The End is Nigh

I've had a selfie stick for close on nine years now and have only just discovered today that it can screw on to the top of a camera tripod. One of the early results is here.

Day 7 - Thursday 10 August

The predicted big heat is coming.

What's a 'must-do' on any holday - yes, that's right - plan another one!

At 9.50am this morning the temperature is 29C / 84F and is set to go as high as 35C / 95F later today.  In Florida yesterday it reached 38C / 100F so it could be worse, but this is more than we bargained for or expected in the Canaries, even at this time of year!

Today's view

The advice on my phone is: "Protect your skin. UV will be extreme today.  Limit sun exposure if possible."  The factor 50+ will be on shortly and we can only hope that our parasol out on the sun deck will do its job (alhtough we do wonder how effective it actually is).

My wife doesn't understand me aka another liquid lunch. They have a free water dispenser in the Breeze Bar offering normal or carbonated water

I haven't mentioned it before but this is a much more cosmopolitan place than we imagined it would be.  Before we came we expected it largely to be a mix of Brits and Germans but it's far from that.

Yes, there are a good few Brits here and a few Germans too but there are also perhaps a surprising number of Dutch guests, some French and some Spanish, so it's quite a mix.

This is a public outdoor sea water pool. When the tide is high and the sea is a little rough, the locals like to sit on the outer wall with their backs to the sea and wait for a wave to wash them into the pool. Unfortunately the sea today isn't quite rough enough for that, although there are some optimists sitting there who are hoping that this might change

Having said that, the default language seems to be English.  It's now 10 to 3 and we've retreated to the air conditioning indoors and we plan to go for a swim later in that day.  However, that said, at 6pm it's due to be 35C, so we may not be lucky in that regard.

Click on pics to enlarge them

 Don't forget that if you want to enlarge any image, just click on it.

Wednesday 9 August

Today was a very busy day, a day doing almost nothing and at the end of which we felt exhausted!

After dinner a saxophonist struck up to provide some pleasant informal entertainment.

Tuesday 8 August (Part Three)

We had our evening meal as usual and then there was due to be an Elton John tribute starting at 9.30pm.

As you might expect with anysuperstar, it started later than scheduled but was under way by 9.45pm.  The guy was good enough but these people are usually only on for an hour and it's hard to do someone like Elton John's repertoire justice in that time.

Checking his piano

It was hard to tell exactly which nationality this guy actually was, but we concluded that he was most likely Dutch.

Tuesday 8 August (Part Two)

 A Typical Breakfast Offering

Soft ice cream dispenser - only available in the evenings

And after breakfast ....

After breakfast we set out to find a couple of sun beds which weren’t taken and settled down for the rest of the morning.  As usual it was all very relaxing and later on we each went for a swim in one of the lovely pools.  When we had had our fill of that, we headed off to the Breeze pool bar for a liquid lunch.

 

As we were coming to the end of our stay there we were asked if we could move to another table as some of the hotel staff wanted to set up a sangria demonstration.  We duly moved on the basis that we would still be able to sit in the shade and that we would get a free sample at the end of the demo.

Video of the dancer will be available later when I can upload clips to Youtube.  At the moment I seem to be locked out of my channel due to "susicious activity on my laptop".

And so it was.  The ingredients were all spoken out and then we were all given a generous measure of Sangria.  While we were drinking that a guitarist struck up and a flamenco dancer did numerous dances to his playing which were enjoyed by all present.