Long time no see

Well off we went to Palma Mallorca early September for a week in the company of Dolenta, Andy and his cousin Stephanie. An early Sunday start the taxi picking us up at 4.00 am and taking us all the way to Gatwick as there were no trains except the Gatwick Express which would have proved more expensive in the end. Uneventful flight out and we arrive in sorching sunshine just after midday...



We get to the Hotel Saratoga our home for the week at about 2.00pm, a slight delay as the room is not ready but then check in is at 3.00. We have a little wander for 30 mins then back to unpack etc and off out.

Monday madame is set on buying some Mallorca pearls and we go a wandering to compare what the shops have to offer. We find her favourite and decide to leave it until later in the week in case she ses something better. Back to the hotel for a wash n brush up, slap on and out to dinner with Andy and Steph.
Up with the lark the next day, well not exactly it doesn't get light until around 7.30 which to me is half the day gone. Grab the camera and I'm wandering...



Back to the hotel to get the slap on and then all of us, minus Dolenta meet up for breakfast at BeeWi opposite the hotel, a lovely little cafe which has free wifi! We all go our seperate ways and meet up for lunch later then its the hotel pool on the roof



Post breakfast its going to be a beach day. As Dolenta's mother and father and friend Lola and her two girls are to join us. Madame, Step and I get a cab to Illetes and grab a slice of the beach. My god its hot and its not long before I'm in the water.



Luckily we get a lift back with Lola to the hotel and we get ourselves ready for dinner.
Tuesday we are off to buy madame's pearls, just the two of us.....



The afternoon is spent with Dolenta's mother and her excellent Paella at the end of which we all doze off :-) Post snooze we all attempt to walk it off and descend on a local material shop before madame and I wend our way back to the hotel finding this sign along the way....



Wednesday madame and I return to the material shop, she has her eye on a few fabrics. A slow stroll up Avenue Argentina, across Plaça Madrid and up Carrer Francesc Martí i Móra to the shop where she selects three fabrics and off we go again. All too soon it time for holiday beer and lunch, such is the life of the holidayer. The afternoon is spent at the hotel pool where we meet six female forty somethings on a break and very welcoming they were, well after their initial discussion over whether I was female or not and the result was that... 'it is her husband' LOL. Still the result was that I got my bum felt which I enjoyed enourmously. All of us out to dinner that night at a decidedly upmarket restaurant for tappas to belatedly celebrate Andy's birthday. Another fabulous exhibition in the gallery above the restaurant.



Thursday is the obligatory tourist bus trip around the island, a non-femme day. Well sitting on the top deck of a bus in blazing 90+ temperatures with makeup sliding down your face is not a good look is it.



The evening is spent at Momo, a restaurant owned by a friend of Dolenta and his partner who is rather taken with me ;-) Aaaanyway after a fabulous meal we crawl our way home around one o'clock in the morning.



Friday is another beach day, this time we catch the bus, a 1.5 euro journey each as opposed to 15 in a taxi! After much splashing about in the water madame, Andy, Steph and I repair to the bar leaving the rest to the sand and sea for the afternoon where we prove quite a hit with the lady that runs it. Madame and I have an evening wander alone window shopping and wind up almost getting lost in rapidly darkening and emptying streets until we find our way back.




Saturday and our last full day, things to buy, bags to start to pack etc etc. It's back to Momo for dinner and all too soon its over. We say our goodbyes and crawl back to the hotel.



An uneventful journey home apart from nearly missing the plane and that was that, until next year.

Holilday time

A nice relaxed start to the journey. We don't have one of these early morning flights for a change. On the train to Gatwick at about 10 ish. It is amazing how time races past. Bags dropped and no hand luggage we have a rather nice lunch in a Lebanese restaurant then off to duty free and down to the gate for our flight and we are on our way to Las Palmas.
I love flying, the sheer power as the engines scream and the plane trundles forward followed by that kick in the back as speed picks up, nose up and away, madame however does not. Soon we are over the south coast.



Arriving at about 7.30 we wait ages for passport control to show up and then collect the cases meet dear Howard who is patiently waiting. A quick ciggie and we grab a cab and Las Palmas bound, safely booked into the hotel we now need feeding.
Luckily the hotel is a mere 50 yards from the promenade. H takes us along the prom to a Chinese all you can eat for 9€ and is rather nice then its beddy-byes as we are shattered.

Day 2. I am awake with the lark as per only to find horror of horrors its bloody dark. I mean at home I'm up around 5.30 - 6.00 and its broad daylight, not here it isn't plus...... plus our electronic gadgetry has seemingly updated to European time. Unfortunately the Canary Islands are on GMT !!! Aaaanyway I'm awake and up and about so what I thought was 7.00 am is 6.00 ! Off out for a walk along the prom and breathe that sea air which it turns out is rather chilly.



After a ahort stroll its back to the relative warmth of the hotel for a wash and brush up and leaving madame asleep its off out again, along the prom and as much as I love my phone camera the beast comes with me. I'm looking for somewhere for breakfast, just a little one for us, hotel breakfasts are far too substantial and expensive. Cafe found for a later visit I espy some sand sculpture, the last supper no less....



I return some time later to the hotel to rouse madame and we set off for sustenance then a walk and holiday pictures. Its cloudy as everyday seems to start but the wind makes it a trifle parky.



Stroll ended we search for lunch somewhere along the promenade. Post lunch we return to the hotel where H joins us, we get changed and decide to investigate the pool on the roof....



Around 7.00 we change and the three of us go back to H's flat for dinner, its only about a fifteen minute walk so off we set... Now flying is no problem to me but looking over the balcony of a flat on the 17th floor is another story altogether. Post gossiping and dinner we grab a cab and are on our way back to the hotel looking forward to day 3....

Day 3. Post early morning walkies and breakfast we meet up with H and hop a bus into the old town of Las Palmas stopping off for churros and coffee, yum, and a wander around the local market....



H being H a wander around the old town becomes a history lesson and very informative it is too :-) It is interesting how architecture tells its own story, how styles and tastes mould and influence. One could be in Spain or Mexico or South America, in fact a myriad of places.



Christopher Columbus or Cristóbal Colón or indeed Cristoforo Colombo all the same person actually.

Of course we visit a few beautiful churches. Religious I am not but churches or indeed any religious edifice I do enjoy them all.



A visit to a charity shop, another passion is followed by a diet conscious lunch and then its back on the bus and an afternoon on the beach. The sunbeds etc are run by the local authority and a good job they make of it too. H has his favourite pitch so we follow. When packing I had decided to put in three wigs oh my am I glad I did what with the wind I only ever wear the short one which was an after thought.



H selects a rather nice place for dinner, tapas. Almost every table is reserved but we squeeze in. Apparently it is the Spanish thing to book and then just not to turn up. What is nice is my frock is admired by three young ladies at the next table, the fact that I am in it has no effect whatsoever ..



Off we wander and just by chance we hear music, thinking it is from a local 'tranny' bar we go to investigate only to find there is a flamenco event in the town square and by the end of the night the bar is forgotten. Again do I get looked at? Hardly at all.
My goodness I love my phone camera.....



Day 4. We are off to a market close to the hotel, as we are very near the weight limit of our luggage it is just a matter of wandering around the stalls. Very little for the tourist as it turns out in other words a typical market of course there are the fake Ray Bans in abundance but the sunglasses story is yet to come ;-)



After liquid refreshment H dashes off to collect goodies for tonight's meal and we follow the music. Returning to the square where we were the night before we find the flamenco is still in full swing this time with little cutie pies on the stage....



When, after an hour of so, we had seen enough we return to the hotel roof for a little sun before making our way to H's for dinner. We get back to base rather late but it is so nice to stroll the streets late at night feeling safe and being warm enough not to require coats.

Day 5. A trip out today. We meet up with H and get the bus to Arucas a pretty village in the hills famed for its.... RUM! The bus, as all buses do, takes to the side roads serving little communities along the way. Wild flowers in abundance by the roadside flash past and liberal use of the horn as we round hairpin bend after bend and sheer drop after sheer drop. A lovely stroll through the town, so peaceful and a beautiful church, well cathederal.



After a little sit in a delightful garden we make our way to the distillery and join a guided tour which is short thankfully as it gets us to the tasting sooner. Now not being a drinker especially of the neat spirit variety I am highly delighted by the flavoured rums on offer. Mmmmm chocolate, mmmm caramel, mmmmm honey not too keen on their unflavoured 10 year old special though. Oh how I wish we could have thrown out some clothes and bough a few bottles, approximately 9 Euros a bottle and when I look at home we have to pay £20 !!



A stroll through Arucas and H shows us the town hall. Apparently when Franco declared his intention to take over Spain the local inhabitants of Arucas wheeled out a fifteenth century canon, placed it in front of the town hall and fired it as a warning not to mess with them. The effects can be seen today !



We find that the bus we want will not arrive for over half an hour so we return to the delightful garden to wait its arrival. A delightfully peaceful half hour later we return to the bus station and get the bus to another village, Teror and lunch. More country roads, more hairpin bends, more sheer drops, quite entertaining.





Day 6. Our last full day. H is busy so we take ourselves off, breakfast first at what has become our favourite cafe and a stroll, time to buy supplies of tobacco. Once purchased we stroll around and find a rather nice opticians and in the window the sunglasses to end all sunglasses. In we go, just to find out the price of course. Well needless to say we exit with them, upswept tortoiseshell with red arms and a rather significant name on them... Christian Dior, oh yum ! Off to the hotel to dump our purchases. Change and out to lunch. Post lunch we repair to the roof of the hotel and H joins us and madame sidles off back to the opticians to get a rather nice pair of Ray Bans which she will get de-glazed and have her own lenses put in.



Post sunbathing we dress for dinner, its back to the all you can eat Chinese on the front and would you believe a game of scrabble which shockingly neither of us have played before !



Its around midnight when we finish the second game and very windy and consequently rather cold as we stroll back to the hotel.

Last Day. Our flight isn't until the evening so we stroll along the promenade for about two miles to find would you believe a shopping centre with a Primark. Not filled with joy at the prospect we find it and Primark and I find two rather nice T-shirts! We take lunch in McDonalds but elect for a chicken caesar salad. Mind you there are not many McDonalds with a view like this...





We stroll back to the hotel and the roof for a last sunbathe where H joins us. About 5 we leave in a taxi for the airport and home.
Safely in the air we settle down for an uneventful journey except for some gentle turbulence for about half an hour. Of course being a night time flight I'm terminally bored with nothing to look at.