"Four go mad in Jandia"

 Today November ends and it has been a month of terrible weather, except - amazingly - for most of the five day stay of Greyrocks' old friends Chris and Penny from York who were en route to Malaga, and have never been to the Canaries before. What luck!

 

(Chris was "best man" at Greyrocks' wedding 29 years ago, so "old" is the right word!)

 

The weather was good enough for some sea swimming from Waikiki beach, some tapas lunches and plenty of exploration of the town. In the evenings we went to some music venues, a humiliating Mad Mik quiz, to Caracoles and - twice at Chris' request - to the wonderful Slow Boat Wok. We didn't make it to the Grandes Playas, but we did plan and implement a major day out by bus, which has rapidly become a thing of legend and the subject of a Chis water colour!

 

 



 

MJ:- impressive beach -not much else!

Getting to the Point

They wanted to see the full extent of our long island, and Greyrocks hadn't ventured beyond Morro Jable - and that was several years ago, so we went for it, starting with the 8am bus from the port, changing at P de Rosario onto the No 10 which was almost empty for most of the journey but became chaotic in Costa Calma:- an inappropriately named resort from which clearly many tourists wished to escape!  We arrived in Morro Jable at 11.15 and asked about the arrangements for the big onward push that would take place in the afternoon! The attraction of the place is the remarkable expanse of wide sand. Other than that it is a rather brash and badly maintained colony of Germany. As we proceeded down to a spot on the beach it began to rain, so it was off to bar for shelter! Another feature of MJ is that it is set between steep hills, so four folk in their sixties trailed up one in search of what was called the bus station, but was new and not yet open. Never mind we found the bus!

 This service has only been operational since August and serves both Cofete and the lighthouse at the end of the island. As is evident it is an all-terrain vehicle with 21 seats, and it needs to be - this is a rough ride, not helped by hire cars being driven where they should not be! Greyrocks was confused by a recent route change so at Cofete, where one can almost see both sides of the island and the beach is glorious and almost deserted, we paid again and continued to the Punto. Whoops:- lighthouse and cafeteria closed on Mondays and it was Monday! The driver slopes off for refreshment and then we make the return journey via Cofete, which was no less knuckle-whitening! Since then Greyrocks has researched the legend of a landmark we passed:- Villa Winter. Now there is a conspiracy theorist's dream!

Journey's End: Faro de Punto

 

 The driver was a very jolly and helpful man! We asked about where - given the dubious status of the bus station - we could get a No1 bus back, and he told us so we retired to a bar and returned for the 18.15 bus. In a farcical incident it indicated and pulled in a little late to a distant point and didn't stop! Four wrinklies ran after it to catch it on the other side of the road. Now normally Tiadhe drivers are tolerant and respectful. Not this one! He shouted at us that the "estacion" was "over there!" and sped away empty. Grrr! Not trusting that we would ever successfully get a bus from this location we set off steeply downhill in search of a labelled bus stop. Every one we found was out of service with no information whatsoever about buses! Eventually, with the aid of a taxi ride we caught a delayed and rather full 19.00 bus, which made good time so that we made it onto the Corralejo bus with a minute to spare and were back in town in time to catch a scratch supper. There was talk of complaints to Tiadhe, the council in MJ, the press etc etc, but time has mellowed Greyrocks and it truly was an adventure!

Black Friday in the Canaries!

 Next day warnings were around of an impending storm but all that happened was an unfortunate incident involving Bob's glasses and the sea! Chris and Penny took the bus to the airport on the Wednesday morning, and the storm started in Corralejo at noon! Phew!

 

Greyrocks was due to have two nights in Caleta de Fuste for Bob's birthday. Through the days leading up to the weekend the weather was intermittently foul. We woke up on the Saturday to a power cut, which we eventually discovered was only chez nous and could be dealt with, but it delayed us. We would have been happy to pay to stay at the Barceló, but short stays weren't available so we went to a big and slightly dated aparthotel, which was fairly comfortable, and had several swimming pools, which looked most uninviting all weekend. Happy Hours and tapas at El Capetan (inside!) got us through the wet days and the dinners - particularly at our favourite - 15 - were well up to scratch! On Monday it was dry but very cold for our departure, and as we travelled North the oncoming vehicles had their headlights on, and we did pass through rain. We made it home from the port in dry weather but the sea was very, very rough and it stayed that way through the week, culminating in Friday's memorable conditions. Greyrocks managed to get some shopping done, but was largely housebound and speculated about the viability of the planned visit on the Friday by John and Tracey, whom we know from Goa. They were booked on a coach and ferry trip from Lanzarote. To no-one's great surprise and to everyone's relief it was cancelled. The sea conditions were shocking! Yesterday was also bad, but today it is brighter, calmer and time for swabbing the decks! Our janitor has also tracked down the cause of the week's frequent electrical tripping, so Greyrocks is looking forward to a more cosy and restful December. Watch this space!

 

 

 

"Tote that cabin bag (and umbrella)!"

Go for it girls!

November has been eventful  to say the least for Greyrocks! After a non-event of Halloween (staying in for a quiet night but armed with cheap chocolate bars for t-and-treaters who didn't show now that the demographics of the complex have changed) we were up earlyish to wave off the intrepid ladies walking for a cancer charity. There had been talk of Greyrocks participating (with Ruth on the bike) but Bob`s new knee troubles, and reluctance to seek sponsors meant it was just a donation and good wishes. They did very well, though, despite our absence raising over 2K euros and with only one casualty!

In the early hours of the next morning Ruth was awakened by ominous noises outside, and that was the start of some pretty horrible weather that has been around on-and-off for much of the month! The Canarian tourism authorities wouldn´t want publicity for this, but holidaymakers have been looking dejected! On the Sunday in question there were gale force winds and the rain was frequently near-horizontal. A couple of days later things started to improve. Serious consideration was given to going to the Big Beach on the sunny Tuesday, but tasks got in the way, and instead we went on a much less satisfactory day. It was touch-and-go and we didn´t get in the sea (very frisky!) or even sunbathe (evil wind). The man we know at our chiringuito was battening down his hatches when we got there! Still, by getting there at all before February Greyrocks had broken an emerging pattern for the winter season! All one could say was "Well this will seem like good weather by the weekend!"

That was because Greyrocks made a five-day pilgrimage to UK in recognition of Ruth´s Dad - Vic - celebrating his 90th birthday. This presented some logistical challenges as we have only sufficient warm clothes to cover a quick overnight before and after Heathrow-Goa trips, and we had only paid for cabin bags, but it all turned out well and the weather was only marginally worse than we had suffered here on Fraggle Rock!

We stayed at the Premier Inn in Croydon, and this was one of several pleasant surprises. On the Easyjet plane we had bought reduced-price rail tickets and then jumped straight on to a qualifying and very fast train. When we got to East Croydon we saw that there had been major  station re-fit and we could leave by a new bridge that took us straight to the hotel. Gatwick to check-in in 25 minutes! A nearly new hotel, too, and distinctly better that Travelodge!

On Saturday we bought Travelcards and went to visit the Balham house and our old neighbour, on to the local to meet our gardener-decorator and then on a tortuous but nostalgic bus trip up to Waterloo. It was cold, raining intermittently and Remembrance Weekend. Sitting space undercover was in short supply on the South Bank but we met Chloe in the Festival Hall where she wanted to see an exhibition by offenders, and we then walked over a very crowded Hungerford Bridge to the Cafe Rouge in Villiers Street where we managed to negotiate a table and stay for many hours as dripping tourists sought refuge from a storm. Not a bad meal, and great fun seeing the offspring!

The Sunday family "do" also worked well thanks to some tight planning. Neither Vic nor Viv was really up  to going to a restaurant so we cut down the guest list to cover just the two generations and arranged for party food to be delivered by Waitrose and Tesco for a buffet lunch at their house. Lois also ordered a magnificent cake iced in Air Force blue and with a skillfully moulded Lancaster atop. Greyrocks got a cheap but slow train to Havant and was collected at the station. It was a day enjoyed by all, but especially Birthday Boy!

A Turner reminiscent of the Lanzarote ferry!

Now Greyrocks had two full days to play with. Task 1 was to buy a Kindle and set it up, then, after a bit more shopping we went to the flicks. There was all of a dozen in the audience for Mr Turner but rather more comfort than at our (now) most frequent venue of the Palolem outdoor cinema, and it was warm! We greatly enjoyed the film and it gave us a mission for the next day.

We took the bus again, this time passing through Brixton where Greyrocks had not been for many years. We hissed at Bob´s former place of work, at Stockwell station, at County Hall and at the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street for a range of reasons and then went to a pub near Trafalgar Square to shelter from the rain. We paused to look at the strange statue on the fourth plinth and the Great War installation in the centre of the square.

The main focus of the afternoon was to see the supposed nine Turner paintings in the National Gallery. With some help from staff we discovered that two were out on loan, five were located in two different rooms and the rest eluded us! Making the link with the knowledge gained from the film the previous day made for a rich experience. On our way out we stopped for viewings of Canaletto and Hogarth - on the themes of water and London. And on the subject of links Bob then went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the collection of Turner prize-winning Grayson Perry:-  a little rushed, given the hour, but admired! It was then another bus  - this time down through Walworth Road and Camberwell to frighteningly trendy East Dulwich to meet Chloe for dinner until thrown out and a late bus back to Croydon.

And that was that:- easy journey home to Fuerte and preparation for the next event!