Just a bit of explaining, The Dream on the plane was a 'micky take' on the account by a forum member, of the time he had 3 emergency landings whilst he was a passenger working for his airline and was asked by the crew to calculate the fuel levels, to see if they had enough fuel to return to Gatwick.

As he was known by the crew, he was asked by a pretty hostess to go to the cabin

The dream is in blue, to ignore if you want to

Apart from the dream everything else in this story is true but a tongue-in-cheek account of what happened on my holiday there are plenty of photos to back my story if you follow it down a bit

Although the Captain was Australian I changed his name to protect the innocent

There are 2 pages with 5 episodes and you have to click on the little 2 at the bottom right, to go to the next page

I read Dadsbarmy’s story of the 3 emergency landings before my holiday but it didn’t affect me in any way or did it? I take you into the early morning world of Delboy with his unusual observations on his package tour on a cold November morning that turned him into Victor Meldrew.

“It’s time to get up the taxi will soon be here”, said Mrs Delboy. Well after a wash and shave etc, I was ready, the taxi driver said it’s -7 out there, as he helped me out with the cases. Mrs Delboy and I decided to only wear fleeces as it would only be a hop into the North Terminal and we didn’t want to take heavy coats to Lanzarote.

On arrival, taxi’s can no longer take passengers up the departure ramp to the entrance, so we had to use an open air escalator and the cold air was beginning to starch my trousers. Glad to be inside, we looked for the Thomson’s desk in Zone ‘A’, having found Zone 'A', no longer can you arrive ½ hr before the scheduled 2hr departure at an empty desk and book in but one is faced with a queuing system that could be compared to queuing for the best ride at Alton Towers on a Bank Holiday Monday afternoon. The queue is for every passenger on every Thomson plane. There was a maze of channels zig zagging backwards and forwards until one reached the end of the queue.

After 20mins we reached the desk area where a member of Thomson’s staff chaperoned us to a desk to wait behind another customer. We found we were behind a customer who was arguing and he told the desk he would not travel with Thomson’s again, I assumed this was over seating arrangements. I noticed that another desk had become vacant but when I started to move that way the woman behind the counter said she has just closed. So we waited and waited and after 10mins the couple in front of us walked away, he looked unhappy perhaps he had been seated next to his wife. We were beckoned to the desk and were finished in about 2 mins why does everyone in front of us take longer.

With tickets in hand we went through to the scanning section, my valuables went into Mrs Delboy’s bag and my fleece was put in one of those trays. Whilst waiting Mrs Delboy said she could do with a cup of tea and it was agreed that we should have one and a slice of toast in Garfunkel’s.

Soon the queue went down and It was my turn to be beckoned through the Magic Arch and as I went under the alarm went off, “take your belt and shoes off sir and add them to the tray”, said the security man, meanwhile two old ladies probably ladened with metal hips and knees walk through unscathed. With belt and shoes safely in the tray and me now only wearing my Cerec smile and a zip on jeans, I’m am again beckoned forward. The alarm goes off again and I then have to undergo a search, as I’m getting dressed, the two old ladies take the last seats in Garfunkel’s but it wasn't too long anyway before we were seated.

I pick up the menu, I don’t believe it, breakfast was £9.90 and toast was £1.75 extra. The cheapest thing was a toasted bacon and cheese sandwich which cost £6.45 so we shared one with our tea. Mr Garfunkel has done very well; I wonder what ever happened to Simon.

With all this queuing it was nearly time for our flight and suddenly there was an announcement “Will passengers to Sharm el Sheikh please make their way to gate 108, passengers please be aware it is a 15 minute walk to gate 108”. I said to Mrs Delboy with a smirk, “it’s a good job that we’re not going to Sharm el Sheikh” to which she replied, “Well I wouldn’t mind going to Sharm el sheikh”.

Soon Gate 45 came up for Lanzarote and we proceeded to the bowels of Gatwick and were placed in groups on an outside bus and driven to a freezing corner of the airport to where our plane was parked where I imagined the fire crew may have been eyeing up our plane for their next acquisition. As we alighted the bus there was no warm walkway for us, just a man below a portable stairway saying “Be careful of the ice at the top of the stairs”. As we reach the top we all came to a stop, as someone was blocking the aisle, there was ice on the handrail. On entry to the cabin a couple of ladies were still in discussion, “Your the one with the stick you have the window seat, you’ll be more comfortable”, one said to the other, whilst 100 people stood freezing outside. Mrs delboy gave a polite cough and we squeezed by.

Next to me there was a man who had to sit behind his wife. As I looked around, I didn’t notice any TV sets above the rack or in the back of seat and mentioned this to Mrs Delboy, “Perhaps they drop down”, she said, “but from where, the panels were only big enough to drop oxygen masks, we are not going to get any entertainment”, I replied, putting away the film review.

Suddenly over the tannoy came the pilot’s voice in an Australian accent “This is Captain Mick”, I always find it gives me a secure feeling with an Australian Pilot, they always tell you how it is (an opinion formed from watching too many episodes of flying doctor). “Well my co-pilot on today’s flight is Bruce; we will be travelling at a height of 32,000 ft and will be taxiing onto the runway after two planes have landed. Unfortunately we have a problem with the entertainment today”. (Yes no TV sets, I thought) Captain Mick continued,” We hope to fix it in the next hour or two”. (This should be good, an electrician coming on board carrying 50 TV sets?, I muttered). Captain Mick continued, “Or maybe we’ll try and get it fixed before we land, or if not, we hope to get it fixed for your trip home”.

Now looking at the engine on the wing, after reading Dadsbarmy's report, I thought to myself, can I believe what was going to be said if there was a problem. Still there was one consolation the emergency drill was carried out by the staff and not that annoying 3 year old telling me how to undo my seat belt.

After the drill the pilot went on to say, “The temperature is a warm 72 degs in Lanzarote a lot warmer than here but we’ll get back to you with more info further in the flight”. After a short while, the plane sped down the runway and we climb to the levelling altitude. The seat belt signs clicked off and the man sitting next to me got up and sat further down the plane, I could not have been the cause as I only had a bath 5 hours ago, perhaps he had other wives.

I began to feel quite drowsy and may have drop off to sleep. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned round and standing there was a beautiful blonde hostess whom I had not spotted before. “Deboy you look the most intelligent guy on board” she said in an Australian accent, she continued “Would you pop up to see the Captain, he has asked to see you” and she gave me a smile that would have launched a thousand ships.

We strolled passed the toilet queue to the flight cabin and she opened the pilot’s door. “Hi Delboy”, said Captain Mick, “One of the engines has got a bit warm, so we had to switch off all the TV sets to cool it down”. “But where are the TV’s”, I asked. “We keep them under the seat with the life jackets on this type of plane”, the Captain replied. “Oh! That explains it then” I said.

The captain went on to say,” The trouble is, it hasn’t done much good and the engine is still hot. Bruce and I, wondered if you could calculate whether we got enough fuel left to get back”. I explained to the pilot that “I hadn’t brought along my biro, so could not do the calculation but IMO, if I were him, I would carry on, because there were no spare air bridges left at Gatwick, as they had all been joined together for the 15 minute walk to Sharm el Sheikh”. The captain thanked me for the advice and the lovely hostess guided me back to my seat. She leant over and said, “Thank you so much Delboy I feel so much happier now you have helped the Captain out.

”Suddenly there was a bang, I jerked in my seat, was the engine alright. I looked up and the man with the many wives had returned and after putting away his jumper had slammed the locker door. Perhaps I had been snoring?


It was jolly lucky, as the meals trolley was almost upon us and we had both been asleep.

I was passed a tray and when I opened the container, I thought at first it was empty but a sausage with more room than I had, had moved to the other end of the container with the tomato.

After the meal, I fell asleep again and woke up with about 30mins of the flight to go. I prompted Mrs Delboy that we should be making our approach soon and before she could reply the Captain said “We will now be making our approach” to which the cabin crew reminded everyone, “The captain has lit the seat belts sign, please put your seat back to normal position and secure your seat belts”.

Captain Mick was in tune with me.

The plane came in to land and the soon the door was flung opened and we left the plane, the hostess smiled at me and said thank you Sir.

With passports checked, it was to the luggage bay. A number of passengers were waiting around a silent carousel and we joined them, suddenly with a squeak, the carousel turntables burst into life. After a minute or two, three cases appeared and then nothing, eventually other cases began to appear but our cases were nearly last to come off the plane, I watched the originally three cases go around three/four times before ours appeared and I didn’t see anybody claim them. I just imagined three passengers standing in Sharm el Sheikh waiting for their luggage to come off LOL.

Well we had our cases and now we were in Wonderland, (Lanzarote you mean!) no Wonderland, we were in the hands of the reps. There were five reps in a line and Mrs Delboy approached one of them. “Name and resort” he asked, “Mr and Mrs Delboy going to Playa Blanca”. “Coach Number 27 at the far end of the middle row”, he replied. Well if we had been given instructions to follow the White Rabbit it would have been more accurate.

So we headed to coach 27 and found a number of confused people. “The coach drivers tell us he is not going to Playa Blanca”, one of the passengers informs me.

The frustrated Coach Driver said it always down to them to sort it out. He suggests that coach number 8 was going to Playa Blanca, so we all head to coach number 8. People were approaching coach 8 from the front and rear, some got their cases put on, whilst others remained confused. As it got to our turn we were told no, coach number 7. Lewis Carroll again came to mind, “Off with the reps head” . Finally coach 7 was deemed to be right one and we took our place with 40 other lost souls.

“Hello everyone”, cried another rep, I’m going to ask for your names and give each of you a welcome pack. She continued to the back of the coach and then announced that she was going back into the airport arrivals to check that she had everyone. Did the list tally, or were there more lost souls out there, I thought. Eventually she came back with another eight passengers and explained to us that the coach for the Doncaster flight had not turned up and we were taking more people. So finally with a full coach we started to leave the airport, I could not believe it, I had to pinch myself that I was not dreaming again as a man was running alongside the coach, arms waving in the air like a demented Mr Bean. The driver and I may have had the same thoughts but a lady passenger shouting out, “I think he wants you to stop” caused the rep to ask the driver to pull up. The driver pointed out we were blocking the airport entrance. After a discussion with the man outside, more Doncaster passengers were needed to be taken but we were full and could not help.

We hello everyone, we will be stopping at place 1 and your reps will be Dickey and Mickey. Stop 2 will be Tricksie and Dixie by the time she got to our rep I had lost the will to live but the name reminded me of a type of vegetable. Finally we were at our apartments with only two couples left but the other couple got out of the coach first, would they get the last good room, would we have the last room next to the cupboard



No we were well happy.

After Mrs Delboy unpacked we decided to get something small to eat and went to a snack bar at the marina. We decided on a baguette, as we did not want to spoil an evening meal later. Waiting for it to come, I noticed fish swimming around some as big as 20 lbs. Why were they so big?



Well the baguette was very large and it came out with about a hundred chips and I ended up feeding the fish with them which they loved but with such large portions we could not eat again that night and decided on an early night.

NB Just to keep the records straight the Pilot was right on the return journey we had the same plane, after the safety drill was done and me moaning that there was still no entertainment, six by seven inch screen dropped down every third row. “There you are, entertainment, would you like your glasses”, asked Mrs Delboy. “Well did you put the binoculars in your bag for me to use?” I enquired.

Well you can’t please a grumpy old man that easy can you.


Episode 2
Mrs Delboy who forgot her sunglasses going to the October Meeting, takes one step closer to the old peoples home
with the announcement she had forgot both her sunglasses and the suntan lotion whilst I pay special attention to the reps meeting
and told by Mrs Delboy that next year I had to do the packing

A great read Delboy, it was like being there with you.

Yes great stuff Del... The nightmare that is Gatwick maintains it's status!

The room looks nice, great read bud

:-bd:

Excellent read Del

That was fab !

Next installment please.........

On waking up, it was a windy morning, too chilly for the beach, so after breakfast I had a good look around the complex. I wondered if the famous designer Manrique had any influence on this structure.



but I thought the inside must have been designed by a woman as it had single beds



There was a reps meeting at 11:30 so we decided to see what was available, as the time approached, we sat in the lounge and the rep came in and had a chat to an elderly lady who had broken her arm slipping over in the kitchen area, but eventually we all adjourned into the bar area.

Hello everyone I’m Kayle, first of all there are several trips available and as she spoke she handed out leaflets. She continued, “The first a trip to the Manrique home built in a cave etc, we also do a night out at Titti Trollope’s a drag act. I can see some of your faces have dropped but it’s all innuendos not dirty the cost for this was £59pp”, then my face dropped, not sure whether it was my Yorkshire coming out or the vivid memories of 85 when I was dragged out on stage at the Hayes Theatre by two pantomime dames to do hands, knees and bumpsie daisy, causing more laughs for everyone else at my expense, than the pantomime itself. Sorry I digress.

The rep went on to say “There is a volcano one can climb which is free to do”, turning to Mrs Delboy I said,”Well that has to be done", the rep continued,”I recommend you get a bus because it’s a 2 hours walk to the volcano and it takes 1 ½ hrs to walk up and ½ hr to get down”.

Then suddenly, like an Ad on Dave TV, another lady burst out from behind and with a spritely voice talks at 500 words a minute to us saying, “At this point I always come in and mention, we also do a catamaran trip and it 70ft long and the chef on board does a light lunch, we do diving for those that want it but 60 percent just watch and drinks are on board and your all enjoy it. We sail from Puerto Calero but we are not sailing today because of the weather but we hope to start on Wedsday”. No chance I thought, 70ft is very small in hundred foot waves.

The lady stepped back and Kayle continued as if the Ad had never happened, “Also there is a walk in the other direction” said Kayle she continued “ After 15 minutes you will come to a beach but take your own food, as there is only one stall there, which is expensive. Also I must warn you, the further you walk along in that direction, the more the clothes come off and beyond that, there is a nudist’s beach”. Turning to Mrs Delboy I said, “ Do you think we should pop along in the interest of the forum”.

Finally an elderly chap joined in, “We also run a free island trip, which includes a visit to a bedding factory it is a six hour trip” but I was not sure how long I was going to be in bedding and anyway it had to be prebooked. So I did not want to waste what could be a nice day, bouncing on beds that I was never going to buy.

After the talk, all three came around. Mrs Delboy made a good job of assuring the persuasive lady, that she really didn’t want Delboy on her boat and we told the bed man we would think about it.

Finally the meeting came to an end and we returned to our room to get ready for lunch. As I opened our door, a message from the hotel had been put under our door, recommending us to stay in our room.



“What’s all this”, I said showing Mrs Delboy, “If rep is still there, I’m going to see the her”. Back in the bar, there were only a couple of the holidaymakers left and I showed them the letter. “She is coming back”, said one of the holidaymakers. The rep returned and as a group we showed her the letter. “Oh, they always go over the top here, the weather will get a bit worse but don't worry about it”, she said, I explained, we were just going to have some lunch.



We walked along the front and Mrs Delboy found a little French restaurant called The Little Marmite but I said, “You don’t like marmite”. “Well they do everything”, she replied”. It was windy so we found a table inside; a few brave ones including the old lady with the broken arm, sat drinking wine outside.



We had a nice lunch and large beers, when suddenly the biggest storm blew up and the rain hammered in. The owner tried to close the doors and I had to get a photo for the forum but my wife tells me that the old lady with the broken arm was struggling to get in underneath my photo, still clutching two glasses of wine. Well it continued to blow and we were trapped for a while with plenty of beer.





The rain eased slightly and we made a dash for the apartment but it got worse and we wondered what we could do for an evening meal. Well I said, “I could make us a shepherd’s pie, what ingredients do we have”, I asked, “Well we have bread and marmalade”, was the reply.



Not very appealing for an evening meal, I said, “we’ve got to get out for a meal, we’ll just find the nearest one on the marina”.
Well the nearest was Lani’s which had a few people seated in the middle, we decided to take a window seat and found they were all reserved but the waiter quickly told us they were frighten of the windows caving in, so we joined the others in the middle. The storm got worse and one could see the glass in the window/doors bending. Dinner came and my jacket potato was cold, so that went back and another came in its place, which of course was fire hot.

Whilst eating, a light fitting crashed down outside and started to bang against the glass door, so a poor waiter had to don a coat and pull it up from an open balcony upstairs, whilst several times, waiters jumped back from the anticipation of broken glass showering in.

Finally the meal was over and now full of Dutch courage and the experience of surviving Blackpool in October, we made it back to our room. Mrs Delboy slept through the night, as I watched the lightning illuminate the curtains until I fell asleep.

Ps the Apartments never did give us the all clear, I thought it would be funny to ring reception the day we were leaving and asking them whether it would be safe to come out now

Next episode

A Trial run, to see if we could walk to the volcano and whether it would be too much to climb it in one day without getting there by bus

Fantastic review with your photo's Delboy, to the point & very funny. You are right mate, whoever did think it was a bright idea for a couple to have single beds was definetly a woman. :f^h: Because if you try to get a bit "fruity", the 2 beds will come apart quite easily in the middle, leading to the romance & ambience going out of the window.

Rain! Oh dear... That wasn't on the booking form was it...

Good tale so far Del

Well after the worse storm in 5 years (I was told), we woke up to a cloudy morning with a strong breeze and decided that it was not the weather for the beach, it was a good job really, as we needed suntan lotion. Searching a number of supermarkets the cheapest small bottles were 10/12 euro’s and we would need two of those, unless we didn't turn over. Eventually, we noticed a shop in town, that had a rack with a larger bottle with no price. “How much is this”, said Mrs Delboy to the shop keeper. “Bring it over”, he replied. As she carried it across Mrs Delboy noticed a label on the back saying 1460. The shopkeeper dusted it, we were not sure whether it was the sell by date or the price but as Mrs Delboy start to walk to me to say it’s 14.60 euro’s, thinking she was going to walk away, the shopkeeper said, “OK you can have it for 11 euro’s”, Done.

So we set out to see if we could walk and climb the volcano in one day, we took the coastal path to the Hotel Rubicon where it was said the bus would stop, for a visit to the volcano.



We reached Player Blanca's other beach called Flamingo Beach, and noticed had been improved since we saw it last, as now it seemed considerably bigger.



After about 1½ hours we reached the hotel Rubicon but could not see how we could climb the volcano, as the sides were too steep.



On the way back, there were many hotels without beaches, some had made their own.



Eventually we reach Flamingo Beach again and stopped for lunch in a restaurant overlooking the beach.



I had a pizza, I estimate it to be 14/15 ins wide and Mrs Delboy who had chosen wisely with her meal, helped me to finish it.



Another lady had ordered a jumbo sausage which looked delicious, but I have never eaten a spanish sausage since the Fungarola incident of 87 when the head chef came out and stood by my table and asked me what was wrong with his sausage.

As we walked back, it began to rain again, so we returned to the apartments and watched CNN news, the only channel available apart from BBC World News and Euro sport, which always seemed to have downhill skiing on.

The Rubicon Marina area, near the apartments, had many expensive restaurants overlooking the marina itself and we found one that looked reasonably priced. So we went inside, the house wine was 14 euro’s and we were charged 4 euro’s for a roll not asked for and the meals were small enough that we could eat a sweet. The blinds were down due to the wind, so we had a minimal view over the marina. The bill was the sort that we would have once a year on a birthday.

The next morning was sunny (hooray) and we spent the morning on the sun beds.





We had lunch at a restaurant and I noticed they did jumbo sausages and as there were many German tourists, they also did a Bratwurst, unsure whether they were made from horrible children, I stuck with the sausage. Did my opinion of the sausage change? no, the skins were a tough as a rhino’s and the inside was IMO made of all the things pigs would never need in their lifetime. However other meals were OK.

After a lovely afternoon on the beach



We went to reception, to find the bus number to the Hotel Rubicon and was given a map with a much easier way to walk to the volcano.


Episode 4

Armed with a map and a large volcano in front of us could we go wrong ?

Brilliant Delboy, you write the review in such a way, that you are looking forward to the next part, with much anticipation.

Once again a fantastic read Delboy :-bd:

But you are setting the bar very high for us fellow reviewers to follow

This is only a bit of fun H, I will do a more starchy review under Lanzarote a little later

Im loving the stories DB, you put them accross so funny, Im chuckling away to myself here

Mick wrote:

You are right mate, whoever did think it was a bright idea for a couple to have single beds was definetly a woman. :f^h: Because if you try to get a bit "fruity", the 2 beds will come apart quite easily in the middle, leading to the romance & ambience going out of the window.

We're not stupid


Brilliant stories Delboy - keep them coming !

You've got a way with words mate a most enjoyable read :tup:


Hope no-one's expecting me to do a story like your's when I come back!



Mine will be:
Got up laid down went for a pint laid down again went for a bite then a pint then made a fool of myself had a nightcap then went to bed :gnt:
Day 2: The same :bs$:

@ Mark

just giving you the highlights

Oh Mark, thats exactly our sort of holiday - we do the same things!

Well we had been given this map



and to follow the route to Paradise Island but the roads are so straight and long, we took a turn too early a followed the route below



and ended up walking 2 hrs before getting to the volcano. Paradise Island was a little disappointing, as it was just the name of a hotel but once passed it, the volcano was just down the road.



The terrain looked quite rough but I had my hiking boots and Mrs Delboy was comfortable with her sandals.

A number of people were descending, as we started the walk but it was a little comforting to see 5 year old walking down clutching a teddy bear whilst others walked up as if it was a pilgrim’s path.




At various intervals there were piles of stones and I wasn’t sure whether the Canarians buried their pets or it was a special request from their Mother-in-laws to be buried on the side of the mountain, just to keep an eye on them. I believe the climb did not take more than ½ hour. At the top, there was a little white box with a cross on it, like the sort that can be seen at the side of a Greek road. Perhaps a sort of accident black spot for hikers trying to find out what was in the box.



There was a route running right around the ridge and I guess the rep’s estimated time of 1½ hrs included the walking around. I am sorry the camera just doesn’t show the depth going down either side but one would not want to slip down either side.



The views were brilliant and worth the walk, to the North one could see the Timanfaya National Park



and to the South, the Island of Fuerteventura where the sand dunes can be seen on the left





Speaking to a German lady on the ridge, she told me how cold it was in the winters of Southern Germany, clued up with CNN news, I did mention that we had had a couple of inches of snow at Gatwick, so we were suffering as well, she had a desire to live in Lanzarote but said how expensive the houses were, even those miles out of town but many lay empty and half built.



Below the number of houses that have recently been built. The island does have all year sun but so barren.



At one point on the circuit, one could scramble down to the bed of the volcano, well it had to be done, would my shoes start burning? I got to the bottom and felt the floor with my hand, it was cold.



“Hmm”, I thought, grabbing a large rock and bashing it on the ground, no clang of metal and no tannoy saying 5 minutes to rocket launch as in Dr. No, a bit disappointing.......... and then.

I could not believe it, I was not the first down here, as someone, I kid you not, had made a heart out of rocks and in the middle, spelt in rocks, was “I love Mick”. Now I had travelled 2000 miles and gone to the bottom of a volcano just to see this. Looking further around there was I love, Mark, Daryn and everyone else on the forum.



feeling romantic I picked up a piece of crystallised stone from the floor and climbing back to a waiting Mrs Delboy.

I could see lots more piles of stones and realised it was a symbolic gesture from each walker, to leave a stone to say they had been.



I looked at my piece of crystal and snapped it in half, I placed one half on the top of the pile (mines the pretty red one on top)



And the other half I put in my pocket just in case the long suffering Mrs Delboy would like an eternity ring made, as I understand Basalt is the new (in) stone for you ladies.

The stone I brought back, It changes colour with the fractures of light, It's still uncut of course



After about 15 minutes we had reached the bottom and one hour later, we downing the best pints of lager we have ever had.


Last Episode
Mrs Delboy realises she wasn’t so badly off when we make a surprise visit to see a nudist beach

Great review & photo's Delboy. I wonder who loves Me, Daryn & Mark?

After the volcano walk, the next day it was sunny/cloud and there was quite a breeze but we dressed for the beach, expecting that after the 15 minute walk we would probably return. However, we found that sitting on the back row it was reasonably pleasant and spent the day there.



This turned out to be the pattern for the next 8 days, with three afternoons where the cloud factory on Fuerteventura was working overtime.




With the wind, there were high tides and beds had to be pushed back reducing the views of the sea but the back row reduced the wind factor for us quite well







On one of these days it turn really hot and wise Mrs Delboy said, “Today we are going to need a parasol”, which with the beds came to 9 euro’s (3 euro’s per component). But by lunchtime we were sitting in the rain and cold wind, trying to squeeze the last value from the parasol before heading back to the apartment.



During the evenings we did the walk to the harbour restaurants, which were much more reasonably priced and we sampled food from all round the world, Alright two Chinese, three Mexican and a pizza then.







One of the cloudy afternoons, we decided to walk to a third beach, as previous mentioned by the rep. We walked to the end of the Rubicon Marina and beyond. We came to a very small odd castle (for one?) with its own drawbridge. Out of curiosity, I looked it up afterwards and it was built in the 1700’s as a watch tower, in case of pirates and it has a bell on top to warn the town.



In this area a large number of apartments have been built and seem to cater for the German market. The cliffs are quite high at this point and the area has been laid with a new path.





Following this path there is another beach but it was just black sand and rocks and not very attractive, a number of hotels were in the vicinity some five star. At this point, we had to scale a cliff or go round and we took the latter option. After the hotels, the coast line became really barren





until we reached the first beach but although a lovely beach, we prefer more facilities around to satisfy us.



There were several nudists on the beach and on this picture, one couple were enjoying the sun. One chap had a designer bag discreetly hiding his parts. On zooming in, I think the bag was a Radley, as I could see a small dog hanging from the handle.



The last two days of our holiday, the wind dropped and our penultimate day was the best day and we went to the front row of the beach.



I did pop around the harbour to find the prices of the ferries, should anyone fancy a trip. The ship ferry cost 34 euro’s day return to Fuerteventura , where the Fred Olsen Express took 45 euro’s quickly out of your wallet.



Finally, on our last day, the cloud factory worked overtime in the afternoon, so I went on-line and the rest is history.



All in all, we did enjoy our holiday and would go back, the Marina area had much improved and expanded since we we last there. So just a few last shots around the Marina and complex to finish and hope it has given you a laugh and the flavour of the place. I will do a proper review on the Alternative holidays later

meanwhile accommodation Pueblo Marineros













The Marina 10 yds away

Great review & fabulous photo's to finish off your report Delboy.

That was great Delboy Thanks !

Nice p.j's.....