We'd never been to the Canary Islands before, never mind Gran Canaria and I didn't realise how close to Morocco, or indeed Africa, they are. Consequently, the weather is hot all year round and we'll deffo be going back again. In summary, all we did was eat, sleep and in my case, sunbathe and read! Fantastic!
A couple of the days, it rained intemittantly but it was still really warm so on these days, we wandered around looking at the souvenir and trinket shops.
The area we visited had mainly German tourists, so many of the shopkeepers spoke better German than English, giving the bf ample opportunity to practise his linquistic skills!
We enjoyed temperatures of around 26-27 degrees, the hottest day was 31 degrees of lovely dry heat. Despite the sand being hot enough to burn your feet, the sea was pretty cold in comparison, so I didn't venture in there much, although the bf made up for it, buying all manner of 'water toys' such as a body board and blow up lilo and spending hours in the water. Me, I have a great all over tan (hardly any white bits) - shame it's now winter so I have to hide under layers of clothes!We had our evening meals at the hotel, which put on a great buffet every night, with lots of choice. We avoided the evening 'entertainment' most nights, but the occasions we did attend, it was good 'family' fun in a Spanish kinda way.
All in all, it was a great relaxing holiday with nothing to complain about, although there were a lot of timeshare reps around and also a gang of palm-reader-cum-pickpockets loitering always blocking the road to the beach we went to.
For those still reading, here's briefly what we did - remember, this was not an action/activity holiday... :
Mon 23 Oct - Flew out from Manchester, arrived at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria around midnight. No idea where we were staying, the reps were useless but we got there eventually by coach.
Tues 24 Oct - Bought essential beach gear, ie mats and beach towels. Sunbathed topless for the first time in years in public so was a bit tentative at first and it felt like everyone was looking...
Weds 25 Oct - Sea was really choppy with big waves. I dipped my toe in, a big wave went over my head, decided to stay on beach! Bf played in sea for hours.
Thurs 26 Oct - Snagged by a timeshare rep so we went along for some free drinks, killed a bit of time but didn't part with any money. A scorching day.
Fri 27 Oct - Did another thing I haven't done in years - sent out some postcards!
Sat 28 Oct - Bought bucket and spade, had a go at building a sandcastle. Watched some Spanish dancing whilst the bf stayed in the hotel room watching horror movies. Rainstorm overnight.
Sun 29 Oct - Sunbathed by the pool whilst the bf went walkabout. Hours later realised he'd wandered off with the room key and I had no money or water. Later that evening, I was handwashing the bf's underpants... deffo a case of too much sun on the brain!
Mon 30 Oct - Hassled by timeshare reps and 'palm readers'. A gorgeously hot day. It was our 14th anniversary today. The day passed without incident...
Tues 31 Oct - The bf bought me a ring to mark our anniversary (no, not that kinda ring, I have one of those already!) Wandered around a shopping centre on the only day I didn't do any sunbathing. Hotel put on a Halloween Quiz night and the bf nearly won all the prizes (alcoholic) .
Weds 1 Nov - Rainy day. Wandered into another shopping centre and was checking out some digital camera memory cards when I had the following conversation with a shopkeeper who was from Pakistan :
Shopkeeper: Help you Madam?
Me: No, it's ok. I'm only looking.
Shopkeeper: Where you from?
Me: I'm from England.
Shopkeeper: No you're not, you're from China!
Hmm...since he'd obviously seen through my 'disguise', I decided I didn't want to buy anything from his shop...
Male 'beauty and talent' Contest back at the hotel; the bf didn't enter, but given the contestants that took part, he would have won easily...
Thur 2 Nov - All day sunbathing, beach and poolside. Bf left the aircon on at night and I caught a cold....
Fri 3 Nov - Sneezed non-stop and had runny nose but hey, I was still there on the beach! Finished my 4th and last book.
Sat 4 Nov - Last day, so spent many hours walking. Gathered some flora samples (bf gonna try and grow...) and then we had our final meal before flying back to chilly England. Just our luck to have some drunken Scots on the plane behind us (throwing up cos they'd drunk so much) and I also had someone who smelt like he hadn't washed all week sitting next to me...thought I was going to join in with the vomiting!
Back home just before 5am in freezing temperatures...not a great time to be back!
Better turn my brain on now, ready for work tomorrow!
welcome back - glad you had a good time!
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