Pootling about
Gestern in Spanien ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Breakfast entertainment was speculating about the intriguing number of men who dont seem to have wives or girlfriends and appear in the restaurant with different men. Last night we were fascinated by the youngish asian American with older brit who were having the most stilted conversation - in any other hotel you would have assumed a work trip. Then this morning, a bloke we’d briefly chatted to earlier in the week , when he was with an older bloke we called swarthy appeared at breakfast with a younger msn with badly dyed blond hair.
Anyhow after breakfast entertainment we headed back into Playa Blanca but via the direct road parallel to the coast route. Hazy and cool at first but then the sun burned through the calima and it was hot again. Out as far as the ferry port then back onthe coastal walkway with a pause to stare at crabs and keep our ice cream intake up to target.
Back to the hotel to collect more water and the car key and we headed off to El Golfo. This is a green lagoon caused by algae that like the sulphur rich water trapped in the lagoon. It is bordered by a black sand beach with a lava tube. We pottered there ( and Sam paddled) before heading off to the salt pans.
But then we were distracted by signs for Yaiza - apparently the prettiest village in Lanzarote. We drove through but didn’t stop as it was nice ( the prettiest roundabouts at either end of the village) but didn’t seem to invite exploration.
Back to the salt pans - which looked pretty mechanical industrial compared to Slovenia and Malta so we didnt stop but instead drove on to Los Hervideros. This was reached by a partially closed road (sink hole - unsurprising given the terrain) which made it an out and back. It was another ribbon of tarmac across a lumpy field, behind us were volcanic hills, ahead the ocean.
Los Hervideros was spectacular, crashing blue seas, black basalt columns, arches and holes you could hear the sea pounding in.
Eventually we had wandered all over and decided it was time to head back for our evening swim.
Swim time was as bracing as ever but because the calima has passed the sun was out properly - air temp was lower but the sun warmed you if floating / swimming on the surface. We were much entertained by a bloke Sam described as a chicken drumstick and I thought looked like jerky in white trunks. He kept posing in adonis poses and then spent the time walking the length of playa dorada kicking the rocks at the end when he turned. Made us practically hysterical!
Eventually time to get out if we wanted to be in before the dinner rush . After amusing ourselves with Sam’s attempts to remove her rash shirt we finally headed back a quick shower and down for dinner.
No sign of the changing bloke configurations but we did find ourselves next to s couple that went snd loaded their table with copious quantities of food, starters, cooling mains, desserts and cheese before hoovering the lot up in double quick time.
After a quick hyper dino and then trains and bedWeiterlesen
Volcano tubes and caves
19. April in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Today we went north into Cesar Manrique country. Jameous del Agua and Cuevas los verdes - a cave and a lava tube.
We drove up the delightful hairpin bend hill climb and there is no way I am driving in the dark up there on our return to the airport!!
Otherwise an uneventful drive but warm. The lava tube had timed tickets so there was a short wait as we arrived just after 11:30 for our 12 pm slot. The descent appeared out of nowhere after we’d passed the ticket person and the first bit was just descent to a holding area with some leafy plants and a bit of shade. Then as a group we moved down to the first point for a general overview and health and safety - don’t go if you are claustrophobic, and don’t bang your head - take care if taller than 1.8m. We descended the first set of steps; twisting, narrow with overhangs that made me ( less than 1.7m) have to duck s bit, and the handrail disappeared without warning. The first stop was s look at the tube ( whole length 7km but we walked just 1 km) and the rock types then we continued along the undulating tube including s section where we had to bend double to get through!! Another stop to admire formations then more bending and ducking to an area used as an auditorium we then were told about an experiment we were going to see on the upper layer - so then up to a level above ( the tube has layers created at different times in different eruptions). We were marshalled carefully in two groups then moved forward to a flat area in front of a drop, one volunteer was selected and given a stone to throw. We all had to be silent and no phones / photos. Tne volunteer threw the stone towards the drop and instead of the long drop we expected it splashed into a shallow pool - very clever reflection trickery. Then back up a steep climb and out
Back down the road to Jameos del Agua - part of Cesar Manrique’s stuff. First was a pool in a cave ghat houses the blind albino crabs that are only found here then to the cafe for an icecream then up to the weird ( pointless?) pool that manrique created and a quick nosy into another auditorium before heading to the casa del volcanes - the volcano centre. Initially this seened a bit underwhelming - some old bits of seismology kit and a lot of rocks with deeply uninformative labels - location but not type! That said we were were lightly amused by a bit that demonstrated the seismological impact of us jumping snd tapping our feet.
Then we went up to the next layer which had all sorts of stuff including a VR simulation of a trip along a lava tube, a mission to mars, some plant and animal identification and a Lanzarote / Mars photo identifier - 3 mistakes each! A couple of hall of mirrors rooms and more rocks.
Eventually we emerged back jnto thr hest of the car park. After a minor diversion to look st natural tidal swimming pools ( too busy no where to park / change) we headed home driving across the centre of the island this time, past vineyards using the lava in a really interesting way to shelter the plants.
Back to the beach for a quickish swim ( sub 45 mins) chilly but fun and then dinner - which was not so good - mexican theme seemed to be the idea so spice to avoid and some dubious dishes. Then flump!Weiterlesen
Slacker ( hot) day
18. April in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
To the market and beach but thats about it. The calima is blowing from the Sahara so it is very hot and hazy. We wandered down to the market at the marina and eyed various items but didn’t purchase. Some decidedly dodgy art for sale - i suspect even i could make a living here flogging bad art in the day and dubious singing at night.
We needed a boost to make it back to the hotel so stopped for an ice cream and listened to a sixty something bloke mixing 80s tracks for a while. We were quite impressed by his mixing abilities given his ( apparent) age.
Then dripped back to the hotel where we put the fan on and lazed around playing trains ( lost 2 out of 3) and poking our phones until swim time at 4. Down to the beach which was minimal as the tide was in and into the sea. Quite choppy and chilly with the wind behind it so we swam parallel to the beach to warm up and then spent some time trying to pick rocks up with our feet! Sam was good at this but not me. Out when chilly and back to the hotel. Shower tea and a quick call with Mandy before bananagrams ( which was interrupted by a trip to the pool to rescue a huge grasshopper thing that had inadvertently ended up in the pool. Won bananagrams and then did some you tube music and tv quizzes interrupted by discussions of who’s dead and who’s had bad plastic surgery! And so to bed!Weiterlesen
Queueing for a Volcano
17. April in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
To Timanfaya today. But that was after a scan of the hotel bookshelves that made us both want to reorganise - though no agreement on whether by language, genre, or author …. Its a very random selection everything from practically academic to fluffy holiday romances across a broad spectrum of languages.
Then a 30 minute drive out to timanfaya national park. The road in was amazing: a ribbon of tarmac across a field of lava lumps, very reminiscent of Iceland. Somewhat warmer though. Last erruption here was 19th c and the bulk of the lava fields and tubes date to the 1730-36 erruption that took out over 100 square km of land. We drove past the tourist camel place - poor camels and past a barely marked turn for something volcano related but we headed on through the lumpy landscape to the visitor centre. When we arrived we asked about the coach tours and were told oh yes drive back 4 km ( the barely marked turn!).
Anyhow the visitor centre had retail and a walkway out over the lumpy lava and lots of general info but not quite as much specific info as I would have expected. We tootled round that and then headed back to the barely marked turn. After paying our 30e each we were sent off down a narrow tarmac road and after awhile we found a queue of cars waiting to proceed . We waited about 10-15 mins before we were finally allowed to proceed up a very steep hill to another visitor centre, where we had to wait for a little while before being directed to a parking space on what felt like a 30 degree slope - made it hard to open the door!
As soon as we were out we were directed straight to bus5 which tootled us through the park. No mooching at this next visitor centre. Not allowed off the bus so hard to take photos, through windows, mostly while moving, avoiding reflections and other passengers heads. I consoled myself with the thought that there would be photos and/or a booklet at the visitor centre. The views were amazing although the prerecorded audio tour talked alot about the impact of the erruptions and gave extracts from contemporaneous diaries but I wanted to know what i was looking at and why is looked like it did. There were dark grey broken plates, boulders, ripples, little cones and some areas were ochre, orange, yellow purple etc. Took some photos though. Sadly the visitor centre here was a cafe and a souvenir shop that was no better than the last one no books/ booklets/ photos - pah.
Outside the centre there were a couple of rangers handing out hot gravel and demonstrating that just below the ground the temperatures were +400 celcius! They put plant material in a hole which combusted very quickly and then created geysers by pouring water into holes and waiting a couple of seconds before it was ejected as a column of steam.
After that we headed back home - well to the marina area where i got a glasses string so i can use my transitions in the sea and a new waterproof case - i don’t trust mine so much. After a little mooch and an ice cream we drove back to close to the hotel. As we planned to swim later we dumped the car on the carpark closer to the beach walkway, though we assumed we would go to playa flamingo i suggested we check to see of poo beach was open and yay the green flag was flying.
So we went and got water and crisps from the snack area. After a bit of down time then to the beach. Sandier than Flamingo and no rocks. Slightly less enclosed so a bit more bounce but still a nice safe swimming area. Again we stayed in till chilled, then back to the hotel to eat - a chewy lamb chop, aubergine parmigiana and a bit of duck.
Food is generally as good as I could have hoped for.
Quiet evening and a bit of trainsWeiterlesen
Exploring Playa Blanca
16. April in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
A lazy day in and around Playa Blanca. Up moderately late - 9ish, leisurely breakfast then a walk to the beach and along the front to find the local Ale Hop.
Our part of Playa Blanca is really quiet so it was quite a surprise to come onto a busy walkway and beach area. To be fair though it isn’t that busy compared to say Tenerife and it is all low rise white buildings so it looks rather more pleasant. Sadly the beach is closed for swimming due to fecal contamination ! 💩 so swimming will be elsewhere. We mooched along the front poking our heads into various shops and generally ambling. Eventually we turned off the walkwsy and up to Alehop. Nothing much new there - still had my little rucksack and other stuff but they did have a phone pouch so Sam bought one of those for swimming. Then to hyperdino where we found a little bottle of baileys and sundry other stuff. Then back on to the path along the shore where we noticed a woman hanging over the wall taking photos.
Turned out there were a load of crabs scuttling on the rocks, fabulous red ones that had slightly iridescent backs. I took so many photos.
After that we wandered to an icecream place and settled to people watch but before we had barely settled in to our seats two noisy blokes arrived on the walkway and started doing gymnastics and revving up the crowd - so we left. We walked on and found a little quiet courtyard at the princess yaiza that had a rather ‘nice’ clothes shop and a little gelateria so we sat there eating ice cream, listening to the birds and marvelling at how quiet it was compared to the gym bunny walkway. Eventually we felt like it was time to move on.
We continued ambling along the walkway and ended up at more ( extremely unbusy) shops down near the marina. But even for us there was a limit to the schmying around so back to the hotel to cool down and relax for a while. We scooted to the private pool and free snack area and had crisps and water - we could have had beer or cocktails too up till 5pm but we were planning on driving to Playa Flamingo to swim.
Suitably re- attired and fortified we did the 5 min drive over and then had a little fun parking but eventually out and to the beach.
A bit rocky and it felt freezing but once in it was great. Its very enclosed so very calm. We stayed in the water until we were thoroughly chilled then ambled back to the car and drove home. Dinner was fine - pork in beer sauce among other things. And that was about it dor thedayWeiterlesen
From Dads to Lanzarote
15. April in Spanien ⋅ 🌬 20 °C
After an annoying trip to Piccadilly yesterday ( bought ticket for entirely the wrong day, new expensive ticket, train packed no seat res till stoke) . But a nice evening with dad and this morning he dropped me at jet park 1 for the free drop off slightly TFE so a 30 minute wait for Sam at T3
But a reasonable experience once she arrived, bags tagged, dropped and through security by 10:30. A little light shopping ( Barebells choc milk, a copy of Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and also Pretender by Jo Harkin!Then up to the remarkably quiet and airy sports bar! Where we snacked on spam fritters and idled our time away. Early boarding - we pottered off an hour before departure to find we were already boarding and we were in the air 2 mins after our scheduled departure time. Smooth flight and slightly early into Lanzarote where the arrivals area was very quiet so despite minor issues with scanning Sam’s fingers we were through ant at the car hire desk by 5. Another Zest special - scratched from every angle and with a bent parcel shelf but small, automatic and air conditioned.
A straightforward drive to Playa Blanca with only 1 set of hairpin bends down a hill! And then to our hotel which, although Sam was beginning to twitch after reading too much Facebook, is actually very nice with good food options, friendly staff and a superior suite which gets us a separate small pool and free drinks snd snacks till 5pm!
Dinner was good, lamb, osso bucco and the usual rang of buffet bits. Hyper Dino and then bed.Weiterlesen
