First day first impressions

We are on the second floor behind the lift in room 234.  When we arrived, Claire asked them for a nice room that got the sun on the balcony and this is what we got.  Claire remembers that someone said on trip Advisor that this room was great and we got it by pure chance.  When we first got up the sky was overcast and it even started to drizzle with rain while we were out for a walk to orient ourselves and get a few supplies.  If its sunny we will get the sun by 9am and it is with us all day until 5pm.  We have a minor pool on the floor below us with waterfalls so you need the toilet all the time.  We also have a sea view, its great for us.

We can either catch the lift which is next to our room or walk down the spiral staircase that goes through the atrium.  I even like all the tiles that they have used to build this place.  The toilets near the bar is made from smoked glass with sensors.  When you get near to pee a wall of water flows over the glass.  Neat.

The reception area is quite nice with lots of local painting produced by local artists.  You dont normally spend very much time in the reception area but the only place that you can pick up the free wifi is in this reception area so I do spend some time there.  Its also next to the bar so its easy to have a drink while you are online.  Neat.

Our hotel is called “Geranios Suites” which is a real 4 star but sometimes classed as a 5 star.  The building is lovely but they don't employ enough staff to look after the guests.

As soon as you get outside you are by the sea so its quite handy.  Its also about the last hotel before the beach walk to the salt mine museum that we walked to last time.  We spoke to a couple in the bar and they said that there is a really nice restaurant next to the salt mines where they serve great paella and seafood.  We will try that but last time we found the best Paella restaurant in Pozo Negro called Los Pescardores, but its about 8km from our hotel along the beach.

They still have the camels that I took a picture of last time but Im not sure if they are the same ones.  If I get time I will compare photo’s.

Everywhere started to look familiar when we walked around; this is the walkway that goes past the Barcello hotel.

Its quite a pretty walk but by this time it was getting a bit dark over Bills Mother’s.  It started to rain a little when we walked back.

However, we did find our favorite supermarket that we used last time in self catering.  I couldn't resist getting the ingredients for our new favorite spaghetti with garlic and chili.  Guess what,  I managed to buy another jar of those really strong chilies that we bough when we were away last time.

Claire had been to check out the spar in our hotel and she wanted me to have a look to.  I was impressed and at €14 a day its a bargain.  We can use the gym for free and they have 2 squash courts and a tennis court as well.

By the time we got into the main pool and spa part my glasses and camera had steamed up.

Here are the two squash courts, shame Im too old and fat to play these days as that was always my favorite sport to play.

This is the main pool; well actually two pools separated by a causeway that leads to the spa.  You can see the pool bar at the back but its not very well staffed.  Well thats it for our first day here.  So far the food is ok but I don't think it will be long before we get fed up with it and try the local cuisine.  Not sure when you will hear from me again as I don't like writing unless I have something to report and I feel that this will be a chill holiday without many events.  Maybe Claire will find some time?

Fuerteventura

The last time we went to Fuerteventura was only in October 2012 and here we are back again.  Last time we stayed in self catering and hired a car for the entire week so that we could travel around and see it all.  This time we are All In so we will be taking it very much easier so don't expect many blog entries.  I only tend to write one if I have good photo’s or a story to tell.

These pictures are from the internet so they are even better than mine.  In fact it looks alot better than I remember.

Thats the last of the great photos from the internet, now for some of mine from last time.  I remember this restaurant on the West coast that was recommended by our car rental chap.  I asked him for ones that are not used by tourists but by locals.  This was the main course from part of a 4 course meal.  Claire was horrified when this came and it was all for her.  She doesn't even like getting the whole fish but to get the entire catch!

I know that I have only just been talking about the aboriginals of the Canary Islands from our cruise but just to remind you, here is a quote from my last visit, its the island that had two kingdoms and the blue bummed wasps that lay their eggs inside caterpillars   "By the time of the conquest the island was divided into two Guanches kingdoms, one following the King Guize and the other Ayoze.  The Maxorate tribe lived in the north with the Jandia to the south.  The kingdoms were separated by a wall who's remains is still preserved today".

Ours is the mobile home on the right.  No, we are staying in Hotel Geranios Suite and Spa located in Playa de Castillo in Caleta De Fuste half way down the East coast.  This is the same town that we stayed in last time and it was only a short walk up the beach to the little fish restaurant where we found the best paella we had ever eaten.

Another successful holiday booked.  We found our hotel near Gatwick to drop our car off at which turned out to be the same one that we stopped at on our way back from the cruise.  He dropped us off and everything went like clockwork, we had a drink in Jamie Oliver’s Italian place which was quite nice.

I had booked a private taxi rather than the shuttle as its usually only a couple of euros more but well worth it as you don't have to hang around and wait for everyone to get on then off the bus.  I was a little disappointed when we were directed to a full sized bus, Number 31 in bay D7.  However, the driver put our bags aboard and set straight off so we had the entire bus to ourselves.

We arrived at our hotel and both recognized it instantly from last time as a really posh one that only other people stay at.  We were well impressed with the hotel and especially our rooms.  We even got his and hers wash basins.  We also have a large balcony with a pool and sea view which will get the sun all day long if we get any.

Straight into the restaurant which was impressive and Claire liked the wine which is always a bonus.  They are understaffed as Trip advisor states but the ones they do have earn their money.  We had quite an early night and an early start for breakfast which was also very good.  You can even have champagne for breakfast if you like or a Bucks Fizz if you prefer.  No sunshine yet but its early days; its only a few days ago that they forecast rain for 5 days.  We are off for a walk now so, see you later alligator.

Mums, ads and just stuff

Before I start on my day to day daily misgivings, I thought I would mention that Phil, with the help of Jim, managed to sort out the iPad ad problem.   He posted how to do it in the comments from my last posting, so if you missed this and are still having problems, check it out.

We haven’t been up too much over the weekend; we both made it to the gym on Saturday morning, it was busy and just a shame that we had to stop working out because Phil felt faint.  The reason being, he had left the flat without having any breakfast, not even a cup of tea.  Silly Billy although my fault because I had been up for ages and was pestering him to hurry up.

My mum would have been 70 years old on Sunday so Janice invited me, Mike, & Sue for lunch at The New Inn on Saturday.  Sue kindly picked us up and Mike and it was nice because Phil and Ian came along too.  Janice was joined by mum’s friends, Ann and Pat, so there were 8 of us in total.  I am not sure I have too much in common but Janice makes me laugh and Ann and Pat are the salt of the earth. It helped of course that my bestie Sue was there and while we did eat, lots of wine was consumed as well.  Sue & Ian left after lunch but Phil, Mike and me went back to Janice’s to toast mum with a bottle of champagne for what would have been my mum’s 70^th.  Anniversaries after someone dies can sometimes be difficult but cheers girlies, we did have a laugh.

I made chicken curry in the slow cooker when we got back; it was an 8 hour curry so I cooked it for 4 hours on Saturday night but it didn’t turn out good.  Before leaving for the gym, I made Phil taste it and he said that it tasted like a beef casserole!  He was right it wasn’t pleasant on the palate, so after DW, I popped into Asda to get ready made chicken tikka masala and chicken korma, plus some onion bargies together with an assortment of naan breads in readiness for Harriet & Billy who were coming to lunch.

Harriet has been through a little bit of a rough patch recently; she had an abnormal smear test and had to go for a biopsy.  She is still awaiting results but fortunately she didn’t have to have any laser treatment.  This, of course, may come at a later date, but fingers crossed she won’t need it.  Harriet has also been trying to get her flat up for sale which has not proved easy having to communicate with Guinness, the housing association. We had a valuation which we didn’t agree with and so basically we have lost 10k.   Negotiations started on the 22^nd of November and she still isn’t up for sale.  One word of warning, never ever buy a shared ownership through Guinness, they are crap.

Billy was suffering with a hangover and I don’t think our Harriet felt so great because they had both been out on the town the night before.  They did manage some curry and a couple of beers but left after lunch to meet some friends at 3pm.  It’s not all bad news; saw on FB yesterday that they have booked a holiday in Mexico.  And why not, you only live once and why not treat yourself to a great holiday before being tied down to a mortgage and kids.

Boy was it freezing on Monday morning; I still had to scrap my car at 10 am.   I had to drive to Kiln Farm to pick up our new blog book which Mr Postie had tried to deliver on Saturday afternoon.   I had a panic because they couldn’t find it but some 20 minutes later they eventually found my package.  I am really pleased with it.   I stopped off get petrol and buy a 5kg bag of basmati rice from the Oriental Shop before going back to the flat.  Talk about an exciting life!

I went to the gym in the afternoon leaving Phil to go to Overstone to pick up the post.  We did emails, paperwork and some internet research.  The hotel we are staying in Fuerteventura next week has got some pretty poor reviews. Not only that, I checked the weather and the forecast for 5 days starting from Monday, is rain 5 days in a row!!!

Phil's mum hasn't been very well, we phoned last Thursday and she had lost her voice.  Another phone call on Friday and she said she wasn't feeling 100%  On Saturday when we phoned she had been up all night suffering with indigestion which was so bad that she had been sick; vomit with blood in it didn't sound good.  Phil said that he would phone on Sunday and if she wasn't any better then he would phone the doctor.  I worry so much about this old lady who I know is so lonely, I offered to go down and visit on Sunday but she said felt too poorly.  She sounded a little better yesterday but who knows, either way we are going down next Sunday.  I do so hope that she will be okay and its nothing serious, just a virus.

It’s going to be a flurry of jobs this week, pay back for being away so much. My car goes in for a service this morning and on Thursday I have the windscreen people coming to the flat to fit me a nice windscreen.  I only had it replaced in 2012 and I am not sure how the screen came about, although Billy seems to think it may have something with me pouring boiling water from the kettle to clear the ice in the mornings.  Hey ho, my mistake but hopefully I can get the windscreen replaced without paying. I will let you know folks.

Help please

Sue, Ian and Phil have reported to me that they have had problems with game Aps advertisements popping up uninvited whilst trying to read the blog.  Apparently they get so far down and then suddenly, with this year's blog, their iPad or iPhone or iSomething suddenly flips to an iPad game advertisement.  Now, I still use a crappy laptop and I don't have this problem.  I don't know how to resolve it so if ANYONE has any suggestions I would be very grateful. 

I have been wondering how to make the blog more interesting because even I am getting a little fed up of my middle age boring hormonal day to day doings. One thing I thought about was asking friends n family to post guest postings when they go away on holiday.  This would be easy to do because all I would have to do is invite via email any potential guest writers as an author. Just a thought but it may spice life up and also give others an insight to parts of the world that we don't travel.  Anyone interested please inbox me.

Me n Marrakech

Marrakech was certainly an experience and not one that I’m likely to repeat.  It’s a shame really because I have always wanted to go to Morocco and was looking forward to a break away.  But I’d only been there for less than an hour when I remembered how much I dislike Muslim countries.  The taxi that picked us up from the airport was promising but when we got dumped at the bum end of the Medina when the taxi couldn’t go any further, I began to have doubts.  These were confirmed when we walked with our cases, through allies and dark,dingy, dirty passageways until we reached our riad.

Our riad, www.lamaisonnomade.com had good reviews on Trip Advisor but I’m afraid I was really disappointed when I got here.  Our ground floor room was dark and drab; it was freezing cold because there were no heaters and stunk of cats pee.  On the first evening, we dumped our bags and walked the gauntlet and eventually got to the main square after a 40 minute walk.  The aim was to find a restaurant but we ended up in a Kentucky.  The evening was not a success, Phil fell over on a pavement and we got horribly lost on the way back to the riad.

On our second day we went to the main square where all the souks were, Jemma El Fina. We walked round the many souks and got severely pestered all the time.  We didn’t buy anything which was a shame, because there were some leather goods that I liked the looks of but neither me or Phil are very good at haggling.  We saw the snake charmers and the men with the monkeys but we stayed well away.  At lunchtime we found a shabby hotel where they served beer. It was a nice cold beer but we got ripped off, 25 quid for 2 small ones. We managed to get some lunch, a tagine for Phil and chicken and chips for me.  Afterwards we walked past the Koutoubia Mosque and found some nice gardens.

On Day 3 we went on the waterfall trip as we wanted to get out of the riad and also out of Marrakech.  We spent, what seemed like hours, on the minibus and it was half twelve by the time we got to the site of the waterfall.  We had a tagine for lunch first and then started the climb. It was steep and wet in places and very dangerous.  Now, I think I am fit but I struggled and several of our group gave up and went back down.  The waterfall itself, as waterfalls go, was disappointing, I have seen more spectacular in my time.  The climb down was treacherous, I came down mostly on my bum and when I got down to the bottom, both my feet were soaked, my shoes were ripped and my leggings were covered in mud.  We had to wait 45 minutes for our guide and a German bloke to come back down before we could start on the journey back to Marrakech.  It was boring and took over 2 hours.  We had to walk back to our riad because the king was in situ at the palace and the roads were closed.  We had another tagine for dinner at the riad and then retired to our gloomy, cold room.

We paid 30 quid for 2 tickets on the tourist bus on day 4.  It was interesting to see the new town but there was a cold wind and I was freezing.  Still it killed time and at least we could say that we saw the sights.  Lunch in the new town was nice just a shame we couldn’t get a beer.  After lunch we did another route on the bus to the old town which was really boring.  

An English couple, John and Lindsey arrived on our last day and somehow they ended up coming out with us on our last night.  I have just caught up with Phil’s blogs and I am surprised he didn’t make any mention of how we got ripped off.  We were heading for a night club, not really a night club just a bar with music and an alcohol licence but on the way into town we decided to stop off a street café for something to eat.  There wasn’t really a choice but we ended up with a few undercooked chicken kebabs and a tomato salad.  The bill when it came was 78 quid and that was without drinks not even water. Me and Phil nearly fell off our chair.  Talk about being ripped off; I was fairly verbal and threatened to call the police, but we were fairly out numbered by local Moroccan locals so we threw 50 quid on the table and left.  I hate being ripped off.

The bar stroke nightclub was a bit seedy but at least they had western music and beer and wine.  We drank and danced and ended up having to carry Lindsey home.  It was gone half past midnight by the time we got back to the riad.  Phil and I did make it to breakfast but the others didn’t. 

We found a new street on our last day and had a freshly squeezed orange juice in a Henna café which by chance also had Wi-Fi.  Lunch was a pizza at another street café on our way back to the riad but this time we asked the price.  The taxi picked us up from outside the park at half two and boy was I relieved to be going home.

Marrakech just wasn’t for me but my sister went and had a fantastic time.  I think our experience would have been better if we had stayed in a nicer riad or hotel.  Also we stayed in a very undesirable part of the Medina.  It would have also been better to have gone in the summer as opposed to the winter, although my sister Julia who went in June said that there were lots of wasps which would have been a nightmare for me.  The temperature was around 20 which was pleasant and it did feel quite hot between 1pm and 3pm but then it’s a Muslim country and you have to cover up. 

I was a bit hormonal during our stay and behaved like a bit of a princess, this is not normally like me and I did feel a little sorry for Phil because I did nothing but moan all day and all night long. Marrakech certainly wasn’t my cup of tea and I will not be going back.  I think you get what you pay for in Morocco and I would recommend going 5 stars.  Also as ever, research is everything.  I am very glad to be home.

Open top bus trip

 Here are some random pictures taken from our open top bus trip.  I don't have the time or energy to write much as we are suffering from our late night at the night club and are traveling home soon.

These are the city walls that surround the Medina.

One of the eight remaining gates into the Medina.  Can you see the storks nesting on the top?

We stopped for lunch in a nice restaurant and had the best seats in the house.  Pity you couldn't get a beer with your lunch.

The second bus tour is a waste of time, just a few date palms and a golf course.

Some new English people arrived at our Riad and it wasn’t long before Claire whisked them off with us to find the night club we found a few days ago but hadn't been to.  Its called “Rock n Kech” (www.rockandkech.fr).

Here are John and Lindsey before we all got too pissed.  See you soon, we are off now.