2017.07.07 – Agrigento – Trapani (Sicily)

One of Jenny’s worst concern came true this morning. She broke a shoe lace when putting on her shoes. We had breakfast and arranged for our check-out at 10am from our B&B. The owner offered to drive us to the bus station rather than call a taxi. At the last minute, we learned that the ride would cost us two euros more than the official taxi we took to get there! Clearly it never hurt to ask ahead – how much?

We had a couple of hours to wait at the bus terminal for our 1:10pm bus to Trapani. The 3.5 hours bus ride offered some great scenery along the way – it was difficult to keep our eyes off the road. After arriving in Trapani, at the western end of Sicily, we made our way to the address of our apartment we rented for a four night stay. We had communicated with the apartment staff about our arrival time and we were reassured that they would be waiting for us. It became apparent after spending 30 mins ringing different door bells that we were the ones that would be waiting. Thanks to a local who took the time to make a call using their own cell phone, we managed to contact the apartment co-coordinator. This was one time we missed having a data plan or international calls on any of our mobile phones. We discovered that the apartment company appeared to have multiple apartments interspersed across the neighborhood. We finally got escorted by the apartment staff to our actual apartment. Although the two bedrooms in the apartment were nice, we were somewhat disappointed with the small kitchen – nothing close to what we enjoyed in Taormina. We did some grocery shopping and Jenny cooked another pasta meal. Shortly after 9:30pm, we celebrated Jessica’s arrival at the apartment. She would be sharing the next week of traveling with us.

2017.07.08 – Trapani (Sicily)

After having Jenny’s refreshing (i.e. non-continental) breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, we headed out to visit Erice, a medieval town high above Trapani. We could have taken a 40 to 60 mins bus ride all the way up there but instead, we opted to take a bus only to the edge of town (Trapani) and take a 10 mins. funicular ride up. After, we enjoyed strolling Erice’s cobblestone streets and taking in the views of the entire area. Along the way, Jenny stopped at a souvenir booth and pointed to her broken shoe lace, the shop owner was quick to offer her a hat matching her shoe lace! After having a snack of cannoli, we headed back to our apartment via the funicular and the bus. We rested a few hours before cooking our evening meal. Later on, we walked along the sea waterfront. Jessica convinced Victoria to go out to a local bar to enjoy a few late night drinks and have some good older sister chat.

2017.07.09 – Trapani (Sicily)

It’s Sunday! We had a slow start to our morning with a home cooked breakfast. We headed to the local beach area in the early afternoon. After walking some distance along the beach, we realized this would not be our best beach experience as the sea bed was rocky and partly covered by moss. Nonetheless we did set-up our beach umbrella, borrowed from our apartment, and found some reasonable lounging area. In the evening, we went for supper at one of the three Chinese restaurants in town. After our meal, we walked along the sea waterfront and snacked on some gelato.

2017.07.10 – Trapani (Sicily)

We opted to head out to the beach again. Given yesterday’s local beach experience, we decided to invest a bit more into today’s beach destination. According to the travel guides, the best beaches were on the Egadi Islands, namely the island of Favignana. We showed up at the Trapani’s docks to purchase our hydrofoil tickets to the island. Unfortunately, we could only get one-way tickets for the 12:20pm sailing as all the returning journeys for the rest of the day were sold out. We were recommended to purchase our return journey on a ferry boat – which we did while waiting for our hydrofoil departure. Shortly after arriving on Favignana, it seemed we had stepped in a different world – one where the bicycle was king! Everyone seemed to be cycling on the streets – most of them heading to the beach as the landscape was quite flat there. Jenny secured a car ride for us after walking into a shop and trying to ask the owner where we could get a taxi to the beach. Although the owner did not speak one word of English, he quickly offered to drive us to the beach for 10 euros. After agreeing, the shop owner simply closed his store and gave us a ride aboard his Suzuki. We asked him to pick us up later in the afternoon for our ferry back to Trapani. The asking price for beach chair and umbrella rentals kept on surprising us – nonetheless this afternoon we managed to get a great deal 8>) !

2017.07.11 – Trapani – Palermo (Sicily)

After breakfast, we walked back to the dock area to purchase our bus tickets for our journey to Palermo. As we managed to take the 11am bus, we arrived in Palermo a couple of hours earlier than our B&B check-in time. While waiting for the B&B owner to show up, we enjoyed a few drinks at a nearby café. After settling into our nice rooms, we set out to explore one of the several lively markets in town. We stopped at a restaurant on our way back to our rooms. Jessica and Victoria spent time in our room chatting and occasionally teasing Jenny.

2017.07.12 – Palermo (Sicily)

With a forecast temperature of 35C, we decided to have another beach day. After our B&B breakfast, we walked to a nearby bus stop for a ride to the very popular Mondello beach area – some 10km from Palermo. Seeing how packed the bus was, we knew that we were not the only ones heading there. After exploring a few beach front offerings, we finally conceded in paying some 44 euros for two sun umbrellas and four chairs. Clearly Mondello’s beach was the best we’ve seen on this trip with fine sand on the beach and on the sea floor. We enjoyed our beach facility for six hours – alternating our time between the sea and our chairs which we kept on rearranging to stay in the shade. Back in Palermo, we headed to a delicious BBQ chicken restaurant for our evening meal. Jessica and Victoria hung out again in our room for more quality time while I started to plan our France travel segment. After reviewing some of the train commuting time in France, we realized that we would need to slightly modify our travel itinerary by substituting our planned stay in Sarlat-la-Canéda for a stay in Toulouse.

2017.07.13 – Palermo (Sicily)

As part of our plan-as-we-go travel itinerary, we spent the day walking to various key tourist sites in Palermo. We had a guided visit of the Teatro Massimo; we experienced the Mercato del Capo, humbled by the Cattedrale di Palermo; wandered around the Piazza Pretoria with its beautiful fountain; and finally we were awed by the amazing glittering mosaics of the Cappella Palatina. Along the way, Jenny finally managed to buy some extra long shoe laces after visiting at least a dozen shoe stores since Agrigento. Our long walk was followed by a few hours rest at the B&B . In the evening, we had a great meal at a nearby modest seafood restaurant.

2017.07.14 – Palermo (Sicily) – Marseille (France)

Before our late afternoon flight to Marseille, we had hoped to visit the Cattedrale di Monreale – some 8 kms outside of Palermo – but after reviewing the local bus frequency and commute time, we decided to stay in Palermo and do some window shopping. Jessica secured a taxi to the airport. We booked our flight with Ryanair before leaving home because we were concerned that traveling during France’s national holiday would prove difficult. Ryanair had recently gained media notoriety for their random seat assignments when travelers did not opt to spend the extra money for reserved seats. We experienced this practice first hand when we completed our on-line checking a few days ago – our four seats were evenly distributed across the 33 plane rows – with Jenny assigned to the very last row just beside the washrooms! It was somewhat funny to see how many people swapped seats as soon as the plane door closed. None of us ended up in our assigned seats – Jessica and Victoria sat side-by-side and Jenny joined me at the front of the plane. Except for their random seat assignment, RyanAir provided a very efficient 2-hour flight experience to Marseille. Upon our landing, we commuted to our hotel by taking an airport shuttle bus to the downtown train station and then catching a metro which brought us within walking distance of our accommodation. As it was past 9:30pm and we were all hungry, we had some burgers and panini at a nearby snack fast food.