Month: January 2023

Hotel Los Gigantes 22-12-22

Two weeks away covering Christmas and the New Year in the relative warmth of Los Gigantes, Tenerife seemed like a very good idea after having two Christmases at home.  We did try to go away at Christmas 2021 – but this impossible when there was a minor resurgence of covid.

Our destination hotel, now known as Tui Blue, was the first development in this part of the island and in the reception there is a huge photo showing the visitors arriving by boat.  The hotel opened ln 1963 but has been significantly facelifted in recent years and is presently adult only.  So there should be no children, no squealing and no brats running around at meal times – instead it will be very civilised.

Cliffs Los Gigantes 22-12-22

The area around the hotel is not very flat so on the second day I take a short local walking tour with a group of other new arrivals to see the locality.  This gives a chance to see the adjacent cliffs and the small harbour.  Originally we thought we might eat out but events conspired against us.  I do spot a couple of possibilities but we do not get there.

Harbour Los Gigantes 22-12-22

We took one day trip which I will record as a separate post. There are some stories which I shall record.

Event 1:
A typical day is a case study in learning how to do nothing.  Many of our holidays down the years have involved being on the move and seeing things so to hardly do anything at all – apart from stretching out in the sun for the morning and then having a sleep in the afternoon seems unusual.  The odd thing is that even with the afternoon nap, we still feel pretty tired in the evening and we are not staying up late at all.  Quite a bit of reading is achieved plus a lot of listening so the outstanding pile of unread material does decline nicely which is pleasing in itself.

Event 2:
We both suffered bouts of illness. In my case it was a UTI which we felt needed medical intervention. A doctor arrived about 2 hours after we asked reception staff for help. Infection confirmed and prescription written, a quick visit to an adjacent pharmacy so within 3 hours I have taken the first tablet. The local dosage is also higher than the UK and the antibiotics soon knock the infection sideways. This happened on a day when to get a prescription in the Uk might well have needed a visit to a remote out of hours facility.

Event 3:
A decent Christmas lunch but no sign of any Brussels sprouts. The following morning there are green vegetables for breakfast as there are every morning; today there are some exquisite Brussels sprouts. Neither of us wants them for breakfast!

Event 4:
Every evening there was musical entertainment; somehow after a few numbers it seems to become a Motown run down, just like the previous evening. We went along most evenings but mainly for another drink not the music.

Cough medicine 28-11-22

Event 5:
If you get a bad throat then this is the stuff to fix it.

Event 6:
A phone call from the surgery insisting I need blood tests.  I point out that I had a complete set of blood tests in September and consequently there should be no need as they tested everything under the sun.  They went away but once I was back in the UK they started on again.  Once again I pointed at the September results but the idiot could not be bothered to check and eventually ended up by cutting my prescriptions and simply would not listen to my repeated explanations.  There are drawbacks to mobile phones and being permanently connected and this was one of them.