Got here without any major drama

On Tuesday morning we were woken up very early with the rain hammering on the roof in the caravan.  I was surprised because it was lovely and sunny on Monday afternoon. In fact it was so hot in the van they we had to turn off all the heaters and open up all the windows and doors.   I thought we had seen the last of the April showers but it was not to be.   As it happened we wanted to be up early on Tuesday so we could have a shower and pack the last bits and pieces.  I was concerned when I put on the news to discover that Billing Aquadrome had been evacuated the day before but Phil said that Overstone has never had a history of flooding so there was no need to worry.

We left Overstone at quarter past eight thinking we had loads of time to get to MK but the A45 was almost at a standstill and it took us almost an hour to get to Jim & Shirley’s house.  As Jim’s business is in Luton and he drives there every day, Phil had asked if he would mind giving us a lift to the airport.  He said that was fine even though it did mean that Jim & Shirley had to leave much earlier than they normally did.  The M1 was slow but at least it was moving.  We left our car in Jim’s car park and had a quick tour of new premises and then Jim very kindly dropped us off at Luton airport.  Thanks Jim!  The weather was foul and we were more than happy to be leaving the UK for a sunnier climate.

Unfortunately there was only one member of Ryanair staff checking in passengers so it took us 45 minutes to check in one bag and get our boarding passes.  We literally had to whip through security and run to gate number 2.  We grabbed a meal deal from Boots but that was about it, no time for the loo or even a cup of coffee.  For this trip we had priority boarding and easily found 2 seats together with enough storage for our bags.  But what chaos it was getting the other passengers seated and finding space for their bags especially as ours was a full flight.  Ryanair need to rethink their boarding strategy.  They charge so much for luggage in the hold that it forces people to travel with hand luggage and there simply is not enough room on the plane.  Check-in staff were also being very strict allowing only one piece of hand luggage when passengers went to go through security; anyone with a handbag were forced to jam this in their case.  A pointless exercise in my opinion because of course, when they board, people then had to open up their carry on luggage to get the stuff they needed for the flight.  I was sneaky, I hid my handbag under my rain coat so it was no hassle for me.

Flying with any cheap airline is never a good experience and this was true of our flight on Tuesday morning.  Little leg room and a screaming baby in front of us on a 4 and a half hour flight doesn’t bode well, but I suppose we did leave on time and arrived in Tenerife South on time.  The local time is the same as the UK.  We were dismayed when we stepped off the aircraft to see grey cloudy skies and also it wasn’t that warm.  Okay, there was no rain but I expected the air temperature to be a lot higher.  It didn’t take long for our bag to come out but then we had to wait in the Europa car hire queue for ages.  It was about half five by the time we checked in to the Parque Albatros.

Our room was disappointing; dark, dingy, cramped, cold and it smelt a little damp.  It had been a long day of travelling so we decided to unpack and then went down to the pool bar for a drink. By chance we just caught the end of happy hour so our drinks were half price.  For dinner, we found a little tourist restaurant on the sea front, roughly a 10 minute walk from Albatros which we hadn’t tried before.  It wasn’t fine dining and the menu was the usual Tenerife tourist stuff but I had sea bass with canarian potatoes with all the local sauces. It was pleasant enough but we were tired so it was back to our room for telly and bed.

Thankfully the wind had dropped and the sun was shining when we opened up our curtains yesterday morning.  Our self catering one bed apartment didn’t look as grim as it did the night before and we really liked the long balcony which was basked in sunshine.   I made the tea and Phil did us eggs and soldiers for breakfast.  Phil went down to get a key for the safe but this didn’t work so we had to wait for an engineer to come and take a look.  He couldn’t fix it and said that a safe engineer would have to come and take a look.  We told him to come in with a key and headed out because by this time it was getting on for midday.

Last time we were here in Golf del Sur we found a lovely little Spanish restaurant in a place called El Medana so we went back to explore the town further.  We walked all round, up and down the cobbled streets but although there a few fancy restaurants offering Plate del Dia, there were none we fancied.  We like El Medano, it is being sensitively developed and for the moment it has retained most of its Canaries character. Phil drove on a little further but there was nothing so we ended up driving back to San Blas and ended up at one of our usual ex pat eateries.  Very English, but cheap and cheerful and it filled a hole.  After lunch we went to the supermarket for some basic supplies. The original plan was to go to the local big supermarket but we may decide to change rooms so we didn’t want to cart a weeks’ worth of groceries to another room.

The clouds came out and the wind got up at midday so sunbathing by the pool yesterday afternoon wasn’t an option.  Instead, Phil watched telly and I went to reception to check my emails.  Last night we went down for happy hour and the quiz which turned out not to be a quiz but a game of bingo. I can’t seem to get away from bingo these days.  It ended up being quite a hilarious happy hour.  Carling, our bingo caller handed us our cards and crayons and started the calling out the numbers.    His Spanish accent was quite strong and he called the numbers in Spanish, French and English.  The English was just hilarious and his ‘3’s and his ‘6’s sounded the same.  We had to keep asking the folk on the table next to us what the number was.  Of course we didn’t win but we had a giggle and the wind had dropped and the sun was shining.  After the excitement of Bingo it was back to our room for an early night. I don’t know why but Phil & are feeling very tired, whether this is the climate or simply the change in air temperature, I don’t know.  I just hope that the clouds disappear and this jaded feeling goes because if all we are going to do is eat and sleep then it doesn’t bode well for a very interesting blog.