 |
| Jens and I are cracking up because i have just taken 30 pictures of us and in every picture we look stupid. Mostly it's me who looks so "wha hawppen" with very Chinese looking eyes - for some reason. |
 |
| As we approch the island Gran Canaria, we are able to see the top of the island of Teniriffe. It's an active volcano island, spurting out steam every 5 minutes or so. Just a few weeks ago there was underwater movement with an expulsion of steam and lava. |
 |
| Now we are over the north end of Gran Canaria. |
 |
| This is the southern tip of the island. It is a huge mass of sand dunes. At the edge of the city where it meets the dunes, you can actually see our hotel. |
 |
| The line points to the hotel in the red circle. |
 |
| We just arrived to the hotel. The porter takes our bags and in return, we are invited to wait on the terrace with a complimentary glass of champagne - until the room is ready. |
After we drink our welcome cocktail, we head up to our room and shortly thereafter, our bags arrive. We unpack, and from the balcony we absorb the amazingly beautiful view over the pool, dunes and coastline. But before the sun goes down, we quickly dawn our itsy bitsy teensie weensie yellow polk-a-dot bikini and head out to the pool for the first time today to catch as many rays as possible before finding our way to dinner at the near by shopping mall. I know that may sound weird but Playa del Ingles (the name of the town and beach) has 3 huge outdoor shopping malls (as well as a few smaller malls). This is where all the evening actions takes place and where the bars and restaurants number into the 100's - ok maybe 50 or 60 - but enough to make it hard to choose. The Yumbo Center is where we normally go. However, after the long 5½ hour flight and crazy lines in the airports, we were too tired to do a big birthday dinner so we ate small at Martel House and saved the b-day dinner for the next day. Here at Martel House in the Yumbo Center, you can see the chef cooking up your meat. The huge flames are the big attraction, so many hungry guest order flambé something or another. They even flambé a banana desert. It's not our favorite restaurant and a bit tacky in the terrace with sun faded pictures of the dishes hanging all about. But the food is good and the service is fast, friendly and efficient.
 |
| Men's room at Martel House. Is it the soap that smells so fresh or the tropical flowers? |
 |
| The head chef stands in an open area between the cement part of the restaurant and the open air terrace. He is standing behind this vase with Birds of Paradise flowers, cooking up our stakes. |
 |
| Jens is feeling good so we walk off the stakes back to the hotel. Here we are standing out front of our hotel, Riu Palace. |
In the next several shots you will see the views from our balcony.
 |
| This is one of the 2 pools. |
 |
| Early morning sunrise. |
 |
| It's a jumbo size hotel. We are standing on the left hand side of the hotel which is built in a horse shoe shape and the white building you see on the right is the end of the hotel on the right hand side of the building. The other pool is closer to the part of the building you can see. It's a really fancy hotel and a great place to chill out. More about hotel. Link here. |
 | |
| You've heard it before - so i will keep it short. This is the light house at the southern tip of the island. In 1492 Queen Isabella of Spain sent Christopher Columbus out to find a new trading route to India. He set sail due south from Spain and hung a right, here at the lighthouse at the southern tip of Gran Canaria. The rest is history, (including your up and coming Thanksgiving dinner -for those of you reading this is the states) |
 |
| This is were we stuffed ourselves every morning. Really - it would be impossible to take just one spoonful of everything they have from the breakfast buffet. However, there were so many big bellies it seemed like several guest were doing there best to achieve that full body figure and beyond. |
 |
| This may look like a typical ordinary pool and garden in Southern California, but it's heaven coming from cold gray Denmark. |
 |
| The breakfast terrace is covered by beautiful bougainvillea. |
 |
So finally we worked up an appetite by going easy on breakfast. We needed to make space for Jens's birthday dinner. Here we are at our very favorite restaurant. Family owned and operated and not in the shopping mall. It's here where we held our 12½ year copper anniversary. For months Jens has been anxiously awaiting his sizzling shrimp in boiling garlic oil. For the main course we both ordered stakes - his with bearnaise sauce and mine with mushroom sauce. It truly was a bit of heaven on a fork. Jens says the stake was so tender you could chew it with your eyelashes. I tried that - don't recommend it - mascara everywhere.
 |
| Jens takes time out for a smoke in front of the restaurant. |
 |
| This is the restaurant's open-air front terrace, looking towards the front door. On the other side of the restaurant is an enclosed patio. Jens likes the outside terrace best because there you can smoke. |
 |
| Flan - it was sooooooooooooooo tasty! |
Tropical trees and plants grow between the hotel corridors.
Among the many things one may find in trees, 3 are:
 |
| Dates |
 |
| Honey |
 |
| and nuts |
 |
| Our 2nd night at our favorite restaurant included the guacamole starter with shrimp for Jens. |
 |
| Salmon croquettes with cilantro sauce for me. |
 |
| My main course was Sea Bass. |
 |
| Jens ordered sliced mignon in a spicy sauce. |
The food was so delicious, we got into a food frenzy and just start sucking up everything that was put on our table.
 |
| Totally forgot to snap a picture before devouring this beautiful home-made Italian Tiramsu. One of the chefs comes from a near by village of Venice - so it's the real thing. |
 |
| I ordered a macchiato. |
 |
| And Jens ordered an espresso yourself...... hey hey hey hey |
 |
| The signs point the way to the beach and shops in the hotel. But we had to go in the opposite direction back to Denmark where the day time sky looks pretty much like this night time shot. |
