I left myself with just 2 months
to decide with what to do with 9 days holiday off work. So I split it into a
trip to the Canary islands and Germany followed by a trip to Malta a couple of
weeks later.
The ease of getting to, the fact I
had never been before and it was one of the few warm places in Europe during
January were the main factors in going. Flying from East Midlands was a bonus
and I quickly noticed that most of the people on the plane were old. I made the
mistake of attempting to walk the couple of miles over scrubland from the
airport to El Medano which turned into a bit of a
nightmare.
Within half an hour of walking
round the town it was obvious it was a very small place and I would be using it
as a base for visiting elsewhere. Back at the hostel I discovered it was a very
popular kitesurfing and windsurfing destination. Unfortunately these were the
top topics of conversation in the hostel which of course I knew absolutely
nothing about.
The following morning I headed by
bus to catch a second bus at the touristy end of the island to El Teide. After waiting around for ages I
discovered that there was only 1 bus a day which I had missed by over 2 hours
which I found a bit strange to say the least. I did however have another reason
to be at that end of the island. I had to recover a phone and some glasses from
a hotel that had been left a couple of weeks earlier by dads cousin Keith and
his girlfriend.
I did have a look round Playa de las
Americas which was originally going to be
the first place I ever went abroad back in 1999 until we changed it to Rhodes.
It was fairly typical of the areas touristy beach towns, I might have enjoyed it
at the age of 23 but seeing it years later as a backpacker full of concrete,
“full English breakfast signs” and loads of sunburned people who never venture a
couple of hundred meters beyond their hotel. It reminded me of why I travel the
way I do.
I climbed up a small hill for some
pictures then headed back by bus which this time went along the coast road. It
passed through several other beach towns which all seemed smaller versions of
Playa de las Americas. I got off just before the town and climbed to the top of
mount Roja which was very windy at the top. At night a few other people had
moved in and I ended up having a far better and more social second night
although we didn’t venture any further than having a few beers on the hostel
roof.
Final full day I was planning to
go to La Gomera but since I was up early I had a
change of plan and went to El Teide instead. The bus was full and I had to wait
an hour while they put a second bus on. Eventually I arrived in a landscape that
was very similar to Iceland, this was the highest I had ever been above sea
level. At the top of the cable car you couldn’t walk far because of ice and the
footpaths were closed.
I walked round the national park
for a bit then waited ages again for the bus back, a reasonable day but the
transport situation was fairly grim. A few at the hostel were going out at night
which was just my luck as I was getting up early the next morning for my
flight.
It was a short simple flight to
Gran Canaria but a 2 hour bus ride from the airport to where I was staying at
Puerto de mogan. Another nice hostel in another
very small town, I’d walked most of the main streets within an hour of arriving.
Like in Tenerife the only people between the ages of 20 and 40 were the dozen or
so people in my hostel. Again we sat drinking on the balcony overlooking the
town. It seemed deserted after 9pm no music coming out of bars or anything like
that.
I had one full day before flying
to Germany, I’d had more than enough of buses so I hired a mountain bike from a
nearby hotel and headed inland. I cycled uphill for the best part of 3 hours,
like Tenerife it was full of cyclists most of them far more professional looking
than I was. I went as far as I could until I hit the cloud layer and it got too
cold, then enjoyed the long downhill roll back to the coast.
The evening was the same as the
others a few beers on the balcony with the others in the hostel. 2 nights in
that small town were enough, it was back to the cold the following
morning.
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