It had to happen eventually. Some days on a trip where I was too poorly to blog. If it was to happen anywhere then in our guilty pleasure place of Lanzarote is probably the best place for it as nothing much ever happens here . It’s been a good run though since I started these blogs at the start of 2018.
There was a time when I was working that it seemed whenever I went away that I would go down with something. Almost like my body giving permission for the bugs to take over.
This time I am firmly able to blame Karen. I went down with the exact symptoms she had last week which she caught from a school, except of course being a man I got them far worse. My nose was like a tap with a washer gone. Non-stop running for almost 24 hours.
It took enough effort just moving alone thinking about writing a blog.
Anyhow back to the journey to Lanzarote. It was unremarkable. Stansted was as busy as ever when the shuttle bus dropped us off at 6.10am. The queues at Security were as bad as ever here but we got through without incident. We made our way to the Lounge which at Stansted is still nothing to get excited about other than the food and drink are free. The cooked breakfast was acceptable as was the Rose prosecco that was on tap. We got chatting to a lovely couple sitting opposite to us who were on route to Edinburgh.
The flight was fine with the Brucie bonus of again having no one sitting next to us so we were able to spread ourselves over 3 seats.
From the wheels touching down on the plane it was only 30 minutes later that we were checking into La Penita apartments. Our requested apartment No 133 was ready and we were soon in and sitting on the balcony being visited by the resident parakeets.
After having a cuppa, we wandered down to Hiper Dino for some basic supplies to get us going and then returned to sit outside again. I realised I was feeling a bit lethargic but put it down to the early start. We saw from our vantage point the others as they arrived variously by boat and plane.
Dinner had been booked in advance for all 8 of us at Spinnakers – somewhere we had not been before. There was lots of excited chatter as we caught up with everyone on the short walk. Spinnakers itself was fine and much bigger than I had expected. It was yet another Irish bar run by Irish staff. It does beg the question of how many Irish are actually left back in Ireland.
Now I am no restaurant critic and it is only my opinion but the food did not live up to the description on the menu. The nicest thing I can say is that it was edible. It’s not a place that I would hurry back to eat again and Karen felt the same. Still, it did not matter too much as we were all having a laugh together putting the world to rights.
Then a singer started which kind of put pay to the conversation as he was quite loud doing Motown and Soul covers to backing tracks. His voice was OK but was performing to a generally disinterested room. After a short while we all left. I was now quite tired and so we went back whilst the others went somewhere else for a drink.
Within 5 minutes of returning, I was in bed asleep. Apart from having find some tissues during the night I slept soundly. I was awake quite early and as soon as I was the sneezes started and didn’t stop for about 12 hours. I forced myself to get showered and dressed so that we didn’t waste a day for Karen, but as soon as we got a message from Glenn suggesting we all meet for a walk altogether I sensibly decided to give it a miss. I took some cold tablets I had with me that I think I had bought in the USA. Whatever was in them sent me straight to sleep for over 2 hours which was a good thing. I had only just awoken when Karen returned from the ‘Turn Left’ walk.
I still felt a poor old Hector but taking some paracetamols managed to walk with Karen down to Dos Mil to get her a coffee about 4pm. It properly wore me out though.
Dinner was booked at Napolentena as I needed to eat I got myself there. It was good to have the distraction and thankfully my running nose had started to dry up by then. The food was much better than the previous night as was the service. I had food envy though and should have ordered the sole, but that was my fault. Again, the others went onto another bar but I needed my bed and after a cuppa back in the apartment was soon sound asleep for another 10 hours.
I woke up feeling groggy and as though I had a cotton wool head. My cold had dried up considerably but instead I felt worse generally. But I really didn’t want to miss another day so dosed up with paracetamol joined the ‘Turn Right’ walk. We ended up at the Café at the Diving Centre which turned out to be cheap and cheerful. On the way back, Karen and I left the others and went into the new large supermarket and bought a few more things we needed including some hot chicken to take back for lunch.
We had lunch in the apartment and sat around until about 3pm when we wandered down to the new Valery coffee shop to give it a try. It seemed fine. Then we popped into the refurbished Spa and got Karen an Ice Cream that she devoured whilst we sat on a bench in the sun.
In the sunshine Lanzarote looks and feels fine. I still struggle though with all the cheap bars and tit tat shops. Where it has been gentrified it is fine and I understand what the officials mean when they say they are trying to attract different types of tourists. I still wonder how any of these bars and places make money.
Our third dinner of the trip for everyone was back at the perennial favourite Pinocchio’s. It didn’t let us down. The food was good, the service was good and the cost was good. Karen had an Irish coffee which she had been looking forward to for a while. Again, we went straight back so I could have a hot drink before getting to bed at a reasonable time. Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling fighting fit.
