Vacation on Gran Canary Island, Playa de Ingles

Get ready for boarding and take a flight. The trip starts at Nuremberg airport. First a short flight to Dusseldorf and then with a larger plane to Gran Canary Island. From there with the taxi to the apartment (hotel).

Once we have arrived I'd like to welcome you to the report of my vacation travel this year, 2012, to Gran Canary Island, Playa des Ingles.

Sit down on this bench at the ocean, listen to the waves and relax.

Both sand sculptures I saw on the day I hiked through the dunes from my apartment hotel to the lighthouse. The artist sat close by watching for donations and spraying the sculptures with water from the orange insecticide tank you can see on the second photo. And, yes, she did remove money from the red cardboard ever so often.

Faro lighthouse, Maspalomas - too tall and pier too short to get it  on one photo straight.

View from the balcony of the apartment down to the beach on the 3rd day. The clouds didn't make it much cooler. But the waves were fantastic - high enough for body surfing.

View from the beach back to the apartment hotel - right behind that tall tree.

 And although the promenade with the restaurants was only about 10m away - there was a kiosk for cool drinks at ice cream 5m away.

waves at Faro - stone beach as a gigantic wave some years ago took most of the sand away there

Sunrise was all that I could take photos from the sun - the apartment looked south-east.

On the first morning - later sunrise time than in Germany. 

After about a week "calima" set it -- that fine dust that looks like fog. 

But still the beach was full of people. Many, too many were "fried"  a deep dark red. Some even had blisters on the skin from too much direct sun. And still they kept going to lay in the sun all day - unprotected. 

I avoided the sun from 11.00 to about 15.00 and even then used high sunscreen lotions - and didn't get one burn; just a little tan. 

During the midday hours was the time to visit the supermarkets - small shopping centers close to the hotels. With a nice layout and park like feature (3 different locations, photos only from one):

Walking there was no problem - no cars on the wall above the beach part. All for joggers and leisurely walkers and those that only wanted to go to the beach (down about 1200 steps at least at various places in the wall):

 Some hotels along that walk way have a "cactus garden":

The park like entry to one of the shopping markets:

The entry to the "CITA" (a different one than the one above) with copies of European sightseeing highlights:

There I met her, one of the many cats:

Such blue eyes!!

Yes, food (aka restaurants and snack bars) is the most important thing for the tourists - next to the souvenir shops:

 But - with the economic crisis and lack of interest for keeping things in shape (tourists come here for over 40 years now) many corners of the supermarkets looked like this:

Empty stores and sale-outs for a few Euros in most of the markets. All nightclubs and discos had closed too - music and dancing was done only at the beach promenade. Yes, things have changed a lot since the hype of tourism. 

I also spend a day at Palmitos Park - that will be another post (soooo many plants and animals deserve their own post).

Lastly, I want to give you a few impressions of the apartment hotel and the cats that lived there:

cactus garden (in miniature)

a Zen fountain 

Sara - 4 years old. The only real "house cat", living living and being taken care of and "belonging" to the hotel complex. 

All other cats are only "allowed" to be around but are wild.

rear exit 

walk way to the apartments

view of pool area

I hope you enjoyed your travel, for more photos check the album on G+: Gran Canaria 2012

I will be adding a few more there once I've checked (and maybe processed) all that I have made.

Low Water in the Creek - update IV

Haven't seen much of the creek for a few weeks.
And now it's banks are well overgrown in most places.
We did have rain and on July 5th it was a very heavy one.
Going to work just as the rain stopped I happen to have to cross the bridge over that creek.

And - WOW - was it full!!!


So, of course, I took some photos to show you how much water can be in that little creek after such an heavy rain:

Fast running, and dirty!!

Nearly touching the top roof of the bridge (still 50cm before it would flow OVER it)!

The barrier has already been puller up to let the water flow freely!!

From the train further down the creek after a few other smaller creeks have joined.

For comparison when the level was normal to low:

Not the exact same spot as it now is fully overgrown and I couldn't take the photo there from the train.

And here the photos from today when most of the excess water was gone: 

2012, July 5th - a thunderstorm (again)

I was at home for a lunch break, working on my entry about my vacation to Gran Canaria, when the sky grew dark again and I saw a lightning flash - followed by distant thunder. Looking out the window I saw the heavy rain in the distance coming closer by the minute.
And as the thunder came faster after the lightning flashes I turned off my computer and took my camera to make a few photos - and eventually even some short videos of this nature spectacular event. Yes, I like thunderstorms (especially from a safe place).

View from the dinning room over the valley and village when the first heavy rain started

Same view - 15 minutes later - even heavier rain

From the living room window it looked like this:

The very heavy rain

Quickly lessened - water drops on the window (not the camera)

 but still raining heavy!!

Then it cleared up (just in time for me to go back to work):

And at the train station close to my work it looked like this, still some rain drops falling:

And here the videos - one from the dinning room (including lightning) and one from the living room. You can hear the rain (and some thunder too) through the closed window!!
From the dining room window - with lightning!
Form the living room window - rain and thunder!!

(I hope the videos work - or I'll have to do the upload again "tomorrow" (midnight here right now).