October 24 - Drive to Argigento

 

It is extremely windy today and rain is predicted.  We did final packing in the morning.  Michael made a big egg, mushroom and ham scramble for breakfast for the adults.  The kids ate the last of the spaghetti.  We managed a nice skype call with Lisa and Tim who are now in Shanghai China.  After a final check of the house we locked up and headed our separate ways.  A&R have a late afternoon flight home to Amsterdam and will stop at a bowling alley for some fun first.  Michael and I are heading for Agrigento to see the Valley of the Temples.

 Our route took us along coastal roads, so at times we did have views of the Mediterranean sea.  We stopped just outside of Gela for a wonderful lunch at a seaside restaurant.  It was very warm 29 C and less windy here.  Sunday lunch is a long drawn out affair – so it took longer than we would have liked.  We shared a meal of linguini with scampi followed by grilled whole fish & a plate of grilled mixed vegetables.  We have no idea what kind of fish it was.  They brought out a platter of fish for us to choose from – only 2 left.  A large Dorado (enough for 4) and another fish that looked sort of yellow with red trim.  They told us what it was in Italian – but it meant nothing to us.  Maybe we will see it again and find out what it is.  It was delicious.

 Michael had found us 2 rooms in a bed and breakfast in Agrigento.  The bathroom is in the hallway and is shared by 3 bedrooms.  The owner had promised that there would be no one in the third bedroom.  We parked in the plaza in front of the building.  Then realized the yellow lines painted around each parking spot meant it was reserved for handicap parking.  One of the owners of the BNB came to help us with the luggage and pointed to a better spot to park.  The owner tells us that they have been expecting a huge storm and points to the darkening skies.

 The rooms ended up being up many, many steps, most of them steeper than we are used to.  We finally got to the living room.  He pointed out we could order from a breakfast menu.  Then proceeded to show us the two rooms.  Then saying and the room at the end of the hall was occupied by two very nice Spanish gentlemen.  Oops!  Not acceptable says Michael!  We were promised that no one would be in the third room.  Our guy, Cal, calls his cousin.  Michael shows Cal the text thread where the cousin promises us an unoccupied third room.  It becomes obvious that the cousin has lied to us all along and expects Cal to convince us to accept the new terms.  We do not!

 Cal is wonderful.  He promises us a full refund immediately.  He takes us up to the terrace to show us the lay of the land and points down to the sea where he is recommending a hotel.  The terrace is up another many flights of stairs.  But the view is fantastic.  Behind us we can see the old city and it is enchanting.  We can see down across the entire park of the Valley of the Temples and see at a great distance some of the temples.  And far off after that is the sea and the location of the hotel he is recommending.   Oh, how I wished I had my camera.  I had even forgotten my phone in the car so couldn’t even use that. 

 I suspect some people might change their minds after seeing that view.  They might decide that sharing a bathroom with two strangers was worth that view!  But all I could imagine was getting up to pee in the middle of the night and opening the bathroom door to find some strange man already at it!  So between that problem, the many, many steps in the building and a problem finding parking (Cal said Monday parking would be a lot worse), we made the decision to move on. 

 Cal gave us the address of the hotel and Michael put it into his GPS.  Cal helped us take all our luggage back to our car – so we couldn’t fault him.  But I do wander if this is not a game the two play together.  The good guy versus the bad guy.  However this time they got one room booked and lost two!

 We retraced our drive back down to the sea.  However our GPS took us to what we finally decided was the back of the hotel.  The hotels here are not the big fancy ones like in the US with large parking lots.  After driving around and around the area we found a sign that said this was the parking for the hotel we were going to.  Across the street was a sign for a restaurant.  There was a high wall around all except a small opening to walk in.  It took us a while to see that the name of the hotel was written on the building behind the wall. 

 Meanwhile the sky is getting darker and darker.  We get help getting our luggage in.  We get the code for the parking lot and help opening the gate.  Michael gets the car parked and then we take the luggage into our room and try to settle in.  We have not had anything to eat since lunch.  Michael decides he is going to go back to the car to get some of the food we have there.  We did not have time to bring it in earlier.  As he is putting his shoes back on we hear thunder.  Maybe he should hurry before it rains.   Then I open the shade and the door to our small deck – It is pouring rain!  Too late.

 The restaurant across the way is closed.  In the end Michael goes down to the small bar and begs for anything.  We end up each eating two small chocolate/orange desserts for dinner.  They were very good, but not very filling.  We are to have breakfast at the restaurant across the patio in the morning. 

 So this is our third place that we are staying in Sicily.  In two days we travel to a town outside of Palermo for a weeks stay that is a splurge for us.  I hope and pray that everything will be perfect with that villa