Lanzarote

One week is simply not long enough to see everything Lanzarote has to offer, but thanks to our very generous hosts we did manage to see lots. Don't worry, I'm not going to rewrite the tourist guidebooks, but here are just a few notes to accompany the photos.

A quick word about food: the local tapas (roughly translated as snacks) are delicious and cover anything from cheese and olives to tasty seafood. In my limited experience (a week) they are always accompanied by potatoes called papas arrugadas which are small potatoes with their jackets still on and salty crust. They are served with red and green Mojo sauce and are delicious. I was surprised that a country without soil could produce good wine. We only tried two sorts, El Griffo, one of the oldest wines in Spain and Bermejo, which I found particularly appealing in both its red and white varieties.

1 - The Flight

The flight to Lanzarote was very pleasant. We checked in at Zurich at about 5am, admittedly quite early, but we didn't want to rush and the Air Berlin flight to Arecife was due to leave at 6.20am.

The flight took four hours but seemed shorter to me. The Air Berlin sandwich, coffee and mineral water were welcome highlights as too were the fantastic views of the Pyrenees whilst crossing from France into Spain.

2 - Puerto del Carmen

We were met at Arecife airport by our hosts and taken to Puerto del Carmen, a town which has grown from a handful of fishing huts to the island's largest tourist centre within the last 40 years. Thanks to the efforts of local artist, architect and designer César Manrique, the town has no high rise hotels and despite its many apartment houses it remains really quite attractive... in a maximum four storey sort of way.

The promenade is riddled with shops, restaurants and bars all intent on enticing the tourists to enter their world of culinary delights.

3 - Long Walk

Among its many attractions Lanzarote offers some really interesting footpaths both for the casual walker like me, and for the more adventurous who somehow manage to squeeze hiking boots into their suitcases. We set off from Puerto del Carmen along the coastal path to

Puerto Calero. It took us about five hours to get there and back but we were walking at a very leisurely holiday pace and enjoyed a refreshing drink at a harbour side bar in Puerto Calero.

4 – Arecife

A pleasant stroll along the capital's pedestrian shopping street Calle Leon y Castillo. A gentle walk to Castillo San Gabriel. An amble past the church of San Ginés. Tapas and an ice cold beer at a small restaurant overlooking El Charco de Ginés – Fantastic! We didn't actually 'do' Aricife, but the time spent there was very relaxing, most enjoyable and certainly worth the visit.

5 - Volcano

There is a bus that transports tourists through Timanfaya national park and apparently offers splendid views of volcanoes through the bus window. Luckily for me our friendly host and tour guide took us to a volcano that was a bit off the beaten track. We sat in the car and just let the driver take us somewhere nice, I have no idea exactly where we were or what the volcano was called but we were certainly not disappointed! We ambled through a lava field and ended up in the volcano (a cold one). Quite fascinating!

6 - Playa Quemado

After all that geological exploration we felt a bit peckish and set out in search of nourishment. We ended up at a small seaside restaurant in Playa Quemado. Beautiful views, excellent food, very cold beer (which I'm beginning to like) and a good measure of honey rum to finish off the meal.

7 - The South

Lanzarote is not vast, the south of the Island can be explored in a matter of hours rather than days, but nevertheless there is plenty to see. There are camel rides for the adventurous,( around the Yiaza area), splendid views of the Salinas de Janubio from a hill, green lagoon at El Golfo and the Hervideros (caves which fill up with seawater which then comes gushing out of holes). We then travelled along the picturesque coast to Player Blanco and after refreshments enjoyed a bit of relaxation on the golden sands of Playa Papagayos.

8 - Teguise

Once upon a time Tequise was Lanzarote's capital, but for reasons the guidebooks can surely explain a lot better than I can, the capital became Arecife. In the eighties a wise mayor decided to introduce a Sunday market to boost the town's finances. The market is still thriving and has established itself well on the list of things to see. Of course there are stands boasting freshly imported English faire and others offering German sausages and beer all the way from Germany, but we went into a typical local restaurant and had one of those very nice cold beers... they seem to taste better each time I have one.

After climbing up to Castllo de Santa Barbara (in the car) for a splendid view of the town, we travelled on to Oasis de Nazaret, a mainly residential quarter where we visited Omar Sharif's house. He owned it for one whole day before losing it in a game of poker.

Then off we went to David's Restaurant in Tao ( we are not acquainted with David, that's just the name of the restaurant). There we feasted on excellent Tapas and I quenched my thirst with one of those very cold beers.

9 – The North

After lunch in Tao we headed north towards Haria, resting place of the very famous César Manrique (and apparently home to Lanzarote's only basket weaver) and continued further on a very attractive stretch of road towards Mirador del Rio where we were treated to breathtaking views of the neighbouring island of La Graciosa.

10 - Blue and White

With its sparse plant life and dark volcanic scenery Lanzarote doesn't feature as one of the most colourful places on the planet. Even the houses are plain white. But rather than appearing uniform or monotonous I found them totally fascinating.

Photographically speaking I preferred the blue and white examples, they seemed to blend in nicely to the blue skies.

11 - The End

We leave Lanzarote with a view of a very empty airport and a last look a a couple of volcanoes.

A really enjoyable week, and despite the island's size it was nice to know that we hadn't seen everything there is to see. Various works by César Manrique for example, such as The Cactus Garden or Jameos del Agua (a work of art centred around a lava tunnel) will have to wait for another time, as will other beautiful stretches of coastline, more small towns and villages and of course so many intriguing little shops and bars.

Thanks one again to our hosts and tour guides who did a fantastic job, and made us incredibly welcome and our stay one to remember! :-)