14/10/2022 by photosbyhank

Tenerife, Day 4

It had rained pretty hard at times overnight but there was a pause in the rain when we got up on Sunday, September 25th.

The weather wasn’t expected to be any better than yesterday and a lot of places were still closed so we went back to Sweet Franks for breakfast. It was just as good as it had been yesterday.

As we sat and eyeballed the cloud cover, we decided we’d drive up to see it conditions were any better at Parque Nacional del Teide to see the volcano. We didn’t really believe they would be but we set off to find out anyway.

Hard to get good images out the car window

Soon we were climbing the hills in a dizzying array of switchbacks. I don’t want to say the Spanish are crazy but according to the GPS, the speed limit was 90 km/h on that stretch of road.

It wasn’t long before we were at the top of the mountain. At least it looked that way as you couldn’t see up hill very well.

You couldn’t see down all that well either.

So, back in the car to climb higher.

The big patches of white are banana plantations.

Sometimes we’d get out of the rain into patches of almost blue sky, but then it was back to rain and mist in no time.

Apparently the storm was causing problems with flooding and damages in places around the Canary Islands but the most we saw was debris on the road.

We did see a lot of places with rocks and such on the road but no real damage otherwise.

What you could see of the landscape looked kind of cool.

The rain was down to a mist as we passed Paradores Cañadas del Teide on our way to the cable car at Teleférico del Teide.

Visibility was good enough for us to see the road closed gate and not much else.

We were a bit bummed but not surprised by this and we headed back to see what was at Paradores Cañadas del Teide.

It’s a visitor centre with a restaurant, washroom and giftshop.

Lynda and Lucille did some shopping in the giftshop and found a few nice things to bring home.

With our planed outing being a bust, we headed back down a different road in search of lunch.

We ended up in a familiar place; Centro Comercial Safari shopping mall. We knew things were open there so we thought we’d play it safe to find food.

We ended up at Roma Restaurant – Pizzeria; right beside where we had lunch yesterday.

It was very good Italian food and drink.

It wasn’t raining when we had finished eating so we walked about a block to Playa del Camisón beach to could check it out.

It was another really nice beach and we walked in the surf for a while.

The breakwater made the water quite calm but my bride showed a lot restraint and only waded knee deep as she walked along.

We walked along the beach for a while and decided to head back to the apartment.

With our late lunch, no one was really needing supper so Lucille and Curtis went in search of potato chips. We had other snacks and drinks to finish off before our flight out in the morning.

The weather still wasn’t all that great as we waited for them to get back and the pool was still closed so I grabbed a couple of “weather” shots.

About my only disappointment (And I wasn’t all that disappointed) with Tenerife was the boring sunsets we saw. I know the storm may have something to do with it but it literally went from light out to dark out with next to no sunset colour. It is just a minor niggle to me because, even with the storm I was really enjoying the island.

It was getting dark when I shot my last photos of the day. (And as it turned out, trip.)

We finished off our snacks and got to bed fairly early because our 5:30 am leaving time would get here soon enough.

It was a bit of a slack walking day and I managed just shy of 7600 steps.

11/10/2022 by photosbyhank

Tenerife, Day 3

Woke up to lots and lots of rain on Saturday, September 24th.

Apparently our rough seas on the ferry crossing yesterday was the first signs of Tropical Storm Hermine as it approached the islands.

We headed out to Lizzie’s Bistro for breakfast and as we pulled up I got a Facebook notice that they would be closed due to the weather.

We had to go in search of plan B. We didn’t know many places yet so we drove around to see what looked open.

We soon found Sweet Franks. It had a covered patio and promised the best breakfast so we though we’d give it a try.

It was quite a good breakfast and we got some tea for the road as we went off in search of more shot glasses for Curtis at The Hard Rock Hotel on the west side of the island.

It was a fairly high falutin place but they didn’t have any shot glasses.

We decided to make our way to the Rock Shop area.

We ended up across the road at Centro Comercial Safari shopping centre. It’s a nice shopping mall with a a bunch of restaurants on the 2nd level.

All the restaurants looked good and we decided on Hacienda Miranda for lunch.

It was the first Mexican restaurant we had tried on our trip and it was very, very good. The food was fabulous and they made the best strawberry margarita I have ever gotten in a restaurant or bar, anywhere.

To avoid a food coma, we walke across the street to The Rock Shop. Not only did they not have any shot glasses, the clerk was a bit pissy about us bringing wet umbrellas into the shop. (How dare we use them in all that rain.) They didn’t have a spot by the door for them and it’s not like anyone was waving them around, but Lucille did shake out her poncho afterwards.

We re-crossed the street to check out the shopping mall and after a bit of window shopping, were ready to head back to the apartments.

The rain had been varying from misty to pouring rain all day but we still decided to walk over to the grocery store for some tea and other stuff.

It was raining intermittently when we went out for supper but we walked over to Bistró 431, which is in the lower level of the building Sweet Franks is.

Since our lunch had been so big, no one was overly hungry so we just got some Tapas. The food was good but it wasn’t on the same level as lunch had been so it seemed a bit disappointing at the time. (Even though it really wasn’t disappointing at all.)

We headed back to the apartments drinks and snacks we had gotten at the grocery store earlier. (I know we had just eaten but there wasn’t much to do in the rain.)

The weather wasn’t looking any better as darkness approached.

Even though it wasn’t cold out, (at least not by Canadian standards) the pool was closed, as it had been all day.

Even with the weather as it was, we managed to get just over 12 thousand steps in today. Not bad all in all. Hopefully, tomorrow will dawn with better weather.

10/10/2022 by photosbyhank

Canary Islands; day 2

I was going to title this post as Tenerife; Day 2 but we were up well before the crack of dawn on Friday, September 23rd, to drive north to Santa Cruz de Tenerife to catch the ferry to go to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in search of Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses and beaches.

My brother in law, Curtis, collects the shot glasses from Hard Rock Cafes and Hotels from all the places he’s visited around the world (and he’s visited a lot of places) but he’d never been to the Canary Islands and the opportunity to visit another island nearby was just too tempting not to go.

We had just cleared the entrance to the harbour when it became obvious that it was rougher than it looked out there on the open sea.

The ferry seemed like it was just crawling along and it was pitching and bouncing so walking was a challenge. The crew made it look easy but looking for chairs to grab or a wall to lean on was the only way I could get around easily.

It seemed less rough at the back of the boat so I stayed on the deck for a bit and took a few shots. Lynda made her way back there for a while too.

Our trip over was about 2 and a half hours. We could of taken a 2 hour trip to a different port but it would of involved more driving to where we needed to go. I’m sure with the rough ride, Curtis was re-thinking the port choice.

It had been pretty cloudy on the way over but as we drove to the south side of the island to find the Hard Rock Cafe Rock Shop Gran Canaria the clouds started parting.

At least the sun was shining when we got to the shopping centre as The Rock Shop was closed. We walked around the area checking out stores hoping it would open soon. We’ll take the credit for that working.

After the wait, we found out they are out of shot glasses and suggested going to the Hard Rock Hotel to find some.

I did get myself a tee shirt so at least it wasn’t a total waste of time.

We decided to get some lunch while we were there.

The food was fabulous and I really enjoyed the Tapas.

With lunch over, it was time to walk over to the beach.

At last, the beach came into view.

I’m not much of a beach guy so I’ve not been to too many of them but even I can recognize a nice beach when I see it. And this was a nice beach.

It was such nice sand to walk on. The black mixed in made the sand patterns change constantly as the water washed over it.

The water seemed cool initially but as I walked along it felt warm. Since I had my camera and was carrying all our stuff, going knee deep was as far as I could go. My bride, on the other hand, had no such restrictions having given me everything but her sandals to carry.

A lack of swimsuit wouldn’t deter my bride from getting a feel for the ocean. Even her hat was wet, but she was enjoying herself.

We started making our way back to the car so we could head over to The Hard Rock Hotel to look for shot glasses there.

It was a short drive east to the hotel and we found a parking spot only a short walk away.

After learning there were no shot glasses here either, we sat and enjoyed a drink before going to check out the nearby beach.

It was a short walk through some sand dunes to another fabulous beach.

I saw why Gran Canaria is noted for it’s beaches. I’ve only been to 2 of them so far and both have been really nice.

I was once again limited to knee depth but my wife and sister had no such restrictions. They figured they were already wet so maybe some body surfing was in order. They never did manage to get the surfing part down but they did manage to get even wetter than they already were.

I was in the ocean too.

It was getting time to go look for some food before we had to catch the ferry back so we walked along the restaurants near the back and decided on Pub Dragon.

We tried a few more Tapas and Curtis had a hotdog.

It was a nice, short walk back to the car.

I saw quite a few cool things along the way but it’s really hard to take photos out the back of a car so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We got back to the ferry terminal with time to spare and waited patiently for it to come. And waited, and waited.

Finally a ferry pulled in. It wasn’t the company we had come over with and it was an older ship. It looked to be a downgrade from the morning boat.

Finally we were under way.

Just like the mornings trip, the moment we left the harbour it was a rough ride. It was actually rougher than in the morning. (The tropical depression that arrives tomorrow probably had something to do with it.) I’m sure being pitch dark out probably didn’t help the feeling of how rough the crossing was.

We got back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife around 11:00 pm and made our way back to the apartments.

I’m sure there is some cool stuff to see between there and the Costa del Silencio area but both directions of travel on that trip was in the dark so I really have no idea if there is or not.

Our really long day was over around midnight as we got back to the apartment. Just shy of 12k steps today, a lot of them at/near the beach. It was a good day, ferry rides aside.

06/10/2022 by photosbyhank

Did someone say “Tapas”?

The 1st full day of fall had arrived in Paris so it was time to head for a warmer climate.

We arrived at Aéroport de Paris-Orly quite early to catch our flight to Tenerife, Canary Island.

Many years ago I had researched the most temperate climate in the world and Tenerife in the Canary Islands was the answer. So, I told management at work that if they ever opened a store there I would be willing to move there, sight unseen.

Once we had decided to go to Paris, I started checking out inexpensive trips to take from there and Tenerife was in the running to check out.

Lucille and Curtis had never been and Curtis was interested in going so, he booked us flights and accommodations for 4 days.

Curtis had decided to get a rental car and luckily he gets a deal through work.

We piled into the car and headed to our apartments.

Soon we were checking into Apartamentos Parque Carolina to drop off our stuff and we went looking for food.

Lucille found Flicks Bar listed as being really close and we followed her to find it. Since she isn’t all that great at reading her phone map, we were soon going the wrong way and ended up at Tapas Harry’s Place. It was a pretty cool view but they weren’t serving food yet.

We headed back to find Flicks. We were almost there when we saw an older couple on the deck of their apartment and asked about the bar. They told us it had closed down about 3 weeks ago. I still walked down the path to take a couple photos as I was there anyway.

It was too bad the place was closed because it would of been a great place to sit and have lunch.

So Curtis pulled out his phone to find food and soon we were walking northwest to see what we could find.

We saw a few places but the name Lizzie’s Bistro jumped out at us and we decided to give it a try.

The thing that jumps out at you at Lizzie’s is the drink menu of 64 cocktails.

Looked like a challenging menu to try them all but we thought we should at least try and we each ordered something different.

The first round was good so we had a 2nd round with our food.

We stopped after 2 rounds so we could go check out the pool at our apartments.

The listing for the apartment stated it had an ocean view and to be fair, it was accurate.

With swim time over, it was time to go and find supper. So back to Lizzie’s to add more drinks to our list.

It was karaoke night and there were a few talented singers to entertain us.

With 2 more rounds under our belt, we headed back to our apartments the same way we had walked earlier in the day. Curtis found the shutter button assembly from Lynda’s camera on a sidewalk. We had found it broken when we were getting ready to go for supper and I guessed it probably had gotten jammed up against something she was carrying and it popped off somewhere along our walk.

The camera would focus with the button but it wouldn’t take a photo so I guess it’s her cell phone for the rest of the trip as need be.

Got about 15.5 k in steps today so getting back on track anyway.

05/10/2022 by photosbyhank

Paris, Day 8

It was another slow starting day on Wednesday, September 21st.

I got laundry done while we waited for Lucille to get home from school.

I know we went out for lunch but I didn’t take any photos in the afternoon to remember where we went.

When we went out for supper we turned left leaving the apartment and went in a totally new area for us.

We went over to Le Liberté for pizza but we were too early for pizza.

1st time I never used my camera at all during the day and just used my phone.

The lackadaisical day cut into my 10k/day steps and I only managed 7506.

Tomorrow is the 1st full day of fall and hopefully I can pull up my socks and do better.

30/09/2022 by photosbyhank

Paris, Day 7

Tuesday, September 20th was a cool, cloudy, rainy kind of day.

Lucille had a physio appointment over near Arc de Triomphe after school.

Lynda and I walked over to the metro to meet her along the way and she’d show us where it was while we waited for her to be done.

We rode to the chosen stop and got off the train to wait. She was late getting out of school so we sat and watched a few trains come and go.

Finally she came rushing in and we hopped on the next train to the right station. It was few stops away but our end station – Charles de Gaulle – Étoile is huge and waiting there was probably not a good idea.

Lucille pointed out where our exit was and hurried off to her appointment. We continued on our way and made our way up the stairs.

I’d seen many pictures of the Arc de Triomphe and the thing that I marveled at the most is the size of the traffic circle without any lane markers in it. It is a crazy sight to behold.

We took a few photos and decided maybe we would go up to the top after lunch. So we picked a street at random and wandered down it looking for food.

We walked down Av. de Friedland a few blocks and decided on Brasserie Le Balzac.

Even in the cool weather, we were determined to eat outside.

We shared fettuccine and a meat sauce for lunch and were getting ready to leave when Lucille messaged that she was done her appointment.

We arranged to meet at the base of the Arc.

Once there, we decided that between the cold weather and the line to go up, we’d skip going up to see the view.

So we decided to window shop on Av. des Champs-Élysées.

Lynda was going to look for a purse for her mom but the line to just get into Louis Vuitton was a bit ridiculous so we we kept walking.

Hard for the social status differences not to catch my eye

We stopped at Starbucks and Lucille bought us all drinks so she’s shopped on the Champs-Élysées.

Finding the entrance to the subway is challenging along the avenue as they aren’t marked with the big Metro signs like the peasant areas of the city.

A very cool ice cream truck near the end of the park

We wandered through some of Jardin des Champs-Élysées before heading towards the river on our way back to the metro.

As we strolled along Avenue Winston Churchill near the sign for and looking at Petit Palais, we ran into an American woman looking for Avenue Winston Churchill. We told her she was there and she looked at the Palais and asked if that was the Arc de Triomphe? I see why so many places aren’t fans of Americans.

We were soon on the Pont Alexandre III. The official description calls it an ornate bridge but it looks a bit gaudy to me.

We continued towards Hôtel des Invalides.

We kept walking through more park area. Like Beijing, I would bet I could visit a park a day for an entire year and not get to all the parks in Paris.

And of course the streets and building continued to catch my eye.

Finally we were back at the subway to go to the apartment before we headed out for supper.

I honestly don’t remember where we ended up but I know it was good as I’ve yet to have a bad meal on the trip.

After we were back in for the evening, I liked the quality of the light outside so I shot a couple shots from the balcony. There wasn’t much colour in sunset but I still liked what I saw.

With over 14k in steps I had almost twice as many as yesterday so I should be keeping my average over the 10k/day goal.

29/09/2022 by photosbyhank

Paris, Day 6

Monday, September 19th was a decent looking day with a mix of sun and cloud but Lynda and I took it easy while Lucille was at school and Curtis was working from home.

I got some laundry done and worked on my blog that day.

The only photos I took were when we went out for supper to The X Pot; a hot pot restaurant. Curtis had made reservations as our last attempt at getting in didn’t go so well.

Spicy broth on the left, tomato based on the right

It was super fun picking what we wanted and being able to add whatever sauce we wanted.

Lucille picked the spicy broth for us and I thought at first she was trying to kill me as it was more than a little spicy. But after I got past my mouth being on fire, it was very enjoyable.

So far, Hot Pot has been my favorite food in Paris; even with having to cook it ourselves. (There are a lot of close 2nds however.)

Everything was fresh and the staff were super nice. Pretty much everywhere we’ve been the staff has been great as has the food.

I got just under 8k in steps as my sitting around the house really hampered my walking. We’ll strive to do better tomorrow.

27/09/2022 by photosbyhank

Paris, Day 5

Sunday, September 18th was a mix of sun and cloud with a bit of a breeze blowing. Summer seemed to be giving way to autumn in the flip of a switch.

We took the bus to Galway Irish Pub for lunch and some sightseeing in the area. There was quite a traffic jam and some closed roads as we got off the bus. There was some kind of event happening in the area to encourage people to bike or take public transit downtown.

I liked the names on the animals/figures

With another good food experience under our belt(s), we headed in the general direction of Musée du Louvre. I’d love to spend time in the Louvre but it is a huge museum and I just don’t have the time to see all the things I’d want to see so we settled on checking out the outside area.

There were a few things to see along the way.

So many book sellers along the left bank of the Seine

Soon we were along the back side of the Louvre. It is a massive building.

As we walked we came to Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel – the entrance of the former palace where the Louvre is.

We continued on to Carrousel Garden and Grand Bassin Rond (which isn’t as big as you’d expect.).

When we got to Place de la Concorde, we found ground zero for the bicycle event.

There was music and some kind of show going on and a really weird human powered something or other going around the Place de la Concorde.

We headed back over the river on the very opulent Pont de la Concorde. It’s pretty impressive for a bridge that’s over 200 years old. I wasn’t all that happy with my photos so none of the bridge, just shots off the bridge.

I love the look of so many of the buildings.

As we got near Lucille and Curtis’ apartment I saw something other than buildings that I liked.

We hung out at the apartment for a few hours and left to find a late supper near Tour Eiffel as my bride had booked us all a 9:00 pm tour to the top.

Many years ago, when I was a photofinisher, I had seen the Eiffel Tower from every angle you could imagine and never thought I’d have any interest in it if I saw it in person. (I was wrong) It’s an impressive structure and at night it is a sight to behold. They make the lights twinkle to look like it’s glowing for about a minute on the hour and sadly, my video can’t be seen here.

The breeze that was blowing at ground level seemed a lot colder up on the 2nd level.

In for a penny, in for a pound; we took the elevator up to the top.

I know the views should be similar just from higher up but something about being up there seemed different than the 2nd level.

We met a nice British couple and their baby while up there and another Canadian couple as well.

We decided against having champagne as the glasses were extremely small, the price extremely high and the cold wind making us want hot chocolate instead.

Curtis shooting a laser beam from his head.

Finally it was time to head back down.

As we were walking away so I could get an overall shot of the tower I was asked if I could take a photo of a young couple with the tower in behind them on their phone.

I took an couple of photos and the young man asked if I minded doing another one.

He quickly pulled a ring out of his pocket, dropped to one knee and proposed to the young lady. I snapped a couple of quick photos and switched it to video for them.

They were from Switzerland and not at all dour like Adam Kerr leads me to believe all Swiss are in the journals of his blog – Canada Slim.

I never thought to grab a photo of the couple I shot their engagement photos.

We’d spent a couple of hours in and around the tower so it was more than time to call it a night as Lucille had school in the morning and Curtis had to go to work.

We got to the subway station after 11:00 pm and after a short wait, were on our way.

It was closer to midnight than we’d of liked when we got back to the apartment. I had gotten almost 17k in steps for the day. No wonder I was tired.

21/09/2022 by photosbyhank

Leaving Nice for Paris

We sadly made sure all our stuff was packed and ready to go for our 6:30 am taxi ride to the airport to go back to Paris for day 4 there.

I had thoroughly loved Nice. My go fund me campaign suggestion wasn’t getting any traction at all so we grudgingly shut the apartment down and went downstairs to wait for our cab. Maybe my love of Nice came from it being a mini vacation on my vacation. Or, more likely, I just really enjoyed it there.

Our flight was delayed over half an hour after we were all in the jetway waiting to board. We all lined up a 2nd time (So much for Speedy Boarding). While we were all waiting, a couple of police officers came up to the front of the queue, huddled with the ticket agent and scanned the crowd. The line barely started moving when we again stopped and the police were leaving with 2 men from the front of the line. They didn’t seem happy to go but they weren’t in handcuffs. As the line moved, 2 women got out of line and walked in the same direction the men had gone. Maybe we’ll have an empty seat beside us. (No)

Well, we are on the plane this time so maybe we’ll be on our way soon.

And sure enough, we were soon moving.

I think it’s a hotel. It’s really big whatever it is.

It’s so easy to just use my cell phone that I kept it out for the flight and never did take my camera out.

Soon we were off the ground and turning over the sea to clear the area.

By now we were heading north and I could see mountains. All I saw was clouds on the way down so it was a much more interesting flight going back.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was the lack of alpine lakes. Living in Canada spoils you to the amount of water we have. Most of the water I saw was reservoirs and not actual lakes. It seemed really weird to me.

The mountains gave way to flatter ground.

Soon, Paris came into view and as we made a turn to line up with the runway, I caught site of the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

As we were taxing to the gate, many people got up to get their luggage ready to disembark. (Even with the fasten seatbelt sign still being on.) We stopped and the announcement was made to exit through the front door. But no one was moving and time was ticking by. Suddenly it got light behind us (we were 5 rows from the back) and people were going out the back door. So, Lynda and I followed the small crowd. After crossing the tarmac and climbing the stairs, we were with the people who got out the front door.

It was a nice easy exit from the airport with no bags to wait for and soon we were in a taxi to Lucille and Curtis’ place.

The had taken their cats to the vet so it was a quiet, empty apartment when we got back.

They were back soon enough and we headed out for lunch and ended up at Le Circus.

I tried a Spritz. While not terrible, all I taste in it is the wine so not really my thing.

I tired their burger. Not used to being ask how I would like it cooked though. Even asking for it well done, it was pretty raw in the middle. It tasted good but was really different than I’m used to.

We walked to a local fruit and vegetable market. My wife got in trouble for touching the avocados (The sign on them started “Ne touche pas …” The lady there asks you when you plan to use it and she’ll give you on with the proper ripeness. In Lynda’s defense, we aren’t used to such large avocados and she was pretty excited to try one. (It was good, for an avocado.)

We headed back to the apartment for the afternoon until supper time came around.

We were going to try the new hot pot place – The X Pot – that opened at 6:45 pm. We walked over and arrived around 7:00 pm. We hadn’t booked a reservation so they had no available space for us.

It’s not like you can’t find food in Paris so we walked over to Italie 2 mall and tried Hippopotamus Modern Steakhouse.

I had a glass of champagne and a glass of Coke (No, I didn’t mix them together).

We ordered chicken nachos and a chicken skewer. Lucille was ordering in French and we all heard her ask for poulet and she pointed at the photo on the menu. The waitress asked how she’d like it cooked and with a questioning tone, Lucille said, “Pour poulet?” The waitress answered, “Oui.” So we all said, “Well done.”

And when the food came, it was boeuf, not poulet. Weird tasting chicken they have here in France. It was good, but not what we ordered. Lynda and Curtis got their drinks for free and we got a couple of apologies from the waitress and hostess.

At least it wasn’t something none of us liked.

Stopped in the grocery store at the mall on the way home and I have never seen a grocery store with ceiling so low. Usually there is a whole lot of room over the shelves but I felt a bit claustrophobic in there.

So apparently I didn’t take any photos in Paris today.

I got 14k steps in though

20/09/2022 by photosbyhank

Nice, Day 3

Friday, September 16th is exactly 4 months from Lynda and my 25th wedding anniversary. Since my wife and I were living in separate cities back in May, we decided to use today as our celebration day. With that in mind, we had a do whatever we want day.

We started with a late breakfast at Mamma Mia. We picked it because it was right at the start of the outdoor market and Lynda really, really wanted to shop in the market. That was the only place we had more than 1 meal in a place. (I’m not counting the bubble tea place.)

There is such a variety of stuff at the market and Lynda got some hard candies and some really, good black olives.

Walking through the market was a nice stroll but it was about 26 degrees C out so we stopped for a bubble tea. (See, 2nd place that we’ve been too more than once.) We had decided to walk down to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a shot glass for Curtis for his collection and taking a drink along helped a lot.

The walk was long enough and breakfast small enough that we could have lunch. We just shared nachos and I got a strawberry basil lemonade. (And it was awesome.)

We walked back through a park area and ended up in the square we had been in on our first day. It looked different with the sun shining.

The tram looked interesting but we never did take it anywhere.

As we walked we could see a fountain area in the distance. The water stopped as we got closer but we sat on a bench in the shade and waited to see if it would start up again.

After about 20 minutes or so, the water started back up.

Lynda was really looking forward to going swimming and I wanted to get to the top of Castle Hill – the “mountain” behind our apartment. There is quite a bit of stuff up there in a fairly small area that we had yet to explore.

We decided we could take the elevator up to the top of the hill and wander through and take the back stairs down to our street and go home and change for the beach.

The view from the top is really nice and the blonde girl makes it better.

I decided I’d do a panorama from the rail.

We wandered through the park to find the stairs. We knew we were close when we looked down to see the harbour our apartment faces.

Hey, we can see our house from here. Our apartment is in the building with the skylight, just to the left of the rock.

A bit more resting in the shade while I looked for things to take photos of.

Soon we found the stairs and headed down.

I got a photo of my bride coming down the stairs as the last photo I’d take today.

We weren’t far from our apartment and we were soon changing into swimwear. Wanting to keep it simple to keep an eye on our stuff, we wouldn’t bring a camera or a phone with us.

While it wasn’t as hot today as yesterda (Only about 28 degrees C) it was still warmer than I like so I was happy to go cool off.

Lynda knew I really didn’t enjoy the beach so when we got to Castle Plage – Waterfront perch offering Mediterranean-style seafood & artisanal ice cream, plus beach rentals, she said, “Lets go down there.”

So for a small nominal fee – $20 euros for the perch and $25 euros for the umbrella, we lounged in comfort along the sea. (3 rows back actually but that kept us dry from the waves.)

Lynda went and sat on the shore while I lounged for a bit before joining her.

The rocky beach is hard to walk on for people like me who never go there so getting into the sea seems easy enough but getting out in the big waves and steep slope seems a challenge so letting the waves splash me was good enough for me. I figure that my wife is a much better swimmer than me and she was nervous about it, why tempt fate.

Cooled off, we went back to our loungers and ordered a margarita each. It was a slush like I’m used to but it wasn’t as good as my Mamma Mia one from the other day.

Lynda finished hers before me and soon I had a drunk wife on my hands. It was pretty funny to watch but she giggled like a school girl and for the first time in a long time, I know she was relaxed. I enjoyed just sitting there holding her hand, watching and hearing the waves. It was very relaxing.

We lounged for over an hour before they came to close off our tab and we decide we’d wander downtown to look for food.

Luckily it wasn’t too far and we picked Di Yar as our supper stop.

Another Margarita for me (This one over ice, better than my last one but not better than Mamma Mia.) and my still more than tipsy wife decided on a Long Island Ice Tea.

Being how she can’t seem to eat and drink very close together, Lynda consumed her drink rather quickly.

More giggling ensued as our food came.

The meal was good but Lynda was too full of iced tea to eat much of her meal.

After supper, we decided to walk through the shopping/bar area around the side streets and alleys to take the “scenic” route home. I did have to hang on to Lynda’s hand the entire way but that is never a chore.

I wanted to find a Nice tee shirt to buy but the shop I thought I’d seen the day before was either closed or I was mistake on what street it was on.

We got our steps in and somehow Lynda got to 10k steps before me, and that was before she was drinking so I know it wasn’t from weaving from side to side.

Bed time was soon after getting back as we had an early start in the morning. Lynda was asleep (I would of thought passed out but I’m going with asleep) by 10 pm.

It had been a great day to celebrate our anniversary.

Hank's Blog – Musings of a Wandering Mind

Author: photosbyhank