Tag: steps

La Gomera 2.1.26 – 9.1.26

17 January 2026 / admin

Mount Teide Tenerife 9.1.26

Unusually this is a second consecutive foreign holiday (ignoring the short excursions to Cornwall and Brighton) where we intend to do very little. La Gomera is an island situated a little way away from Tenerife and it was visible from Playa San Juan when we stayed there some 20+ years ago. In those days the ferry sailed across from Playa San Juan to the island but these days the ferry link is to and from Los Christianos. We are travelling with Tui and our destination is Hotel Jardin Tecina which is situated above the small town of Playa Santiago on the south coast of the island.

The outward journey requires an early start to Gatwick and the usual wait at the airport. A decent flight down to Tenerife South airport, passing Mount Teide on our way) and then a coach to the Los Christianos port where there is a lack of information. We follow others obtaining tickets from Armas ferry – which is awaiting departure. We hand cases over to white van man and have to hope they will be at the other end. 50 minutes later we are on the island and further guesswork is needed to reach the terminal building where we are re-united with our cases.

Volcán de Teno Ferry 9.1.26

A minibus and trailer are then loaded and a fifty minute run along the mountain tops enables arrival at our destination.

The hotel has a number of restaurants and the second best meal of the week is in La Tasca which has friendly staff and good service.

Hotel Jardin Tecina 10.1.26

Our daytimes – when the weather permits – which is most days I can report were spent on one of the Bali beds adjacent to the pool area outside our room.

Our room is a slight understatement. The ground floor has a bedroom and bathroom and opens onto the beds surrounding the pool area. On the floor above is a lounge area (both are equipped with televisions) where typically we take lunch and a toilet plus a “front” door which opens to the main path at the front. Up another flight of stairs there is a large circular bed – if the Bali beds were being used this might be a nice alternative but we did not use it during our stay.

On the second evening we negotiated our way down the steps, lift and more steps to sea level. If it seemed a long way down it seemed further when going up later! We wander around the town – quiet but we eat as early as we can in Kuffs which was notable for some excellent prawns.

Cave and carrier basket 11.1.26

Come Sunday evening we had the most wonderful experience in The Cave. We are escorted up the steps to a remote (but warm) cave and the waiter takes an order for alcohol as the menu is largely fixed. He then vanishes and to a timetable they have a “zip wire” type cage which brings the food up from the kitchen and into which we load the plates after each course. It is probably the best meal of the week with some superb veal as the main course. Veal simply does not get served enough in the UK but is on just about every menu here. The cave contains a bed – but we are unable to avail ourselves of its comforts as we find we are both in need of the toilets after completing the meal – which requires descent back to the facilities – not by zip wire for us – we have to use the steps.

Bed in a cave 11.1.26

The hotel does not seem exceptionally busy – we have no trouble finding a table outside at breakfast (there are two restaurants serving breakfast – La Gara has a large outside area) so it consumes a few calories walking to and from the buffet areas. In our area the most number of beds occupied was I think 4 and on later days of the holiday we would choose one for sun in the morning and then occupy a different one in the afternoon to maximise the sun available.

Two of the hotel’s restaurants are also down at sea level – Club Laurel which we use on Monday evening and La Trattoria on Wednesday evening. In the latter we are disappointed that the lasagne (an essential Italian dish) was vegetarian only. In both cases it was my perception that the attention to detail and service was lacking.

On the final evening we visited a recommended restaurant in the town, we had visited it on the second evening to secure a booking and it seems to be full every evening. An excellent salad to open but the follow up was not perhaps as good as we had been led to expect – it is probably the best in town but I am not sure it quite deserved the hype we experienced – however it was exceptionally busy.

The timing of the return trip is dependent on the ferries. These leave La Gomera at 7 am (Fred Olsen) and 7:30 am (Armas). We are booked on the latter which determines an 04:40 alarm call. Plus we end up with four meals during the day – a light breakfast at the hotel, a Burger King during our five ~~years~~ hours at the airport awaiting our flight, sandwiches on the flight and then battered sausage and chips once we are home. It is also a long old day.

Frigiliana

13 March 2015 / admin

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Not far from Nerja is Frigiliana – a small town a little way up in the hills from Nerja. There is a bus service with a simple fare structure – €1 for the ride there and the same back later. It takes about 15 minutes from the Nerja “bus station” – a somewhat overblown description as there is one stop on each side of the road and the buses do not stop anywhere else in the town! I suppose they are stationary whilst at the stop.

Waiting the other side of the road when we arrive in Frigiliana is a road train and this costs €3 each (that seems expensive after the bus ride) for a trip around the lower part of the town with a running commentary and some stunning views in all directions – we failed to spot the oft mentioned pink chapel, however. If we return we might see it – anyone got any pictures? Tell us what we missed. The caves of Nerja are famous (and we will be going there later in the week), but we are also pointed at some local cave entrances in the distance.

Now it is time to climb up into the old town. Almost immediately we are climbing up steps – fairly gently – but we are heading upwards. My wife has been here before and tells me that “Le Mirador” restaurant is at the top of the old town and before long we pick up signs telling us which way to go. As we ascend we see some carefully maintained corners and areas of plants and flowers. Hopefully some of the photographs have made their way onto my Flickr page.

We are still going upwards when we pass a nice looking restaurant sign – but it is not lunchtime just yet; a little further up there is a guitarist playing outside another restaurant with signs to other bars and so on. Anyway the steps seem to lead upwards, but then suddenly we are on a little slope downwards and just a bit further we reach ‘Le Mirador’ and it is on the dot twelve. So could be lunchtime. We ask for a menu but we are advised that food does not become available until 1. If we just sit in the sun and drink it might be overdoing it by the time lunch arrives. So we decide to go for a bit more of a wander and we find another restaurant but the wife was unimpressed by the smell so we depart and find we are going down and not along the way we came up.

Going down is easy, too easy. We end up below the level at which we started this exercise and way, way out of town and as we walk back towards the town centre there is no access back into the old town. And time is passing. Eventually a huge set of steps and steep and UPWARDS. We are heading in the right direction and eventually start picking up the signs for Le Mirador again but long before we get there we reach Oshun and seeing the sign we reckon this might be worth trying. So we stumble in the front door and out the back onto a very nice terrace and a wonderful view. And it is very definitely lunch time!

So go and look at the photos which are here.

The menu is studied but we are also offered some specials of the day and mostly this sounds better than the menu. Our waiter has spent some time working in London and has pretty good English. My wife orders the rabbit salad, with the rabbit wrapped around asparagus and then an outer wrapping of bacon and cut into about eight slices. I order the octopus in galician style and this is just my cup of tea – slices of octopus in olive oil with some paprika.

The main courses selected were cod baked in the oven for me and because she has so enjoyed the seea bass the previous evening in Nerja my wife ordered it again for lunch. What she forgot to check was the filletting situation. When it came the sea bass still had all of its bones. Luckily foresight (never order the same meal as the wife just in case) meant that there was a solution. I got to eat the sea bass and my wife consumed the cod. Inevitably I got the odd mouthful of bony bits and sadly my wife always thinks cod is fairly tasteless; but I felt both pieces of fish were well cooked and well presented and I had no problems at all eating the sea bass – it just saved me have to order it somewhere else during the holiday.

The waiter recommended a rather good bottle of white wine a rueda verdejo which comes from Northern Spain and this provides a very good accompaniment to the meal we had chosen.

A word about the waiter, when we sat down he kindly moved a chair for us to put bags and hats and so on to the side – in full view but also off the floor so that he did not tread on them. Very thoughtful. Also his English may not have been perfect but he tried very hard to ensure he described the food – and no doubt it was those explanations which led to us largely eating the say’s specials.

A cup of coffee each.

The bill including tip was €90 which for the quality of the food and service was excellent value. If you can find it without getting lost first then I am sure it will be equally enjoyable!

We walked down the steps again and visited the local art exhibition and museum. On her visit last year my wife nearly bought a painting and hoped it might still be there. However the exhibits had all changed and so that opportunity had gone.

Time for the bus back to Nerja and a wander down through the streets which at 4pm are just coming awake again after the siesta break. We have enjoyed a wonderful day in the sun shine (for the time of year the temperature is probably well above normal) but we pass the local residents still wearing the overcoats and woollies – we have been in T shirts and shorts all day.