Cruise Day 8: Ajaccio/Corsica

The 8th day of our cruise found us in the port of Ajaccio on the Mediterranean Isle of Corsica.  As you might guess from our magnet today----which makes both Jason and I giggle (and our adventure guide, Robyn, found amusing, too)---one of Ajaccio's claims to fame is that it was the birthplace of Napolean Bonaparte in 1769....so we thought it only appropriate that our magnet be a Disney-fied Napolean! LOL

Today was another pretty casual and relaxing (& fun) day---both on and off the ship....so again I'll just run you through what we did and saw for the day. 



As soon as we got of the ship, we were greeted by this sign.  I'm not sure why we thought it was so cute...but we did, so we took a picture LOL

We were then able to hop right on our bus and meet our guide for the day.  She was from Britain originally but had lived, I believe she said, in Corsica for over 40 years.  She knew a great deal about the island and its many villages and shared that information with us----and it was a good thing that she knew quite a bit and had a lot to share because we were going to find out very soon that we had a pretty long and winding bus ride up the mountains into the village where we would spend our afternoon.

I'm jumping ahead, though....

....before we could head up the mountain to the village where we would have lunch and look around a bit, we learned a little bit more about Napolean's connection to Ajaccio and we were taken to a square in the city where we saw a statue of Napolean and his brothers.  Here is the statue:

The statue itself was nice enough, I guess....but the real "treat" of the visit to this park was that Napolean himself (LOL) came out from behind the statue to pose for pictures with us.  At first we were like...."oh jeez"...but then we realized that we line up every evening before and after dinner to take pictures with grown adults dressed like Disney characters...so why not dead emperors, too?!  LOL It was totally cheesy....but also very cute.  Here are pics of me and Jason with "Napolean" and also of our Adventure Guides, Robyn & Tina, with him:

After our meet and greet with the Emperor, we piled back into the van and began our assent to the Corsican village where we would spend the rest of the afternoon.  the Corsican country-side is breathtaking.  It, like much of Europe & the Mediterranean that we experienced, is mountainous and lush and just beautiful.  I decreed to Jason as we drove along that I want mountains in our back yard now! LOL  Here are some of the stunning views we took in along the way on the bus:

You may not be able to tell it from the pictures....but I think you probably can...we drove WELL away from "civilization" and pretty high into the mountains.  (Have I mentioned yet that it was beautiful?! LOL)  We then reached the village where we would spend the afternoon. 

Now----the plan was that we would arrive in the town, board a little tourist train (not a real train, but a vehicle designed to look like a train) to tour the village, stop for a snack/tasting of wine and locally cured hams, cheeses and chestnut cakes (chestnuts are, apparently, a major agricultural product of the region and chestnut flour is used in many or most recipes), then visit a church in the town where we would be surprised by an "impromptu" vocal concert by some Corsican musicians before we headed up to our lunch in a local (and beautiful) restaurant.  AAAH....the best laid plans.....LOL.......

Here is what ACTUALLY happened:  We arrived in the town and many of us had to pee....so our guide convinced the owner of a little cafe across the street from the church where we were dropped off to let us use the bathroom for free.  Yes....many public bathrooms are a paid service in Europe, apparently....AND many are, at least by American standards, not...um...NICE. LOL  One thing I definitely realized while on this trip is how spoiled we are in the USA when it comes to toilets and bathroom facilities.  Public restrooms were few and far between on many of our tours----and, even more startling, very few of the toilets had toilet seats (including in women's restrooms apparently).  The best explanation any of us were given for this was that it was a hygiene thing to keep people from sitting/sharing toilet seats-----but, it was a little disarming to say the least! LOL

Anyhow, that toilet talk aside.....when we all emerged from the bathroom to board the train...there was no train....it had broken down and wouldn't be coming...and so Robyn and Tina and our guides were left scrambling to figure out what to do----and so they had to rearrange our afternoon and ruin the "surprise" of the musicians in the church. (Apparently, I think it was supposed to work out that later in the afternoon we would stroll into the church to just find this group of 3 men and one woman randomly singing and playing instruments and we would just take the time to sit and enjoy the free music...as if it were all unplanned)  Luckily, the musicians were already at the church rehearsing and so we got to do them first.   The church was a very old but pretty place with, again, an intricately painted ceiling:

The musicians were very good...played various instruments and sang for us.  We were told the style of music they were sharing was called "polyphonic music" meaning it combined various sounds and voices into one.  It had a very authentic feel to it....you could tell you were listening to real Corsican folk music...so it was very nice.  We also learned a nice history lesson here, as well----they sang in Corsican which, until about 40 years ago, was illegal....children were not allowed to be taught it, it was not studied and school and the French did everything within their power to basically stamp out both the Corsican language and culture....which, you might imagine, was not popular among the Corsicans....so this music was not only very pretty....it was also a political act to preserve a way of life and a language that had for so long been threatened.  I thought that was very poignant.  Here are some images of the musicians:

After this we went up to a little cafe where they served us a light snack of some locally produced foods.  Since I don't drink alcohol and I am not a huge fan of most meat products unless I can control how they were cooked/prepared, I wasn't interested in the meats or wines really (although i did decide to taste one of the wines----a sip was more than I needed to know that I didn't personally think I was missing anything LOL---there's a pic below of me tasting it...just before I made my "ick" face LOL).  The cheese and the chestnut cake were really yummy, though...as was the bread:

Following this little snack, we went for a short walking tour of the village (it was a very short tour because the Village wasn't that big LOL).  Here's a few images from this village:

Then it was onto the bus and off to lunch.  Lunch was in a very nice little restaurant with an AMAZING view from our table!  Here's a picture of Jason, Ben & Trisha....the window at the end of the table looks down a basically sheer drop onto the village the valley below:

After lunch, we headed back to the boat.  The boat was so close to the pier that it was an amazing photo op:

....and if you look closely you'll see to the left of the boat there was a rope hanging down (no idea what it was for), so Trisha thought it would be fun to take a picture of me "holding" the rope (my hand is really just held up in the air hanging onto nothing LOL)....as if the ship was a big balloon or on a leash! *smile*

On the ship, our towel animal awaited us later that evening:

And we wore Lion King ties to dinner (it was semi-formal night):

....but alas....this would usually be where I end a day's post....NOT THIS DAY!!  There were actually two more fun activities to mention before I close out our day in Ajaccio/Corsica....both were artistic in nature.

The first is that we had a character sketching class taught by our very own Adventure Guide, Robyn (this event was for Adventures by Disney guests only).  She taught us to draw Pinocchio.  Here are some pics from the event:

...but the sweetest surprise was that towards the end of the class, Pinocchio himself showed up to autograph our drawings and to pose for pictures:

It was very fun! (Jason and I always love the drawing classes and things like that.)

Later in the evening, the boat shut down the "Oceaneer's Lab" (which is one of the kid activity areas) and opened it for adults to do "animation cell painting" which was basically they let you trace a character onto a transparency and then paint it in full color and seal the back with another transparency.  This activity was a surprisingly good time----we did it with our very fun tablemates, Johanna and Kimberly (we'd invited our other tablemates, Jim and Michelle, who are equally fun...but they were tired and had headed to bed).....and, even better, Jason and I absolutely LOVED our finished product and so we are going to frame them and hang them at home in our Tigger & Roo room!  Here are some pictures:

We got out of the painting class at about 11:45pm and then it was time to bed...so we'd be rested the next day for our LAST port of the Med cruise (gosh, this cruise FLEW by!!).  See you all in Monaco & Monte Carlo!!