MPC Press International

Gran Canaria

Apr 3rd, 2014 by willmarks

Our resort, the Lopesan Costa Meloneras, was apparently quite typical of many in the Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)…very German, with a high concentration of British as well. One benefit of the German factor was that when I practiced my Spanish on the trilingual hotel staff, the responses were in Spanish, not English; the personnel were never sure if I was German or English.

Also, the hotel happened to be hosting an older crowd, but rather than that being the norm, I think this was simply due to the time of year—kids are in school (or not enough research on my part, in terms of hotel selection). Early on, I noticed a lot of men in wheelchairs or using walkers and with extensive nurse care helping their progress. When Evelyn mentioned that she should have brought white pants because all of the ladies were wearing white pants, I instantly learned that these were not actually nurses but wives.

Thank you Vueling and other competing low cost airlines in Europe! It is well known that the price of inter-Europe airline travel is attractive, and we are trying to take advantage of this while in Spain. During the winter months, one needs to venture far south, out of continental Europe for beach weather, and we did just that, heading to Gran Canaria for a respite. It seems that most of the other expats in Barcelona have pulled their kids out of school numerous times. Not only is our attendance record too perfect (meaning we are not travelling enough?) but MEM have a combined zero sick days this school year; knock on wood. Is that a good enough excuse for pulling kids out of school to accommodate beach needs?

As I typed the last paragraph and inserted the below photo, I remembered that minutes after snapping this shot at our hotel (on our 3rd night), Maggie went down for the count with some sort of stomach ailment/fever; notice the red under the eyes.

So, we left Barcelona midday Wednesday, March 26, a 3 hour and 15 minute flight to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, 2,200 kilometers (1,350 miles) southwest of Barcelona and about 100 kilometers west of the coast of Africa where Morocco borders Western Sahara. At latitude 27°, we were due east of Orlando. (Barcelona sits at latitude 41°, on par with Cleveland.)

We remained busy for 4.5 days with buffet dining, swimming, tennis, padel, and mini-golf; in fact, Evelyn won the resort-sponsored mini-golf tournament in a playoff over Señor Gregorio from San Sebastian, making me a bit jealous and Max likely more so, with her prize being a nice bottle of champagne she kindly shared with me. Also, at the airport, we had been given a flyer for discounted tickets at Aqualand, so we ventured there on Friday for some waterslide amusement.

Ahhh the infinity pool, facing east toward Africa…

Our “half-board” rate indicates buffet breakfasts and dinners are included, and it also means tasty food at first, but average by the end. Still, what is there not to enjoy about chocolate crepes and chocolate croissants at every breakfast, and chocolate mousse and ice cream with chocolate sauce at dinner? As for the main course, Max, who is not easy to please at meals, feasted on steak, Ella could eat the fried rice 7 days/week, and Maggie gobbled up the turkey.

After dinners, we took in the shows, which included Chinese acrobats, Brazilian dancers who lured us on stage with them, and Magic! Lately there has been a significant focus on magic in our house, with card, coin, and other tricks. So, when we heard about “Magic”, we made sure to finish dinner by 9 so as not to miss the big event. Unfortunately, we were deceived, as “Magic” was actually a Queen cover band; not bad, but I had been ready with camera in hand to photograph our kids on stage being sawed in two.

This was our no museum/no culture trip (the waterpark for example), so there was plenty of time to read, simply lounge around, or toss the frisbee.