Tonight we are set up in the parking area of the RV dealer in Cagliari. We had a couple of minor issues that have cropped up on François and the on line reviews of Dott Camper were very good, and they offered both rental cars and storage so it was the perfect fit for our plans.
The spine of Sardinia is very mountainous, so we made the decision to rent a car for a few days while we explored the mountains as it will be a lot easier in a small car, than in François. We are going to use a B&B in the mountains on our trip as a base and to get our mid- trip hotel break in. So being able to rent the car where we will store François killed 2 birds with one stone.
We have two minor issues with François, one was an annoyance rather than a problem, and the other one could become a problem if not fixed pretty quickly. When I showed the technician the problem he looked at it for a few minutes and then went to get the manager (who turned out to be the technicians father), they had a discussion in Italian for a couple of minutes, before the father looked at me and said in English we can fix it, and then took the offending part off and to the shop. About 20 minutes later the technician came back out and showed me their solution. It was simple and ingenious and solved the problem. The annoyance which is part of the bed frame they said also was no problem, but since we were leaving François with them they would wait until we were gone to work on it.
While the technician was working on François I went inside to have the office manager (the managers mother) fill out the rental car contract. She was a charming lady with limited English but was curious about our travels in Europe. When we went out to look at the car it had a couple of minor paint chips that I pointed out. She told me to take a video of them and send them to her. I couldn’t get a good internet connection so after several attempts to send her the video she looked at me and said I saw it, you saw it we are ok. I agreed and we moved on. Later the technicians grandfather came by and did a quality check of the grandsons work on the window frame. It is a real family business. Ton was so impressed that she kept asking me is there anything else we need to get fixed? But I couldn’t come up with anything.
Once we had the rental car we headed into town to take a look around. We ended up parking in a lot right next to the ferry dock we landed at last night. The climb up to the cathedral was quite steep, but when we got to the top we were rewarded with some nice views.
The cathedral was integrated into the old castle for the town. We visited a very spacious redoubt that had a good field of fire back towards the port area. (Sorry, the old infantryman comes out sometime.) In the past I imagine there would have been many cannons on the platform, but today it was full of tourists.
We didn’t spend too much time at the cathedral, but the architecture was very different than Sicily. It was less ornate, I mentioned earlier that the Rococo style didn’t appeal to me as it seemed too busy. So when faced with older more traditional architecture I was thinking where are all of the waves and intricate stone work. So maybe experiencing Rococo in person in Sicily gave me a better appreciation for it.
The building was still impressive, and Ton really liked the artwork above the three entrance doors to the Cathedral. We didn’t enter because there was a big tour group at the entrance.
We hadn’t had a proper meal in a couple of days so we had our first Sardinian meal. We had a charcuterie plate as an appetizer that came with three meats and three cheeses and would have made a meal in itself. For our main course we had two types of stew typical of Sardinia. The food here appears to be heartier than in Sicily. This is sheep country as Ton informed me that there are two sheep on the island for every person. It’s not quite up to New Zealand for sheep to people ratio, but it is still pretty good.
At the end of the meal the waiter asked if we wanted some limoncello or mirto on the house. Ton perked up and said mirto please. It is a flower based liqueur unique to Sardinia and Corsica. The drink is made from the berries of the myrtle plant. It was very interesting and different than anything I have had before because it berry based instead of fruit based. It was a nice introduction to Sardinia.