Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Same Country, Different Worlds

It looks like La Gomera was a smart move, I understand things have been a bit chilly here on the peninsula. Arriving back last night I had the novel experience of landing at a Barajas airport covered with snow and there is still some in the centre of the city, although today's rain will probably take care of it. I don't want to gloat but on our first day in the Canary Islands I spent some of the time we had in Los Cristianos waiting for the ferry watching Sky News report on the snow falling in the UK. I was sitting in the shade surrounded by happy tourists dressed in their summer beach wear.

La Gomera was great, we did some fantastic walking routes and the island is a very relaxing place to be. Getting back was not so relaxing, we were supposed to arrive back in Madrid on Sunday night but it wasn't to be. The ferry company Fred Olsen has taken over the service to the smaller ports of La Gomera and it seems that when the sea gets a bit choppy they axe that service in favour of their other, bigger, boat that runs on a different timetable. That's what happened to us, despite what seemed to be a very calm Atlantic, and the late arrival of the other ferry guaranteed that we stood no chance of catching our flight home. Spanair told us not to bother even coming to the airport and we changed our ticket - at a price - for the next day.

So we got another unexpected day in Los Cristianos where the beaches were busy and the weather was perfect. Arriving yesterday afternoon in the airport the first thing we saw was that our new flight had been cancelled! It seemed like we were never going to get home but Madrid weather came to our rescue. The previous flight, which should have left an hour before we arrived at the airport, was seriously delayed along with all other flights to Madrid. We got onto that plane and finally made it home in the early hours of this morning. Now all I need to do is get the temperature of my flat above 15 degrees and life in the chilly centre of Spain might start to become bearable.



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