This holiday got off to an unusually leisurely start. The first and often reliable train on a winter Sunday would have been tight for time even if it ran to the timetable so we booked to stay overnight near Manchester Airport. We caught the 17:20 which gave us time to prepare everything ready for our return home, a good time to clean the fridge when it was almost empty.
A drunk on the train was swigging from a bottle of brandy and conversing on his phone. At one point he turned to us and asked if he looked OK in his sunglasses then “these people opposite say I don’t look a twat” to the phone.
We took a wrong turn from the airport station so didn’t reach the Premier Inn until 21:15. After a leisurely breakfast we returned to the airport and prepared the bikes. This time I removed my front wheel to ensure the bike passed through the scanner, checked in and passed through security. As usual, Christine had to forfeit something, this time a tube of suntan lotion which she’d neglected to put in her hold luggage. We had a very acceptable vegan Moroccan dish at the Giraffe cafe before boarding.
The incoming flight was late, losing us half an hour. At Las Palmas airport I waited by the “large items” conveyor belt where the bikes eventually came off along with the roadies machines in their solid plastic cases. Christine had by now retrieved our panniers from the carousel so we started re-assembling. Finding a non-motorway route out of a Spanish airport is always a challenge so we didn’t reach our accommodation at Casa Samay until 22:15, later than estimated. Antonio, the large owner, was effusive in his welcome and we conversed in a mixture of Spanish and English. It’s like a hostel with individual rooms and a common kitchen and lounge but we had the whole place to ourselves.
We bought breakfast provisions at the supermarket and then a very easy but dull 31 km ride, firstly through a busy long urban sprawl then the fast GC500 road to the southern coastal resorts. Finding our way through the busy streets of Maspalomas to the Fortuny resort was slow but we arrived soon after 14:00 in time for a swim in their pool.
We’ve never stayed anywhere like this before, with sun loungers clustered around a pool. We walked to the supermarket for food, cooked and ate.