Skeddie Sauce and other Delights: Tillykke med Fødselsdagen, John

It was some time this past spring, 2024, that I was having a hard time with the Parkinson's situation. I went to visit John and Birthe and cry on their shoulders. Birthe got up, left the room and then came back with a piece of paper in her hand. When she handed it to me she said - maybe you need to get a way for a while. Would you like to come celebrate John's birthday with us. The paper she handed to me was an invitation to John's birthday celebration on the Spanish island of Tenerife. I snatched the paper out of her hand and gleefully exclaimed: YES! I didn't even ask any questions. YES ! I'll be there. John was turning 70 come this November, on the 30th.

I went home and right away I booked a flight to Tenerife. I sooooo needed this trip. John and Birthe have been to Tenerife a few times before. Jens and I always went to Gran Canaria. You can see on the map above, 3 of the 7 Canarian islands. Tenerife, in the middle, is where John and Birthe go and they always go just to the west of the southern tip, to the area called Los Cristianos. Jens and I always go to the southern tip of Gran Canaria. It is the island on the above map to the right. On one of our trips we sailed from the capital of Gran Canaria called Las Palmas to the capital of Tenerife called Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We rented a car for one day and drove to the base of the volcano. We loved it so much, our next trip was to Tenerife. Click here to see pix from that trip.

John and Birthe booked a 2 weeks with their travel partners Torben and Mia. They actually live in my neighborhood. I have met them several times before at previous parties held by John and Birthe. I booked for only 1 week but 4 days after they departed. Thank goodness my departure time was at a reasonable hour.

I just left the apartment.

And now I am crossing the bridge over the harbor

to make my way to the metro.

Notice the man in the moon is bidding me farewell.

It's 1 month before Christmas and the airport is in

full holiday mode.

Behind me is the airplane that I will soon be boarding.

On board and leaving the gate.

Airport sign.

KØBENHAVN COPENHAGEN

Take-off

I was the only one on the flight with a mask.

Didn't wanna take any chances.

Please don't bother me while I'm traveling.

I was kind of bummed because it was cloudy the entire way - including over the island. Actually it was a double layer of clouds. A layer above the plane and a layer below. But with climate change these days, one can never be sure anymore of standard weather patterns.

The volcano is in the middle of the island. I was really hoping to get here but there just wasn't the time. You can see the volcano in my previous blog if you scroll up and hit the link. In case you ever find yourself on Who Want To Be A Millionaire, the 1 million dollar answer is: Teide is the name of the volcano.

5 hours and 20 minutes later I arrived at TFS airport. I picked up my bag and made my way to the bus. Just a few Euro and 30 minutes, later I find myself at the bus stop right near my hotel. What a lovely warm welcome to see John and Birthe waiting for me. Their hotel was right on the water but my hotel was about 10 to 15 minutes away from the coastline depending upon which area I wanted to go to. John and Birthe invite me to a welcome drink at a restaurant just a few steps from the bus stop. After a little chat, we say good-bye. I go to check in, into my hotel apartment. The hotel is about a 5-minute walk from the bus stop. It couldn't be easier. I opened the door and was completely wowed. It looked so much nicer than what I saw on the computer. Usually it is the other way around. It was rather large. It had a big entrance closet, a nice bedroom with a large closet, nice kitchen with all the kitchen needs for 4 people, a 2-step down to a large living room with flat screen tv, large bathroom with surprisingly good lighting, a tub and a bidet, and a huge sliding glass door to a very large patio-terrasse that looked out over the pool and all of it was soooooooo clean.

I just wrote that the sky was with a double heavy cloud layer and here you see a very blue sky. These were snapped just before departure back to Copenhagen. This was the court yard right in front of my door.

The plan was to meet at John and Birthe's apartment which is right on the water on the 4th/5th floor. I stuck my head out over the edge of the their balcony and snapped these pix of the sun going down. The sky was very orange because of all the clouds in the sky.

John and Birthe's Air BnB was just a 12-minute walk from my apartment. From here, I met Torben and Mia and the 5 of us went for a pre-dinner cocktail and then finally dinner. We ate great food every night for little money. The choices were endless and the food was very good in every spot we ate at.

On my 2nd day, I put on my shorts and walking shoes and walked and walked and walked. I didn't take any photos on the walk because it was rather hazy and the photos would look pretty much like the same photos that I took when Jens and I were here. So again, scroll up to the link if you want to see the pix.

On the 4th day, it was John's birthday. We met and celebrated at Torben and Mia's Air BnB on the 8th/9th floor. I think it was a very happy birthday for John.

The reason we celebrated at Torben and Mia's place was because they could easily accommodate 5 people without any problem on their gigantic balcony. Their BnB was just across the promenade and 2 buildings down from John and Birthe. It was such a nice moment. John was very touched by the art work Mia painted. I know exactly the feeling John was experiencing because when Jens and I had our 25th anniversary, our friend Jørn, a professional artist, painted a piece of artwork for us. It was/is so amazing. It turns out that Mia painted a copy of a photo from a previous trip that John and Birthe took to La Gomera. La Gomera is a very small Canary Island just 1 hour away by catamaran. There is a beautiful rock formation on the island and it was the photo that John used for the birthday invitation. I had to zoom in a lot on a photo so it is a little hard to see but it was really nice. It says 70 years - then you have be framed behind glass. This spot where the photo was taken would be a spot that I, myself, would come to experience in just a few days from now.

After John opened his gifts,

we moved to the balcony for the birthday breakfast.

From the balcony, I snapped the following photos.

It was actually the day before the party, that I was

up in these hills.

I had such a wonderful time climbing this hill.

But it was very dangerous coming down.

I had to be damn sure my 1 year old broken leg

would handle it.

When I finally got down to the bottom where I felt

the cliff give way to the easy path, I noticed the back

side of a sign. That's weird - I thought - what's a sign

doing way up here. I walked around the sign to the

front side to see what it said. I freaked when I saw this:

It was completely wild

and completely dangerous.

I actually wanted to go even higher but it was just too hot and sticky.

Here are a few pix from the top.

It was so hot, I had to take off my shorts and use

them as protection.

Looking towards the middle of the island, I could

zoom in on the volcano. I never made it there so

that will have to wait until next time.

Every night that I was there, we had really good food at very reasonable prices.

This evening for John's b-day dinner, we had amazing Chinese food.

The following day I took another long walk.

Snapped a few pix.

Notice the electric wheel chair for 2 in the background.

I'd like to have this for me and Jens.

On the 2nd of December, we rented a car and drove north to a town that I wanted to show everybody called Candelaria and Mia recommended we continue even further north to a UNESCO village called San Cristóbal de La Laguna. Here are a few shots from Candelaria:

The huge statues represent the natives that originate on these islands. Wikipedia says: The original inhabitants of the Canary Island are commonly known as Guanches (although this term in its strict sense only refers to the original inhabitants of Tenerife). They are most probably descendants of the Berbers of North Africa.

We wanted to go into the cathedral but it didn't open for another few hours. This is now my 2nd time here and I still haven't seen the inside. After a quick look in the gift shop, we piled back into the car to head even further north to San Cristóbal de La Laguna.

San Cristóbal de La Laguna is on the list of UNSCO's cities. According to its site, the town was established in the late1400s. There are 1470 buildings. 361 of them were built between the 1500s to1700s. 96 are from the 1800s. 170 are from the 1st half of the 1900s and about 25 of them are on this blog.

The following day, I sailed over to La Gomera. The excursion to La Gomera was in high demand. The travel agency said you need to reserve a spot at the latest 1 day in advance. Twice the excursion was full. But I tried a 3rd time and it worked out. John and Birthe said I would really enjoy the trip to La Gomera. (See the map at the top of this story). It takes 1 hour and 7 minutes to sail from island to island. The catamaran in the port was within walking distance from my hotel. It was a very nice full day excursion.

Here I am with all the other vacationers waiting

to get on board the boat.

The boat was not full but the 3 busses were. Eventually it was time for the included lunch. You are directed where to sit. I sat with 2 guys from the UK, 2 from Ireland and 1 guy from one of the Baltic countries. We made small talk while eating the very good food. I for sure do not like to travel like this. But it was ok if you think of yourself as cattle. After we ate, we all piled back onto the busses and we never saw each other again.

This was for sure the most beautiful spot on the island.

And it was really amazing.

Remember that painting from Mia?

It was very cold and very windy.

Eventually the bus journey came to an end. Now

we were on our own to explore the very tiny port

village for 1 hour and then meet at the

Christopher Columbus statue.

Now we have to walk 10 minutes back to the boat.

I tried to focus in on Teide -

the volcano of Tenerife.

I'm now back on land at the port of Los Cristianos.

John n Birthe, Torben n Mia are somewhere in town waiting for me so we can all go have dinner together on my last night before I have to head back to the airport tomorrow.

Below is an assortment of other evening

photos throughout the week.