Midsummer

Hello dear readers,

oh yes, I’m still alive. Several things happend since my last entry, but they were not very related to knitting.

Again we were in Catalonia in June, but this year it was not so nice as the year before. Several little queries and it was hot (no surprise, last year it was the same) but also humid (which is very unusual as it seems). This combination is not ours and for me that meant that I got a persistant cold.

Back in Germany we were happy to be able to take a deep breath (and to sleep very well), then the summer arrived here, too. So I spent many hours on my balcony, sometimes into the late evening. In Catalonia I continued two (new pairs…) of socks, but then I came back to the bocks and this is still going on.

So I detected the series about the solicitor Matthew Sharlake, taking place in the era of Henry VIII in England and I like it very much. Then there were several books of authors you will not now, as for example Rebecca Gablé writes excellent books about the English Middle Ages, but she is German and her books are not translated into English.

At the moment I’m reading ‘London’ from Edward Rutherfurd. As I love London and English History (especially till around the end of the Middle Ages) the book is absolute fascinating, and it is so much fun, to detect where the buildings or areas of today came from.

But since it’s a bit fresher outside (today it rained the whole afternoon), I knitted again. The rainbow shawl is growing and in the train I knit the socks.

In the next days I have again many nice photos for you. Some impressions of Catalonia (of course there were also nice things) and I visited once again my friend Birgitta in Hannover and made some photos there, too.

Gran Canaria: Into the Heartland

It’s time to come to the end of the logue (next week we start again for a few days at Catalonia…) so I will post two entries today. As well I was really looking forward to write from this day as it was except for the end, completly ingenious and in fact the pictures show this only inadequate.

One of the most beautiful streets on this island is the street from San Nicholas to the heartland. Very good quality but very narrow and with oncoming traffic (later it becomes wider but the quality is not more so good). But if you have the nerves for this it is really worthwhile.

Arriving San Nicholas angekommen we had to search a bit. This is there very typical. Sometimes you have a sign, sometimes not, I think, they assume, that the driver follows the street until a sign (here to Artenara) shows another direction.

The street runs narrwo through high mountains. Impressive! After many curves it passes two reservoirs (the water here is emerald green, not the colour of the sky). The good small street ands at a tower (fortunatly it was renovated and closed, at our last visit it was horrible inside and close to it) from it’s place you have a good sight.

The street continous, but the surrounding is changing. More green and more settlements. And somtimes you see one of thos typical houses build into the rocks.

We went to the Pico de Gáldar. From here the weather changed. Until here it was sunny. The North of the island was cloudy and the wind was cold.

We went back to Artenara, into the sun. The village is the highest on the whole island. From the street to it you can even take a look to the Teide on Teneriffa.

From Artenara you have a wonderful sight to the holy rocks of the island, Roque Ventaiga and Roque Nublo.

We went to, as our guide wrote, most beautifull village of the island, Tejeda. The place is absolutly wonderfull.

From there we wanted to go back to the south. On the way we could take a look on Saturdays chaos in the central mountains…

Because of a bike rallye many streets were closed. Unfortunatly this forced us to take a long way through the grey dark North to the motorway. So the end of this day was not so nice as you may think, this was absolutly no fun.

Well, only one more trip is left and will follow, to the North of the island, but not today 

Gran Canaria: On the beach (and a bit more)

It may be unbelievable, but beach visits on Gran Canaria are not so easy for the ambitious visitor.

The beach of Maspalomas is fantastic for us – in the evening. We are not one of those people sitting in the strong sun for hours. At our laziest days we stayed until three hours at a beach under a sunshade, but if we don’t have that possibility, it’s much more less.
You have to walk a while to find a place more empty at Maspalomas, and at days there might it be difficult to find an nice parking space.

The little beach of Puerto Rico has two disadvantages: It is a bit like a bath tube and small – and there is no free parking space as the whole area there is blue zone. So first we took a look onto the (how it was proved gravelstone-) beach of Tasarte and drove then two times to Puerto de Mogán.

Imagine Gran Canaria a bit as a clock (this is of course not correct, as the middle of the island is much more North than Mogán but I think, this picture fits the needs). You can circiut the whole island – until the quarter from six to nine o’clock. At six there is Puerto de Mogán, from there you have to go in direction to the middle, to drive shortly after  Mogán in direction nine o’clock (there is La Aldea / San Nicholas). The street runs along mountains, above several valleys. And at the locations you can drive on streets back to the sea.

We tried two of those street in this vacation: The first, coming from Mogán is at Veneguera, where it is shortly behind the village only a piste, it can be driven with a normal car and the whole area is beautiful, but it needs a bit of ability and patience. The second is at  Tasarte. Not so nice as the Veneguera-down-hill but nearly until the beach tarred and good for driving. The last is Tasartico, but as written in our guide it should be very hard to drive.

In any case, the mornings started again with a look down to the roundabout in Puerto Rico. You can see two busses and on the right a part of the bus station. 

On our way to Tasarte we passed again ’Los Azulejos’. This time we stopped directly unter the rocks. There is also a nice little bar, leaded by a German.

As written above, the beach of Tasarte is pure gravelstone and very exposed. Maybe somthing for surfers but surely nothing for swimmers. But here is a little restaurant which shall be not so bad as hour guide says. It was before lunchtime and for us to early for eating fish.

After a stop we drove back to Puerto de Mogán and went there to the beach. It is not so bad, and there were not so many visitors. Arne had a lot of fun in the water (I love it more to knit at the beach). Unfortunatly there is nearly no shadow and as I felt the sun although I used a good sunblocker and my arms where already bronzy, we had to leave after a short while.

In the evening we went again to the other beach, to Maspalomas. As it was low tide, we decided to stroll on the promenade on the other side, at Meloneras. There are many nice shops and a center, some are exclusiv and expensive, other not (but never cheap in the bad way) and we made some nice shoppings. 

The last photo shows the vestiges of a Guanchen-Settlement, which where found there and where integrated in an exploratory way.

At hour second visit at the Playa de Puerto de Mogán we were a bit more earlier and could stay a bit longer, as a tree throw his sheadow on a place backwards at the wall.

Gran Canaria: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The city Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Gran Canaria is with nearly 400.000 inhabitants the biggest city of the Canarian Islands. It is the capital of the Spanish province Las Palmas and of the autonomic region of the Canary islands  (Comunidad Autónoma de Canarias). Substantially impressed by its harbour, which is the second largest at the Atlantic ocean. To its neighbourhood communities counts Santa Brígida in the South and Arucas in the West.

The text above I swiped from the article in the German Wikipedia, they wrote it much better than I ever could. The province Las Palmas encloses all the islands in the east of the archipel, the western islands belong to the province ‘Santa Cruz de Tenerife’ therefor to the capital of the neighbour island Teneriffa. The autonomic region of the Canary Islands contains all islands.

Las Palmas is really a town. You can realize it, when you come more and more to the North on the motorway. It becomes crowded (especially at working days) and the surrounding is often not nice. In the city itself the motorway is more a highway in the city.

If it’s not so important to go shopping or visit the Mercado, it is easier to drive into the town on Sundays. There are several car parks and the prices are reasonable. So we end up close to the central bus station, from there it was not far to the main shopping street, the Triana, through which you can pass easy to the old town.

I have no idea, how high are the prices for petrol in your country. For German readers it is definetly a hart survey to take a look on a canarian petrol pump after filling up (today you pay here 1,09 € for diesel and 1,33 € for simple petrol – and the area here is normally one of the cheapest in Germany).

A bit north to the city center is Santa Catalina. Here you can find the well-known beach Las Canteras.

Gran Canaria: Towards the West

Gran Canaria has several sensational streets, one of those is the street along the west coast from San Nicholas de Tolentino to Agaete, especially were the is following the impressive coastline.

Till San Nicholas it’s a bit of time, first from Puerto Rico along the south coast till Puerto de Mogán, from there into the heartland and from Mogán crossing to the west.

On the street above several Barrancos a natural spectade is waiting: Los Azulejos

San Nicholas is not so nice it’s situated in a wide valley. The whole area is also called ‘La Aldea’.

On our way north the weather was not so fine, it even started to rain a bit. so we drove strait to the first stop, Agaete

Further to Puerto de las Nieves. The Finger of God can only be admired rudimentarly at the moment. A very strong storm destroyed this rock formation. However, according to our travel guide they plan to rebuild it somehow. In any case Puerto de las Nieves is small but very nice.

Back to the south it became better and it was possible to make some nice pictures of the street:

We made a break in the little harbour of San Nicholas, in Puerto de la Aldea. The little village has become very nice, although it seems as the same storm, which destroyed the Finger of God slammed here too – a part of the small promenade crumbled away and is locked.

In one of the little restaurants we eat fish. Very unhandly this time, the cute little cat under our table is very delighted

It was the restaurant on the right behind, excellent and not to expensive, really recommendable.

Travelogue Slide-in: Sock Parade

To show you some knittings between all those tavelogues

‘The wings of  Horus’ are hibernating at the moment. I downloaded all the clues, but then a pair of socks for a present were needed and then followed  three other pairs. This was also promoted by two visits at the Duemmer Lake and one other in Hamburg – much knitting time for small projects.

For my friend Claudia:

Glitzerregenbogen (Glitterrainbow)
Wollpapst handdyed with Lurex
‘Waving Lace’ from ‘Favorite Socks’

Then I started once again the Versuchskaninchen II (Guinea Pig II) and was able to finish it rapidly. Unfortunatly the pattern shrinks so much, that the socks are better for a small 35/36.

Versuchskaninchen II (Guinea Pig)
Handdyed from Frau Wolle
‘Yarn over Cable’ Charlene Schurch ‘Sensational knitted Socks’

And to pairs of sneaker socks, each from one children strand from the Wolldrachen:

Sonnenfreude (Sun Delight)
‘Woven Stitch’ Charlene Schurch ‘Knitting sensational Socks’

and

Fruehlingserwachen (Spring awakening)
‘Yarn Over Cable’ Charlene Schurch ‘ Knitting sensational Socks’

Besides  ‘Maspalomas’ the following sock projects are now on some needles:

Stripes…

and ‘Firgas’

As the big project I took out the Kimono-Scarf. It will be my mothers birthday at the begining of June and I plan to finished it till then.

Gran Canaria Slide-in: Pozo Izquierdo

One reason for us, to fly to Gran Canaria was Pozo Izquierdo. This village, on English the ‘Left fountain’, is one of the best districts for windsurfers worldwide.

As you may know in between, Arne himself is surfing for a few years and so we were very courious what happens here. To surf himself here was no option for him. You are only surfing here when you are really good.

The wind here is nearly continously strong. It is a good recommendation, to keep even on sunny days a jacket or a bit thicker sweater, if it’s planned to stay here for a while. Sitting is easy here, the ‘beach’ where the surfers enter the water is sourrounded by a kind of atrium. Oh and a hanky for the (sun-) glasses should also not be forgotten.

As I mentioned above, here surf those who are really good. They are streaking over the weaves and waterstarts and turns are for them as easy as breathing. Many of them are simple real good drivers, maybe natives, who have no long way to the water, but with a bit of luck it’s possible to see here windsurfers who drive in the competitions all over the world. Suspicious is always a coloured bus on the car park above (these Topsurfers are often sponsered by car companies and have then very beautifull airbrushed vehicles), with a bit of luck it’s possible to detect a sail with a number on it (sometimes they drive inkognito).

What theses drivers make a bit more worth seeing than the others, many of them are not simply surfing, they train tricks. Salti, turns with the board and other interesting figures, it is really fun to see. We were able to identify six of those drivers (and the nice guy, Arne talked a bit with, was maybe one, too, Surfer are very open people, as I noticed until now), and at home I found a homepage, were it’s possible to find the people to the numbers, in between a German young talent, who lives now on the island (Philip Koester), a Norwegian, who is also famous (Vidar Jensen) and the most succesfull femal surfer at all, Daida Ruano Moreno.

Of course Arne made many beautifull pictures and films, here are some of them:

Gran Canaria – Old Paths

To be precisely, nearly all streets on Gran Canaria are old paths for us, because we drove all of them more or less at earlier visits.

But first another view from our balcony, this time at day.

Below there is roundabout, where the coast street passes. On the right we could also see the bus terminal of the village. We spend a lot of time on our balcony, especially in the evening/night. Puerto Rico seems always busy and a lot of taxis and busses are coming and going. So we had always a lot of fun, watching what was going on.

Back to the trip…

We went on the motorway to Maspalomas and had a bit problems to find the street up to Fataga, as the direct exit exists only on the other lane.

This street is also demanding, but not so narrow. However very fast it’s protracting in often close turns up the barranco (river valley). From the Mirador de Fataga we had a fantastic view over the coast and Maspalomas:

Fataga itself is a very beautiful little village. Unfortunatly we couldn’t drink fresh orange juice here, as the times before, the little premises were closed.

Further to San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The town is very neat. We strolled a bit aroung and after an look on the map we decided how to continue.

We drive in direction sea and came to Santa Lucia de Tirajana. A lot happend here, the center has been constructed new and very nice.

After Santa Lucia comes furthermore the Fortalezza Grande. Here was one of the last refuges of the Guanchen, the canarian natives before the Spanish came. After the legend about 1600 people holed up here. Most of them were persuaded to give up, only two leaders preferred to fall themselves to death. The Guanchen merged fastly in the Spanish new arrivals, as those, if they wanted to stay and get ground on the island, had to be married.

However, many of todays natives don’t feel as Spanish but as Canarians and try, to keep the heir of the Guanchen alive as much as this is possible.

It dragged us to the sea, to Pozo Izquierdo, and further to Playa del Ingles and Maspalomas. There we beheld what happened around the Faro, it was much. As we determined, even here not in a bad way but with a good taste.

Gran Canaria Slide-In: Evenings on the Island

Even when we were a lot on the roads at days, in the evenings we had again to leave the apartment after dinner. The first evening we stayed in the apartment, one evening Arne went alone down to the beach in Puerto Rico, a second time we went together. But usually the question was if we should go to the Faro of Maspalomas or to Puerto de Mogán.

If it drew us to the Faro, we made usually a stroll along the beach (the exception will follow at the end of the respective  daylogue).  Of course we photographed a lot, one picture more beautiful than the other. The first pictures are from several evenings:

In Puerto de Mogán we strolled around the harbour. On day we were early enough to watch also the sunset (mostly we were too late for it). Arne was able to make photos from a very different perspective: He walked on the wall beside the harbour road.

Gran Canaria: A first little trip

So after a very nice flight we landed after ten years again in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. For the first time Arne and I tried the well-tried division of tasks abroad: I was waiting for the suitcases and Arne dealed the procedure with the car rental. It worked fine and again we received an upgrade.

The description to the apartment in Puerto Rico is excellent and we find it directly. In between the Motorway doesn’t end before Arguinegin but after Puerto Rico – we used it very often. Mona, our renter, was waiting for us and a really nice person. The apartment is tall, plain but clean and well furnished. So I would have to think a while, when I had the last time a better furnished holiday kitchen and cooking was real fun and worked fine this time.

The first activity is shopping. In the nearby Shopping Center is a Hyper Dino (there are some more supermarkets, but this one is the most cheapest in the area). But the store is one of the unattracivest one of the range, I ever visited and parking at the center is a real problem. As we have a car and are flexible, we later made our purchases mostly in the Dino in Puerto de Mogán or in the Carrefour in Vecindario.

But at the moment it was good enough to get satisfied and after a short break we started to our first short trip.

A short hint: On Gran Canaria the Streetnumbers changed, someone who wasn’t there for a while should take a look, if the street map is still working

We drive to Soria, there is a reservoir, but it is empty. The continuation is the first adventure. We want to drive a bit more to the heartland, and and turn off in direction Mogán to go down too Puerto de Mogán.

The street has according to the map an official number and is in good conditions. But it is really narrow and oncoming traffic makes Arne very business (and no, it is definetly NO one-way street). At the turning we respire a bit. The street, we are now using, didn’t exist this way ten years ago, parts of it where piste. But know it is fine and we have a nice look down the valley.

Mogán itself didn’t change so much, the one passage in the village is as small as it was ten years ago. In direction Puerto the street passes beautifull little villages, one after another. Puerto de Mogán changed more, but in an acceptable way: The empty square on the left side of the tiver valley is now in crop (here is also the new shopping center with the much better Hyper Dino) till the beach, but it stay reasonable, the houses not too high, abit in the stile of the harbour and with several nice shops. The beautifull harbour stayed as ten years before.

We found a good car park and strolled, before turning back to the apartment over the street along the coast.