Michaela and I had secretly planned for me to arrive in London for Len's birthday, Sept. 9. I flew in and made my way to their flat in Leytonstone. Len was very surprised to see me when he arrived home from work. As they had planned to go to Sardinia for a week, Michaela had also secretly arranged for me to go with them.
We flew into Alghero and rented a car. We then got to our hotel and immediately set out to explore this ancient sea port with its Catalan city walls. We walked along the old city walls flanking the sea and stopped for a coffee at a lovely little cafe. We carried on to the beach area to scope it out for lounging the next day. We carried on to the world famously beautiful harbor. We also spotted a lovely outdoor cafe for dinner that evening.
As typical in these warmer areas, the shops are open for a couple of hours in the morning, then close from about noon until 4:00 or 5:00 pm. The streets really come alive after 6:00 pm with dinner not before 8:00 or 9:00 pm. It is common to see adults and children dining and socializing will into midnight.
We also did a bit of shopping. The streets are medievally narrow with very small shops lining these cobble-stoned alleys. The streets are medievally narrow with the shops very small lining these cobble-stoned alleys. It was very interesting to be walking along a modern street, then suddenly have to pass through an ancient city wall and into an entirely different scene of ancient shops and buildings. Very cool....
We did check out the Cathedral of Santa Maria. It is a very old building, with construction beginning in 1570 in a Gothic style. It was finished in 1730 with some Late Renaissance style architecture.
We probably could have seen and done a lot more in this historical city, but we lounged in the sun instead....
We then headed for Stintino to check out the beaches there....
