Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Long summer hoidays part 2

Laura and I had made a whole long list of things to do and places to visit with the little lad, but before we could start in on it, Martin insisted on a bit of sun and sea abroad to enjoy some R&R.  He had a week off, we had money in the bank, but we just couldnt decide where to go.

What we ended up doing was booking a place that looked wonderful in the photos, all swimming pools and activities, but we did it at 1 oclock in the morning after a meal out with Kelly and Ollie, half asleep and without the benifit of researching TripAdvisor, BIG MISTAKE!

Too late to back out having paid the full price, I discovered it had some mighty flaws and when we arrived found out that all the moans were no exaggeration. We had a clear flight and landed in Majorca at 2 in the morning, finally arriving at the 'site' at 3. The reception looked fine and then we were shown to what became known as 'The Shed'.  Honest, if I hadn't been so tired I would have cried, and it didn't look any better in the morning. It was like sleeping in my dad's out house with room for little more than the two single beds, a table and a chair. The tiles were cracked, the paint was peeling, the built in cupboard was so musty smelling we left our clothes in the suitcase or hung them from the curtain rail, the bathroom door wouldn't open if shut, and the shower turned the whole bathroom into a wet room.

The food was plenty and passable - like going back to the 60's when the Spanish had been told the Brits liked chips, boiled to death veg, and angel delight - yes we had angel delight of various flavours on offer ever mealtime!

On Monday we tried to upgrade to a superior room but were told they were fully booked, on Wednesday I told Martin I was so depressed by  the room he took me more seriously and tried to upgrade again, again he was told no chance before Friday. At this point I told him it would at least help if we could open the window shutters (I was sure he had said they were stuck and we had lived under a single light bulb for 4 days). Once he had realized the problem he opened up the shutters so letting light flood in, and also cool air (we had hired a fan because the box had been sooooo hot inside it.

Anyway the 'camp' itself had plenty of facilities, 3 pools although 1 was very crowded, 1 had no shade and only a little snack shed, so we spent the week, literally sitting by the smallest pool but nearest the best of the bars, drinking sangria and reading our kindles. Not the most exciting of holidays but at least Martin got his sun and relaxation.

Photos of Sun Club Eldorado, El Arenal
This photo of Sun Club Eldorado is courtesy of TripAdvisor

During Martin's second week off it was back to playing with our little lad, and a trip to the zoo is always in order during our times off. This time it was Howletts. Now I much prefer the sister zoo at Port Lymphe as I feel it has more interesting animals, but it is a much longer and hillier walk, and us old crock grandparents with our dodgy knees were not up to the hilly landscape. I always feel that the animals are too difficult to see at Howletts, and to be honest, they did not dissapoint us in that respect. I think we saw about seven animals all told, even the zoo's famed gorillas were all asleep and well out of sight. Not that this little one minded, he got to enjoy a good picnic and a fun crawl around the picnic area.






There are a great number of seaside towns very close to where we live as we are close to the Thanet coast, and through the summer each town has its own summer festival. Although we are closer to Whitstable with its two week long Oyster festival, Ccarnival and Rregatta, I much prefer the show that Herne Bay puts on, which I think is less arty and more for the common man. In the past we have enjoyed some really great events and listened to some fantastic live bands. This year the whole shebang was started off by the lighting of a huge effigy of a pirate ship on the beach, which was packed full of fireworks and pyrotechnical stuff. It seemed like it would be fun, but a bit of a booboo by the organisers meant the ropes were far too close and those of us at the front had to retreat early or be in danger of being roasted.