Our experience so far has been that they do make it easy for a boater to rent a car to tour the area. We just asked at the marina's reception area, told them the time we wanted to set out...and, the next day, the car appeared at our dock. With Bob and Lorelei, a Smart car was not a smart idea, so we rented a Lancia, a very comfortable car for four people.

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Med, and given our location at a marina in Oblia in the north, that closed off the southern part for our one day road trip...but opened up the northern part: the Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast). The topography of the day trip was gorgeous and diverse. As we drove north along the coast, there were beautiful white cliffs, lush green hills and deep blue and turquoise waters, populated with huge mega-yachts....and I'm not being redundant. As I have often said to Captain Ken, "there's always a larger boat". As we looped around the north and headed south along the west coast, the landscape became arid, closely resembling New Mexico, as Lorelei said, and then as we drove across back to the northeast, we passed what appeared to be newly planted vineyards.

Our main stop was in Porto Cervo, often described as the playground of the rich and famous. Ken and I were there in 1989 (with our dear friends, Chuck and Jean, who were with us earlier this year in Croatia) and since then, there has been a sea-change. Our recollection of it was as an upscale but laid back town. (The dessert I had then remains on my list of the top 5 desserts of my life.) Now, Harrod's has a shop on the quay selling British souvenirs (don't ask me why) and there were many fabulous show cars (Lambos, Maseratis and Bugattis,) each with its own Harrod's kiosk. The pic above was Bob's choice for his next car, but it wouldn't fit on Moonbeam, so he had to leave it there. They also had many very upscale shops (Hermes, Cartier). Needless to say, I couldn't think of anything I had to buy. Yesterday, it was teeming with tourists, coming from the cruise ships, labelled with their particular tour group tag, milling around. I can't imagine that this makes the gabillionaires who live in the nearby villas very happy, nor do I think these visitors bought anything (the shops were empty) so...I just don't get it.

It was lunch time, but after perusing the menus, I couldn't imagine how good a €40 hamburger could be...so off we went, and found a lovely small town, overlooking the water, where we had a delightful meal.

We got back to Olbia before dark, did another provisioning at the supermarket, Auchon, and then went to fill up the rental car....which turned out not to be the highlight of the day. The attendant had just locked the doors and was sweeping up. No big deal....it's self service. Ken and I studied the system and proceeded. After several tries with our credit card and no success, we found a French woman customer who gave us some hints, but it was a no-go. By that time, Ken decided to use the cash option. He put in €40...still nothing. Then a young German woman came over. She put in her two cents to help us. Still nothing. Then....the machine timed out. Oh no. That was worse than a slot machine in Vegas. But, out came a credit slip for our €40. (The young German woman said the same thing had happened to her.) I guess they are used to these machines being 'user-unfriendly). So, this morning, Ken and Bob had to take another trip to the gas station. The young attendant spoke not a word of English (not a big surprise). But...she readily handed over the €40. Ken took the money, tried (unsuccessfully) to operate this obviously high tech, complicated machine (although he is pretty smart), and finally filled the tank with the assistance of another attendant. WHEW! It shouldn't be this difficult....in my humble opinion.

POSTSCRIPT: In our prior blog, we related the tale of the helm going into rigor mortis in the channel...and then, because I didn't get full instructions from Ken and Bob, kept turning the wheel...and presto! Whatever was hanging us up changed its mind. We were back in business. We surmised that an octopus or whale had grabbed onto the rudder...and then seeing nothing good to eat...had dropped off. Today, Ken hired a diver to double-check that we were correct and everything was A-OK under the water. The good news? It is. How lucky can you get.