Gran Canaria - Amadores with family

More than three years of waiting to travel because loooong covid restrictions. It has felt too complicated and expensive to have certificates of various kinds and quick changes in restrictions to make it feel safe for a family of five, so we have chosen to wait. Although a couple of times we have had time to preliminarily book a trip but then regretted it. So far, travel is limited and more expensive than before covid.

Five in the morning, tired and expectant, we go to the airport. We have chosen to go with Tui as we had money in the company since lockdown. The trip is 6 hours and since we already know that the quality is a little worse with Tui, we had loaded up our laptops and ipads with film and work. The airplane was a little worse than expected compared to how it had been before, the gaps between the seats were extremely narrow. Everyone taller than me had to sit with their legs angled to make room. The fact that it had been a pandemic seemed to be completely forgotten. People were sneezing and coughing the whole trip. Not many more people than my family used mouth protection.

The moment we got out of the airplane I could smell the heat and everything became real with happiness and euphoria.

50 minutes to the hotel in bus, installation in a nice apartment with 2 bedrooms and living room in the corner of the hotel with the sea below us. The location of the hotel is among the best during my travels as it was so easily accessible to the sea. Negative about the hotel was that we could only choose breakfast, which means that foodcosts easily became a little more expensive with the whole family and there was no wi-fi. There were two stovetops and two pans so we could cook a  simpler lunch ourselves during the day. There was a small bar that would sell smoothies but on the list of a bunch of various flavors, only two of them available. One evening when one of our youngsters was extra hungry and wanted to go down and order a toast, they didn't have time to take more orders. Positive was the hotel and the apartment's location, nice cleaning and reception staff and it was cheaper to buy water cans at the hotel than at the grocery store. The breakfast buffet was not very big but had the most important thing that you need and they made very good fried eggs.

Most days began with breakfast at 9 a.m. The young people took a second nap after breakfast, while Stefan and I took a 5-10 km walk. Can´t remember last time I enjoyed every second, every breath and I tried to memorize every single feeling, sound and smell. Back to the apartment, it was time to shake the youngsters to life and get them down to the beach where we took a swim. 21°C in the water, warm sun and nice heat on surface. It was unusually warm in the water for the season and a little cool in the air in the mornings until the sun had climbed over the mountains. It was bright until around 7pm in the evenings. We walked down towards Puerto Rico every sunset and had dinner.

During New Year's Eve we went to a Restaurant called Bolero. Stefan and I have eaten there in our previous trips, they have had high quality and tender meat. It was really nice and later in the evening we went down to the beach and saw fireworks. I have a hard time liking the noices from the fireworks as I'm worried about all the animals that suffer, go into shock, even dying. I also don't like the littering that becomes. However, we had a really nice time :)

A few evenings later we went back to Bolero because our Italian restaurant we normally visit  had shut down and we couldn't decide what to eat. Guess it became too much to get by financially during covid. However, the experience was not as pleasant as all the staff had become ill. They had gotten a cold, they were all coughing, and you could hear it echoing from the kitchen. One waitress ran her hand over her nose and then handled the serving. With a little panic, we did not know what to do and completed the meal which unfortunately did not measure up this time. In hindsight, when we had time to think a bit, we should have walked away.

It is difficult to find good food as everything is something with fries and béarnaise. Next time we will try to find a larger grocery store so we can buy raw materials and cook more of our own food.

The last two days our friend Angela with the diving club Blue Water arranged diving for us in Amadores. It's been a while since we dived this lovely. We were below the surface for a little more than an hour each dive before giving up because of the cold. We saw crabs, octopuses, starfishes and much more :)

The happiness of living so close to the beach made the opportunity to walk down to the beach after breakfast on the day of departure. We took a nice walk along the beach and soaked in the last rays of sunshine before Sweden.

This time there was a little more normal distance between the seats in the airplane.
At home it was dark, snowing, plus degrees and two days later there was no snow and rainy.
Can't wait until the next time I get to see the sun :)