Back in Denmark

 Oh yes, we are back in Denmark.  On our ride to work and school today I saw a man nearly blown off his bike by the gusts of wind which are still blowing outside my window at 4:30 pm.  Our bikes were blown backwards when we were at stoplights and on the way home, I felt a little like a drunk, wobbly bicyclist as I was buffeted by the wind.  And it is dark at 4:30!  And the drizzle!

Recently I read Jane Brody's column in the NYTimes on advice from the elderly.  TRAVEL  they said, when you can, before you retire, before you are too old.  So we did.  Grabbed another inexpensive charter trip to Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands.  We left 34 degrees and arrived to 72 degrees.  Not tropical but the sun was out, it had some strength, none of this wan, halfway up in the sky stuff but some real warmth to it.  We had a slightly funky but extremely well-situated hotel 1 block from a 4 km beautiful beach with a promenade along the length of it with restaurants, sidewalk cafes, street performers, etc. It was particularly glorious at night.

 Grand Canaries are part of Spain so we were surrounded by Spanish (and do they ever talk fast, a lot and with their arms waving, quite the contrast from the Scandinavians who are so fearful someone might hear them on the rare occasion that they talk) and Spanish food and culture.  Not to complain, but that Spanish food was delicious but extremely limited for the likes of vegetarian, non-fish eating Nhat.  We kept walking around trying to find something besides grilled cheese (and that's without the bread) and the delicious small potatoes in a special sauce which are the specialty of the islands.  Also, we are Midwesterners, raised by farm folk who ate dinner at the reasonable hour of 6 pm.  We walked a lot waiting for restaurants to open up at 8:30 pm and marveled at the folks who were sitting down to eat at 11 pm.

Walk-Up Window Bar Next to Our Hotel

Though many of the tourists (and there are many, esp Germans and Scandinavians) took to the beach despite rather cool low 70's and some clouds, we explored the largest city where we stayed, Las Palmas.  The original city district was built 500 years ago and we went on a terrific walking tour of the old town, seeing the Christopher Columbus house where he stayed before heading out for the New World and toured the cathedral built around the same time but finished a couple of centuries later, mixing up all the architectural styles that came and went.  They had a mummified cardinal (and I don't mean the bird) in one of the chapels who is awaiting a decision on his sainthood.  We had a wonderful meal in the courtyard of one of those 500-year-old houses, an oasis of palm and fig trees, cacti and
bougainvillea.

 

One day, as there were no cars to rent, we hopped on the local buses to see some of the sights in a couple of smaller towns.  Thank goodness there were no cars to rent as the roads were twisty, often one-lane roads which did not slow down much of the local traffic.  Several times we met another car around a curve despite the bus driver incessantly honking his horn around corners and the other car would have to back up to let us go by.  There was a fabulous Virgin Mary of the Pines sitting on a huge silver throne, dressed in golden robes in this church in a tiny town in the hills.

Another day, we heard about the fantastic, warmer beaches of the southern part of the island.  We took the bus and spent 1/2 hour winding our way through a tourist hell hole, with Norwegian fish cafes and a "Sioux City" area, complete with cowboys and Indians.  As soon as we got off the bus we decided to walk the 6 km to the other end of the sand dunes and beach.  The natural area of sand dunes was beautiful, the tourists streaming along the beach (which was red-flagged because of severe winds) were not.  Extremely large bellies and Speedos don't mix.  Nhat called it "the pilgrimage of the Northerners."
We made our way through the wienersnitzel restaurants and Hooters and made our way back to our beautiful, less crowded and less touristy beach.

And what is a vacation without a parade?  We hit the day before Three Kings Day, which is their Christmas Eve and got treated to a candy-throwing kidfest with camels, cartoon characters on floats, legions of  Roman soldiers, wisemen collecting letters from children concerning their present wishlists, quaint hawkers of sweets on rolling carts, and loud techno-music thumping away as soundtrack.

If the parade wasn't enough, we got to see the Spanish National Synchronized Swimming team do a New Year's Day extravaganza in a cove on our beach to Christmas music!

We got some good doses of sun.  We actually laid on some chaise lounge chairs and read all one day, bestirring ourselves long enough to get a Spanish tortilla sandwich and some beers.  The water was beautiful though cool, probably around 65 degrees so we jumped in but didn't linger long.

So it was a good break.  We saw the sun for at least 3 extra hours a day and felt its warmth.  Now, back to the books.  Nhat is working extra hard to get done and I am back in school.  Enjoyable but we are exploring the possibilities for our next trip.