A Bit Better Birthday

A work by Jack Beng-Thi

Over the years Greyrocks has been late in posting, but this is a record! It is a panic to get recorded with a December date, the tale of a trip to Las Palmas for a birthday at the end of November! This post is being written in Goa, and it all seems a long way off!
We took a three day "holiday" to celebrate Bob's birthday. We flew for around EUR 10 per person, per leg, thanks to residents' discount, and it all worked very well except for a muddle over surnames - which is a common occurrence with non-Spaniards who don't have a second apellido. With that resolved for a fee of EUR 1.50 we had a great flight with a front seat, and got the two buses to Santa Catalina, and couldn't find the hotel! Some recriminations, but worth it in the end for a good room in a newly renovated large hotel with just a few niggles!

The weather was mixed! We had some intervals of beautiful sunshine - often walking along the prom of Las Canteras, but also some heavy rain, and whilst there were sunbathers on the beach and a few in the sea it wasn't really that pleasant for sustained periods. We feel we know the city quite well and much of what we did was a repeat. We went down to the other half of the city (San Telmo) and went round the market, then had a good few hours in CAAM near the cathedral. We still saw only the work of one artist:-  Jack Beng-Thi from La Réunion.  We were surprised to find a very popular bar in the park at San Telmo disappeared, but mooched around others dodging  showers - the worst of which was as we left El Corte Ingles, after a minor shopping trip! One of the days was clearly a major one for cruise visits, with consequent crowds! We went to a nearby mall and saw three ships in at once!
Food-wise we knew what we wanted, and largely achieved it! A French-inspired dinner, a birthday bogavante at La Lonja, and a good quality steak,  The last was a challenge as we went on spec to a Uruguayan we had spotted last year and it was full, so we went instead to an unknown on the beach front that advertised beef on the bone with the hot stone. It was not South American as this was a Spanish Peninsula place. It was not quite what we wanted but pretty good! A couple of light lunches were - of course - at 100 Montaditos. 

Good when finished!

The famous nearby Belen for Christmas was well under way in construction on the beach, and was clearly going to be up to scratch!

So - all in all- a rather better birthday treat than Ruth's in June which will be remembered forever by Greyrocks for all the wrong reasons!