The final holiday blog. (Better late than never) 9/5/12

The last breakfast.......bacon of course. Packing up and buying the most hilariously tacky postcards, even one of our hotel, the fabulous Cay Beach Sun.

Got the worst lady pain ever so definitely a strung out on painkillers day. Due to not listening to his navigator and due to a lack of useful signs, we got a tad lost on the way to the foundacion de Cesar Manrique. (This was the artists house and in the bubbles left from many volcanic eruptions.)

I almost fainted about 3 times and felt dizzy and sick which was lovely. A suggested to go out but being a stubborn northerner and having paid our 8euros each, I weren't giving up in the first room. So I managed to get through it, some rooms quicker than others as I thought I was going to collapse. Ha ha. Funny when you look back, not so funny at the time.

Anyhoo, when we got out A directed me to the cafe for a drink and sit down, but the cafe consisted of three vending machines and a covered seating area. Though the covered seating area was amazing. Shade and a comfy seat and not feeling faint. Lovely. After half an hour (and more pain killers) I was ready to roll.

Quick maths equation for you: Wind + Dress = flashing (not good)

Then we ventured into the capital: Arricife. 1st impressions.......
Slightly dilapidated, especially the broad walk which had planks missing everywhere.
Loads of graffiti which I was quite shocked about but I guess wherever there are youths there will be graffiti. What was funny was that they were all saying stuff about one 'crew' or another. On Lanzarote? It just doesn't seem feasible to have a crew in this lovely sunshiny place that never sees rain.......dunno, I just thought it was weird.

Ooooo, we did find a lovely pizzeria for lunch. Weirdly decorated and even had fake grass on the floor, which I found hilarious as Lanzarote doesn't have any grass. He he. It was run by lovely Spanish people but the pizza was made by an Italian. YUM YUM YUM! Completely awesome. A had a good chat with him too, of course. Strangely though, I ended up with ham on my pizza........enough with the pig already, Helen.
I will definitely be returning to chicken, chicken and more chicken.

Then A took me down some delightfully dodgy back streets until we found the main street which was lovely, but deserted. I guess it was siesta time and most things were closed. But we did find the Animal shop open and with up to 70% off. I got some long board shorts for 5euros. AHHHHHHHH! I've wanted some for ages but I refused to pay £50 for them and now I have some and they are red. Whoop! I can cover myself up even more now. Muhahahahahahah.

Despite most things being shut, we found a gelateria....hmmmmmm gelato! We discovered Arricife's natural port, which was really beautiful. We found a hidden church and took a walk along the sea front. The castle was closed but we wandered around and took photos and then there was the beautiful band stand thing that was actually tourist information. Shame really, they could have made an awesome bar out of it. It had these lovely stained glass windows and the colours shone through onto the walls. Ah well, they missed a good business opportunity there. No one wanted tourist information, but I could have murdered an ice cold beverage.

We took the car up to another castle further away, Castillo de San Jose, renovated by who?????Yes, you got it, Cesar Manrique. It's now a modern art museum and a very nice one at that. It was well worth the 2.50 entrance and you could go on top of the castle and investigate all the little rooms and stuff. It was definitely a welcome detour and our last stop before changing back into London clothes (Jeans under the dress, knee high socks, trainers) and heading for the airport.

Returning the hire car was easy, but queuing for bag drop was a nightmare. It took forever, meanwhile I'm melting and dehydrated and ready for a new bout of pain killers. We'd been stressing about the weight of our bags, swapping stuff around and I even took out my mega notepad, as I was sure it must weigh at least 250g, so I slotted that under my arm and hid it with my coat, praying that my hand luggage would be the right weight and in the end, she didn't even weigh it. She just looked and but the 'fit to fly' tag on it. Ah well. The note book went back in. (thankfully, it's really heavy. Must be the weight of all my ideas...ha ha)

Woo Hoo, we were delayed again. This time about 40 minutes, but we knew that was cutting it fine for our trains back, so we gave in and booked a taxi. When we did disembark, we got through passport pretty quickly but then A was whisked off to translate for someone. I'm sure that was completely against policy but he was translating for an Egyptian girl who could only speak Spanish and a bit of Italian. No English. He said he had to ask her loads of personal questions and stuff. Very bizarre.

Anyhoo, the taxi took the most bizarre ways and it ended up taking about an hour and twenty minutes. We got home around 12.40 and both had to be up at 6am the next day for work. Lovely. Ah well at least it was only a two day week.

Now, putting all the joking and sarcasm aside. I would highly recommend Lanzarote. There is actually quite a lot to see and do, you just have to go out there and find it. I would strongly advise to get a hire car then you have that freedom and I would recommend our hotel Cay Beach Sun in Playa Blanca, as it was pretty quiet, had two lovely pools, was only a short walk from the beach and had plenty of nice cocktail bars. If you're sceptical about all inclusive like we were, just go for it, you might be pleasantly surprised. And if only to see all the volcanoes and get a bit of sun, it is totally worth it. Go for it! We like Lanzarote!!! It has the Helen and Andrea stamp of approval!

Now I'd really better put some clothes and head out to work. I start at 10 and have a meeting starting at 10 until 12.30. Great. I don't even get a minute with my kids before I'm thrust into the world of talking to adults. Boo!

Have a good Tuesday