liberty. LOOK! You can see it over to your left now. LOOK!” If I kept tally of how many times he said those two words in 5 minutes….it’d probably be like 100 times. He was nice though, and he did have a couple funny moments like when he said “Italians…. They park wherever they stop”.

Anywhos… after reaching La Maddalena, we got a free gelato. We met some people from Mobile, Alabama who let us cut in front of them in line because Mom just HAD to go to the restroom before getting in line for the gelato, and by the time we got back, the line was super long. Afterwards we wandered about a little, and the parents then decided that they wanted ANOTHER gelato (Crazy peoples). There was nothing very exciting about the walk around the shops and such. So we got back on the ferry and then back on the bus. On the way back to the port, we watched a couple of the little informational video things that the Disney Cruise had done about our next port, Civitavecchia and then a couple cute little Disney cartoons. And of course, I slept some more. (I was very tired, I couldn’t help it). Now back to Dad with all the information that I slept through!

Jeff here. Actually, Katy pretty much covered it. The tour wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly memorable either. I did find it interesting that Sardinians don't have a trespass law. In fact, property owners must allow citizens access to their property to hunt wild boar and gather foodstuffs. Of course, this tour had a tough act to follow after the amazing scenery we’d seen the day before on the Amalfi Coast drive. After returning to the ship, we decided we’d try to do some laundry as we were all down to our last pair of clean underwear. Unfortunately, it seemed everyone else on the ship had the same idea. We checked all the laundrys and they all had waits. Susan toughed it out though and waited for her turn and was able to get all our laundry taken care of. Thanks dear!

We freshened up and then went to see “The Art of the Story” show in the Walt Disney Theatre. Katy thought it was OK, Susan and I liked it a bit better. Katy correctly points out that some of it was a bit “cheesy” and some of the performances were only so-so but considering what they have to work with, it was good.

Dinner was in Lumieres and it was fantastic. Whatever problems Disney might have had in their kitchen have definitely been worked out. The service is excellent and the quality and presentation of the food has been top notch. We turned in after dinner knowing we’d have to get up early for our 7:45 am departure on our private tour of Rome.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Katy! I did not like that tour either! Get some rest so the tour of Rome will be better!!
Love you, Granny

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeff!
To answer your question...NO...no one is reading this blog. I've been visiting it hundreds of times a day just to get your counter up and make you feel better (slow week) :-)))

Sounds like you're having a great time. The pictures are awesome. I'm jealous.

See if you can meet my friend Carol Beason and tell her hi for me and that the heat and humidity of Houston awaits her return.

Have fun!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Katy, you did a great job, and very truthful. Waiting to hear from you again.
Love Marilyn & Danny

Anonymous said...

Nice pages Jeff!
I am trying to figure out how to start a blog of my own. I did a Google search but did not come up with the blogspot.com url. Only blogger.com.

Can you help me?
My email is:
jcolson7@tampabay.rr.com
Thank you,

Jack (Smillingjack)

smillingjack said...

Jeff I just signed up I think!

Unknown said...

hi... i am renata, i am a tour guide who worked with disney on the first six cruises... i am sorry your tour was not exciting- sardinia has a lot of great things to see, and i hope you will one day come back and enjoy the island! love reading the blogs, as they reveal a lot about how tours can be done better. i have to mention that my guests on the historic train trip were VERY happy, at least they said so :-)

Anonymous said...

DriveAmalfi's Website is WWW.driveamalfi.com and although it is under construction you can still e-mail via the website at info@driveamalfi.com

Jesolo hotels said...

I wish you next time to choose a more captivating tour ;)

Sardinia Hotel Selection said...

Two thumbs up for this fine review. Glad to know you had a great time during your visit to Sardinia.