Birthdays in Gran Canaria

This was supposed to be a continuation of our birthday celebrations.  October 14 and November 7.  But the whole thing started out with a little bit of frustration and a rather unusual situation.

Approximately 6 to 7 months ago, Jens was scheduled with a Parkinson’s appointment for November 12.  That was a total drag because just 2 days earlier - Nov 10 - the airfare was cheaper and it would mean that I could use less days to have the same amount of time off.  But it was what it was so in April, I bought 2 flight tickets and I booked a room for us using Booking.com  I’ve used them many many times before – either to make reservations or to make price comparisons or just to get local info in knowing what not to book as well.  We actually got a better deal using Booking.com than using the hotel’s own site.  This is not always the case however.  We got us the last bungalow available.    2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bath and huge patio for only 560€ for 8days/7nights.  And the location was perfect.  We needed the perfect location because of Jens’s limitations on walking.  Right across the street was the market, the restaurants, bars, shops and endless amounts of entertainment as well as a taxi rank for rides to the beach, bus stop and tourist info center.  Anything we needed, it was to be found there.

My credit card guaranteed the room and price but the drawback was at least 1/3 of the total cost, if we were to cancel.  But no biggie cuz we had no intention of canceling anyway.

I received several mails between April and the end of October that everything was ok and all set – guaranteed and that was nice and comforting to know.

Then all spooky hell broke loose on Oct 30 and I get a mail saying – oops! we overbooked and there is no space for you on your first night at the bungalow.  Our departure was on November13, we booked almost 7 months ago, and I have mails saying I am guaranteed.

Those 14 days before departure were pure hell with Booking.com.  I spent a lot of time fighting with them trying to get them to put us somewhere near by our original Parque Sol Bungalow.  To make the story as short and as little negative as possible, I will just give you the quick version of the story:

They wanted us to accept some totally crazy options.  To which I said no to all of them.  I explained why but I also felt that I did not need an explanation because of their repeated “guaranteed” mails to me.  That’s the whole idea with Booking.com.  It’s a booking and not a reservation to which this particular hotel demanded a lot of money up front.  Finally after several mails I told them what I wanted and they said no – too expensive.  I told them it was actually cheaper than their offers and they still said no too expensive.  Then I had to break it down for them and show them that my suggestion was actually cheaper.  After many many maaaaaaaaaany e-mails to them (which they answered none of my questions) I finally had to call them.  3 times they promised to call me back and they never did.  It is much worse than this short version that I am sharing with you today. 

At one point I actually thought I was going to fall over with a heat attack because one idiot at Booking.com canceled my entire reservation when it was totally understood that the problem was for the first night only.   They finally wrote back to me and told me – OK, you can stay at the hotel you suggested but only for the first night, the other 6 nights will be at the original Parque Sol Bungelow.  Perfect, I told them.  Then the next day they sent me a new mail saying:  You have now been approved to stay at Axel Beach Hotel on the 13^th of November, the other 6 nights have been canceled free of charge.  That was when I just about hit the floor.  I called them and asked them if they were on drugs or something. 

Ok - so the whole point to this story is not to bitch and complain but to share my experience with you to hopefully keep you from such a nightmare.  May I suggest to you that even though you have a booked and guaranteed reservation through Booking.com or some other booking agency, it would be very wise of you to keep contact with the front desk of the hotel where you are booked and remind them that you are on your way.  It took over 9 days of me bugging and pestering Booking.com to get them to move their ass and do something.  9 days!  That left only 4 days before arrival time.  Not only this, but I had to pay for the first night at the new hotel out of my own pocket and then apply for a refund of that first night.  I did that as soon as we got home, yesterday, so actually I am still dealing with their big funk-up.  Hopefully I will have good news by the time I get to the end of this blog.

Then came the scary stuff.  The question actually did come up about us having to cancel our trip.  Jens has been under the weather for quite some time.  It started just before going to Ibiza (click here to see the blog about Ibiza – surly you remember that one.  It was the trip we took with our French friends in September.)

So in October, things are getting worse for Jens and then he starts to get a feeling that it is his tooth which is causing the problems.  He goes to the dentist and the dentist says he has to have 2 teeth pulled.  The dentist strongly suggested having it done now before going on vacation because he could see that it was just a matter of time before things were going to be serious in Jens’s mouth.  He said, “You don’t want to be in the Canary Islands when it starts to go really wrong”  He explained that if Jens had them pulled out now, it would give him 3 weeks of healing before our departure date. 

So he did get them pulled out and little by little he could feel that things were getting better but after the first 2 weeks, it stopped getting better and things are very frustrating for him.  His symptoms now are lots of thick, bubbly spit.  In the first 2 weeks it was burning spit but that has finally subsided.  And actually, in Ibiza, he was taking medicine for a burning sensation in his stomach.  I was thinking it was years of taking handfuls of medication.  The burning is gone but the thick spit is still there.  It pours out of his saliva glands and he is constantly swallowing.  He swallows so much that it is actually hurting to use the muscles constantly.  It’s hard to explain because it’s hard for him to explain it.  But thick saliva and soreness from constant swallowing it is.

And of course now I am glad that he has that date with the doctor just before we depart.  God’s timing – right?  Wrong!  We leave on the 13^th.  The doctor appointment is on the 12^th and on the morning of the 11^th  the doctor’s office called to cancel Jens’s appointment because the doctor had to go to an emergency meeting - um hum.

I had to wonder – is this a sign that the airplane is going to fall out of the sky? And if it does – is that so bad?  

Before even getting on the flight, it's always a mad scramble to find a spot of fresh air - for Jens.  In front of the terminals there are smoking designated areas - oh joy.  And once you are in side of terminal 2, as you are approaching finger B, you can go outside and stand shoulder to shoulder with other passengers on a split level smoking terrace, in a frantic knot trying to suck up their last moment of fresh air rolled up into a tiny white paper stick.  But if you are cool and groovy guys like us and can afford it, you can step into one of the plush cigarette booths in the airport lounge.  Check it out - it is soooooo filled with smoke, you can barely even see Jens in there.  

The sign says only 4 people allowed at a time - 

but it doesn't say how many cigarettes you can smoke at a time.

 Jens just step out of the box.  When he went in, his shirt was white.

So now we have landed, we get our bags and there in the arrival hall is this big burly Spanish dude holding up a sign that says  Moris – Boesen  on it.  Once again, Booking.com or the hotel itself, funked-up.  Part of my price break down for them was that I told them to drop the taxi ride, which costs 33€.  But we’re not dumb.  Sure – we’ll take a free ride into town.  The guy didn’t speak English and it took me a while to know what the heck he was saying.  It was the long name of the hotel that he was confirming with us.  He was double checking to be sure that Vencindario Executive Suite Hotel was where we are supposed to be going to.  This was the hotel that Booking.com wanted us to accept at the very beginning of their horrible mistake.  This was the place that I said “No way!” to when they suggested it.  I know the hotel – where it is and what kind of place it is; miles away from the beach and in an industrial area along side of the motor highway.   I told the chauffeur that we are staying at Axel Beach Hotel and he just couldn’t believe it.  He was just one big question mark – “I was told to take you to Vencindario Executive Suite Hotel.  Are you sure?”  I showed him the booking reservation papers.  He tried to call the bungalow several times to double check but no one answered the phone – I could have told him that. 

He turned out to be a funny and cool guy.  He said his car was a bar and it was ok to smoke – which of course made Jens very happy and when Jens took the ashtray that was handed to him by the chauffeur, the chauffeur became happy as well because it meant that he could smoke in his own car - which surprisingly didn’t smell of smoke at all.   I guess that was because it smelled of what I could only imagine as a discount swanky hooker bordello smell.  The chauffeur said it was happy hour in his car to which I naturally ordered, “una cerveza, por favor”.  Nothing – I just had to settle for the smell of a hooker.

Once we pulled up to Axel Beach Hotel the guy said – let me just check to be sure this is the right hotel.  He went to the front desk and asked if they were expecting a Moris and a Boesen.  Sure enough - it was the right place.  We get our room but only unpack our toothbrushes because we have to leave the following day.  

 When we wake up the next morning we see this as our view from the balcony.

 

Looking towards the beach.  

Just beyond the horizon is where we are headed - to our bungalow.

 But before we go, we eat breakfast at pool-side.

 

 This is the entrance to the lobby of where we are checking out from.  

We are waiting for our taxi to take us to the place we booked almost 7 months ago.

We get to our bungalow and we find out that it is room #10 that we are to stay in.  We can see that the people in there, still have not checked out and they were in no hurry to.  I can't say I blame them.  Once the guest check-out, we of course have to wait for the cleaning lady to get the place in order for us.  Once that was done, we got our keys and and wheeled in our bags and put everything in place.  I suggested to Jens, now that everything is settled, why don't we take a taxi to Maspalomas and go have lunch at our favorite beach restaurant.

 

 

Was it the first sangria I drank that made me ill?  It was a bit on the sour side.  Sangria #2 was sweet and went down with a big smile.  Or was it the garlic-mayo that put me on the toilet for 2½ hours and early to bed?  I think I just may be developing an allergy to garlic.  It was just the week before that we went to a restaurant here in Copenhagen for Jens's birthday and we ordered bruchetta for a starter.  We could smell the garlic coming all the way from the kitchen - delicious.  Later that night I was having stomach problems to say the least. I re-named to starter to brutal-shitta.  Here on Gran Canaria, garlic-mayo is a basic condiment and we spread it on thick - too thick.  (Jens always has food on his face)

We left the restaurant and walked to the edge of the sidewalk where it meets the sand.  The sign there showed a lovely temp of 30 C / 86 F degrees - but I think that was a bit of an exaggeration. The average for November is 24 and that's what it felt like.

If you have been following my blogs - this one with "other delights" or the other blog called Eddie Spaghetti and the Sauce or even my Shutterfly site, then you have already seen billions of pix from Gran Canaria.  So I pretty much just went easy on the camera and snapped a few minor details like these lovely Spanish tiles on a public toilet wall.

 

 ....and this mango tree in someone's private yard.

....and this very colorful and wonderful, typical 2 bedroom bungalow private home. It has just enough yard space to fart in and park the car.  In the center of town this little modest home on a postage size lot, probably goes for right around 1 million €.

I always love to walk around the town - normally along the coast line and the board walk but this time I did a specific city walk to this church.  I've seen it a number of times before but this time I wanted to go inside.  And as fate would have it, the church was totally fenced in for a major repair redo and hopefully some serious garden work as it looked really really outdated.  But check out some of the pix from the net if you are interested :  Click here to see more from El Templo Ecuménico.

 The church is just a 3 minute walk from this amazing sight and here is where you will find god.

 

We went to the Scandinavian corner to one of the several foodie choices and ordered a sandwi and café con letche.  (they can't pronounce "ch" so they just called it a sandwi or of course in spanish: bocadillo or tostado)

 

 In the background I have circled the roof top of our bungalow.

In the foreground I pig out on my tuna sandwi.

 

 On the wall at one of the cafe's they had 4 very large paintings of 

a viking ship, a troll, a viking god and a viking warrior.

 

We have been to this restaurant here at least a 1000 times.  The inside is very nice but the outside is not so attractive however, the food is great, the service is great and the price is right.  As far as I can remember (and that's not very far back) this is one of the best shrimp cocktails ever!

One of the things I have been wanting to see is this side of town.  Jens has taken me here before but it was many years ago and it was always on the way home from the big island tour.  So we only had quick visits when we did stop here.  This time I took the bus into town and did a nice long walking tour of the southern part of the capital city.  The above building is the theater which is just across the street from the bus terminal where my tour starts from. 

The next several pix are just random shots from around old town in the capital city Las Palmas.  It was wonderful and I am looking forward to seeing more of it on my next trip to Gran Canaria. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many people think the islands are named after the canary bird.  Yes, that's right; giant size canaries.  The name Gran Canaria is Latin.  Gran meaning "great" or "large" or even "grand".  Canaria meaning "Canis" or "Canine" or just plain and simply "dog".  Maybe you have wondered why the police dog squad is called K9 unit.  Big Dogs.   The islands were named after a breed of large dogs or wolves that roamed the island.  What is left of them today are these statues on the city hall square and in front of the Santa Anna Cathedral of which I found this interesting tidbit on the net:

Santa Ana Cathedral

At the heart of the Vegueta quarter sits the twin-towered Santa Ana Cathedral, the first church in the Canaries, which was built on the orders of Los Reyes Católicos, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, after Gran Canaria was conquered in 1478.

Construction started around 1500 and was not completed until almost four centuries later, making the intervention of several architects and artists inevitable, the result of which can be seen in three basic architectural styles: Gothic, Renaissance and Neoclassical.

Very little is known of the original plans but, according to some existing drawings, the works began as a Gothic structure with three naves of the same height. Some remarkable pieces of art can still be seen in the chapels of the cathedral including many statues, most of which are from the famous religious sculptor José Luján Pérez.

In the south wing of the cathedral, the Patio de los Naranjos (Patio of Orange trees), you’ll find the Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro (Sacred Art Museum) exhibiting many valuable sacred artifacts, some noteworthy paintings, including works by Dutch masters, and a collection of Spanish sculptures, gathered from the last four centuries.

 Go ahead and laugh but please keep your comments to yourself.

 

 This is the city hall on one end of the square....

 ....and the cathedral at the other end.

 This was shot with a camera and not a smart phone so I couldn't see what I was doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 This is the back side of the cathedral.  

A model and photographer were doing a photo session there at the top of the steps.

 

 And just around the corner was the small but amazingly interesting Columbus Museum.

Columbus is the reason why the island belong to Spain and not to Morroco.  It is here that Columbus made his last pit stop before accidentally bumping into the New World.

 

 

 This is supposed to be what it was like inside, on of the ships that voyaged to America.

 

  The Niña

The Pinta

 

  The Santa Maria

 

 

 

I thought it was very interesting how this display tells that some specialist consider this document (in the pix below)  (a copy of the original) to be the first document written in the history of America.

And below this says:
Testament of Christopher Columbus
Valladolid 1506   (a city in Spain)

"This text is that last of several testaments written by Christopher Columbus during his life and the most immediate to his death.  It is not only an expression of will, but a biographical journey."

It turns out his name is not even Christopher Columbus.  Those damn Englishmen have to bastardize everything.  Take a closer look in the above pix at the Spanish text and you can see his name is Cristóbal Colón.  It's not the Columbus Museum either, it's called La Casa de Colón.  But what do those Spanish people know?  They can't even figure out how to make a hotel reservation.

 I found this also to be rather interesting - especially the last sentence.  

Was it meant to be an insult to..... the Spanish or praise to the Americans?  hummm..........

In the Crystal Ball Palace there was this really cool, and very detailed relief map of the island and I could see so many of the places that Jens and I have driven to by car, both over and around the island.

 Then there was a hallway with lots of paintings.  

I liked this dude.  Nicolás Massieu y Matos 1901

124 X 80 cm - just so you get an idea of the size.  

No idea of who he is but if you google him, 

you will learn that he is a native of Las Palmas,
 born in 1876 and loves to paint out doors.

And this one says:  Samson and Delilah - unknown author.  Well first of all Mr. Spanola-can't-make-a-reservation, authors write books.  This is a painting.  Because you were too busy taking your siesta instead of keeping track of your records, we could all have benefited from knowing who wrote this painting. But now we'll never know.  From 1770-ish  size 144 X 190 -  a nice size to put off painting the living room for another year.

The detail and the millions of color on this was so amazing that stealing it actually came to my mind.  I forgot to shoot the name tag but I do remember it is a painting of a mountainside from somewhere on the island.

Again - another unknown writer.  Seriously - both in English and as well as in Spanish: the guy who wrote this painting is unknown.  But they know the painting is called Apotheosis of Saint Ursula.  Google it - a bunch of holy moly theology junk.  This one is soooooo unknown they don't even have a decade but a late 17th century time frame will have to suffice.   I took several shots of this one.  The spot lamp was so low to the painting, it didn't matter where I stood as there was constant glare from every angle.  When I bought my entrance ticket they told me to be sure to turn off my camera flash when photographing the paintings.

 

 

 

 

 

Hotel Madrid at Plaza Cairasco - I'd like to stay here some time for a few days on one of our next visits.  

This place was soooooo attractive.

 I don't know who's head this is in the above pix but below is the guy who discovered America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My tour of old town is over and I find my way back to the bus stop and head back south to our bungalow.

 I just randomly snapped a few shots out of the bus window while speeding down the motorway.

 

 

 Later that evening we did a simple Italian dinner.  We split this huge mozzarella/tomato salad. 

 Jens had a typical ham and cheese calzone....

 .....and I did the vegetarian calzone which was surprisingly tasty.

On an early morning walk I shot these amazingly long bean pods growing out of this tree 

which normally has huge red flowers on it.

Upon leaving the pasta palace, the waiter said that we ought to come back and try the pasta.  

It's really good he said.

 So we did and I had the most amazing and wild home made ravioli 

filled with pumpkin, walnuts and all sorts of goodies covered with stinky Gorgonzola - I want more!

 Sleeping with earplugs, I was awoken by the sound of rain pounding on the roof of the bungalow.

I learned on a Universal Studios tour that in order for rain to show up on film or on tv, it has to pour down.  Here you can easily see it dancing on the roof, streaking down in front of the bungalows across the way and pounding on the tiled patio floor below.  It was our last day so one out of 8 is not bad.  You can't have a tropicl island without tropical rain - right?

 When it stopped raining, I went out for another little walk and did a little more random shooting.

The light house is the southernmost point on the island.  

This is where Cristóbal Colón sailed to and then hung a right to find America. 

 

 

 

 

 

We just wanted a little sandwi.  The café/bar/restaurant/strip joint where we ate our last 2 meals was so tasty, we decided to go back and order a little sandwi and café con letche (read: a bottle of bubbly) One of the waiters was on drugs.  He asked what we wanted.  I said, "uhhh, how about a menu card?"  he came back with a dinner menu and it was clearly lunch time.  A young and together waiter brought us the right menus while I was in mid sentence asking for them. We had champaign on the table while waiting for our little sandwi to come out.  The waiter on drugs come out with 2 giant size milk shakes and asked, "Vanilla?"  We said - no.  Still waiting for our sandwi the waiter comes out again and asks, "who gets the stake?"  We said - no.  Then the young guys steps out with our little sandwi and we were shocked to see it piled high with a mountain of fries.   Needless to say we were stuffed - hick!

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¡ Adiós, amigos !