Thursday, April 26, 2018

'You're always on holiday!'

GrandDaughter1 isn't amused. She wants us to take her next time we go. 

We won't be.

Anyway it was back to the Canary Islands, Fuerteventura this time. A deliberately relaxing holiday. Younger Son and Nuora are in the process of buying a house that will need a lot of work so Husband is preparing himself.

We've been to Fuerteventura three times before so we'd done all the sight-seeing we wanted to so this time it was beach, ice cream and spa, each day, every day.
Corralejo dunes
Yes, there were clouds and, indeed, rain, but it all passed quickly. It was warm though the wind was cool in places. And Fuerteventura is always windy. It's even in the name, which can be translated as strong winds. (The real translation is strong luck or fortune but winds is much more appropriate.)

El Cotillo
A beach at El Cotillo


Faro de Toston, now a fishing museum

You get more than your fair share of nudists who all seem to like posing
Because of the winds there are a number of these cwches scattered along the beach. You have to be there early to secure one so we were fortunate here. You also have to be careful if you go and peer in one to see if it's empty. You may well find yourself looking at a willy.

Unusually the wind wasn't the prevailing one so on one beach we settled ourselves down on the 'wrong' side. A young family later took up residence on the 'right' side. Now, imagine if you're lying on the beach, hearing the noises of young children playing just the other side of the wall and you look up and notice ...
just how precariously those rocks are balanced. I said to Husband, 'If one falls on me and I end up brain-damaged, please put me in a home and tell the grandchildren I'm dead.'
'I won't do that,' he said.
'Yes, you must! I don't want them to see me as a drooling, incontinent, batty old woman.'
Husband looked at me strangely and gave me the rucksack to put between my head and the danger.

Another time, before we left the hotel, I was struggling to squeeze my water bottle in the rucksack.
'Because heaven forbid,' Husband said, 'that you should have to carry anything yourself.'
'What?' I said. 'Forty years you've been carrying all my stuff and now you complain?!'

The Canaries are very popular with British tourists so much so that there are several Irish bars and even a British Food supermarket. On a gorgeous sunny day one Irish bar was offering hot soup.
The bar happened to be on the same street as our favourite ice cream shop, El Gusto. It is the proximity of this shop to the hotel that makes us go back each time to same hotel: it's within walking distance. It's owned and run by an Italian woman and it really is the best. I have to admit on one day we did try another shop advertising artisan Italian ice cream - but it wasn't as good.


So, anyway, given the choice between leek and potato soup and ice cream, what do you think I chose?
And to finish off, here are some Canary animals.
Just add three wise men.

A rather impressive sand dragon.

A bit of washed-up rusty iron that looks like a horse's head.



2 comments:

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

That dragon's breathing fire!
As for catering to tourists, I remember seeing a bar on the Costa del Sol with a huge sign outside "Paella You Can Really Eat!!" presumably lovely with a big pot of tea.

Liz Hinds said...

I know! the sand artists are really clever!
Oh, yes, lots of places advertising English breakfast and English sports and all the sort of things you want to get away from! Except a good cup of tea but that is impossible because the milk is all uht.