Yet another day where the temperature was predicted to exceed the day before. It was all becoming rather repetitive and we were starting to take it for granted.
Karen slept in rather late today as we had been quite late back (for us) the previous night so we had a slow start to the morning.
As today we were celebrating Stuart’s birthday, the plan for the day had been chosen by him. We all met at 11am in Reception for an extremely leisurely stroll down to Old Town for lunch at Mardeleva..
Walking along got me thinking about Brexit. Places like Lanzarote badly needs tourists from the UK. I would conservatively estimate that the Brits make up around 60% of the visitors. In my opinion, whatever the political outcome is, there is no way that the rest of Europe (and Spain in particular) could afford to put up barriers to UK tourists. The economy here depends entirely on the tourist income. Therefore the comments about planes not flying and visas being needed are just doom mongering threats. The uproar and unrest from the people in the UK fit they were not easily come here and places like this because of political fallout would be enormous. This convinces me that a solution to the current situation will be found. I just have no idea what it will be, but we will all know soon enough. I know most people are fed up with it all, I actually find all the political shenanigans fascinating. I’m sure there will be books/films/thesis written about it for years to come.
We arrived at the restaurant before they had started serving food, but got sat on a table that was acceptable to the girls in the shade. Stuart generously ordered a Jug of Sangria for us to toast his birthday whilst we waited and it was very welcome. When it came to the food both Karen & I ordered the Scrambled Eggs with Prawns both of which were excellent. We were in no hurry to move on and so we sat for quite a while admiring the splendid view and chatting about nothing in particular.
The walk back took us along the beach as the others wanted to swim on Stuarts birthday. Both Karen and I declined the opportunity to do so. I am a wimp when it comes getting into cold water and the sea would have needed a lot more heat to entice me in. Also I am also very wary of the beach here as there are lots of sharp rocks underwater and I am frightened of what they would do to my legs if I slipped. Karen is not keen on going into the sea anytime as she doesn’t like ever being out of her depth. So Karen and I watched the others get into the sea and then wandered off to get Karen an ice cream. This was then followed by a coffee at Dos Mil. Our time there was cut short as it was by now simply too hot sitting there for long in the sun for Karen, so whilst she made her way back to the apartment, I was sent on a detour to Spar to get her some more muesli for breakfast. I was not happy though to get all the way there to find it closed for Sunday Siesta.
We then chilled in the balcony where I finished my book (Dear Mrs Bird).
This evening to round his celebrations Stuart had chosen that we eat at Pinocchios which was approved by everyone. Both Karen & I had the chicken that we thought was very good. After the usual free shot of Caramel Vodka handed out whilst paying the bill, we then all walked down to Old Town to The Island music bar.
We have been here before but not since it had been recently taken over and the decor had improved. We sat upstairs on the balcony and listened to the house band. Whilst they were good musicians (although one of them was clearly much better than the others), none of them had decent singing voices. They rotated the singing duties between all three of them, but they all just mumbled. I know I am a grumpy old git and this is only my opinion, but it was noticeable that on the balcony there was a quick turnover of people as hardly anyone stayed for more than one drink which is never a good sign. Actually as we were leaving another couple also leaving were heard saying ‘the singing was awful just a monotonous drone, not like it used to be in here’. Its a shame as when the band played an instrumental melody they were actually rather good. They need a charismatic lead singer to help them out. They did have sensible seating though on the balcony.
Karen & I left at around 11.30pm leaving the others enjoying themselves and decided that as it was such a lovely warm evening to walk the 30 minutes back rather than take a taxi. Tonight we were both free from any ailments and enjoyed the stroll.
However despite another good day we were saddened by the fact that everyone else was leaving tomorrow, leaving us to spend the last 2 days on our own. It has been lovely being away with other people for a change.
Good weather, good company, good times.
