Blogs from Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, Europe - page 7

Monday morning and since my shoulder whilst still hurting seems to be starting to improve I decided that today I would start on my some what postponed New Year exercise regime. I sneaked out of the bedroom and into the lounge did some squats, lunges and calf raises, fed the cat and then set the table for breakfast. Today we decided to take the bus up the coast to have a closer look at Puerto Rico. Fired up from yesterdays junk food and my talk of time shares, Dee armed herself with copies of her CV and steeled herself to approach likely work locations. Things did not start well when she spoke to a helpful and friendly girl in the tourist information who advised her that you needed a degree in travel and tourism to work ... read more

Saturday brought another food shopping trip to San Fernando this one being enlivened only by waiting in an enormously long and slow moving queue at the post office for Dee to post a Birthday present to her sister in Germany. To liven up the day I suggested we visit yet another shopping mall this time in San Fernando. Dee found a fabulous pair of purple shoes at an unbelievably cheap price and since she was reluctant to treat herself I treated her to them instead. Inside the mall was a Hyper Dino Supermarket so we decided to try this for our shopping for a change. Annoyingly while some items were cheaper than our usual Mercadona others were either more expensive or not stocked and so we had to pay another visit to Mercadona anyway. Dee hurt ... read more

Today we decided to splash out on the bus once again and take a trip to the other end of the island to see the capital Las Palmas. Home apparently to 1 million souls! The bus service on the island is quite good. The buses themselves are quite comfortable and more like coaches than the buses we are used to at home, but whilst they are clean, comfortable and plentiful, they aren’t particularly cheap, it costing us 11.80 Euros each for the return journey. The journey itself was not particularly inspiring, it was quite quick, only taking 45 minutes but the rows and rows of concrete hotels around Playa del Ingles just gave way to very grey and tatty looking poly plastic tunnels stretching for miles and sheltering the crops which in turn gave way to ... read more

Ah two weeks in and we hardly seem to have done or seen anything, its raining again but is still nice and warm and after glimpsing the weather forecast for the UK whilst Dee was watching the TV last I guess we really should be thankful since it seems the UK has actually turned into the South Pole and is being whipped with artic blizzards. I got up early and played host to a storm of pigeons who have taken a fancy to our Muesli which we have been feeding them. Yesterday we even had a very brave little one who ventured in through the patio doors and almost hoped onto the table in his quest for more. They seem to particularly like the seeds and nuts but throw the dried banana and raisins back. I ... read more

Since Sunday is supposed to be day of rest that’s exactly what we did. Dee spent the day making a beaded necklace, drawing and reading and I spent the day catching up on emails and finally witting this Blog. Today was also the start of Carnival on the island and I was quite keen to see it. Unfortunately Carnival seems to be centred around the main park in Las Palmas the capital which is at the other end of the island and a long and costly bus ride away. The opening party didn’t begin till 9pm and so we decided that it wasn’t really practical for us to make the trip. In the end it turned out to be just as well since we were woken not long after bedtime by the sound of torrential rain, ... read more