("Canary" by Liz Phair or, if you prefer, "Canary in a Coal Mine" by the Police, or perhaps the Christmas song, "Christmas Island" by one of the many artists singing it)I decided to stay in Europe this year for the holidays. This was driven by two factors. First, it was my last opportunity to spend the holidays here while living here (yes, cry me a river, but the blog - at least with this type of semi-focused content - will be ending). Second, unlike the US where when holidays fall on a weekend you usually get a day off on the Friday before or the Monday after, in Germany there are no make-ups (though admittedly the firm - after I had already made my decision to stay - granted us an additional day between Christmas and New Year's). So there wasn't much actual time off. So I decided to stay here. Somewhere.
My original idea was that I would spend some time taking the train from one great Christmas market to another. Good in theory, but those markets actually close a couple days before Christmas itself when I would still be working, so not really workable other than on weekend trips (one of which I would spend in Orlando as noted in the previous posting). Hmmm....
So I did what any frequent traveler would do - I consulted my favorite hotel and airline (you should know by now that would be Starwood properties and Lufthansa). On the SPG site, they have a feature where you select a region or country of interest and then the types of activities in which you are interested and it comes up with some recommendations. So I selected Europe as the destination and beach, golf and spa as the activities. One of the suggestions it returned was the Fuerteventura Beach, Golf and Spa Resort and I had to wonder if it was renamed just based on my query result! Fuertaventura is one of the Spanish islands, so I figured that would be a reasonable vacation distance for a few days and Lufthansa flew there direct from Frankfurt. Perfect!
Of course it wasn't quite so easy. (And if it were, this blog would not have been necessary!) As a typical geography-challenged American, when I saw that the island was one of the Canary Islands of Spain, I assumed it was just off the coast of Spain, not off the coast of AFRICA!! Hmmm.... That explained the long flight length. Which flight was not on Lufthansa, but a partnership with Condor, which is the flight arm of Thomas Cook vacations (don't worry - Miles & Mores miles were still available!)
I flew out on Christmas Eve Day. The flight was generally uneventful, though I was somewhat surprised to see a rather scrawny-looking Santa Claus wandering around the check-in area at Condor. The seat selection process, if you want to call it that, is a bit interesting. Despite it being a Lufthansa codeshare, I had looked at Condor's website in advance to determine whether I would be charged extra for my golf clubs. The good news was that due to my Lufthansa/Miles & More status, there would be no additional charge. BUT, I had to register my bag 48 hours in advance, so it was a good thing I had checked.
I noted at the time that online check-in was also available, which I thought might be helpful in assuring I didn't get stuck in a middle seat as, since it was a codeshare, Lufthansa.com hadn't been able to allow me to select a seat. The reason became apparent when, 24 hours before the flight, I used said online check-in. When you check in, you are asked whether you'd like to select your own seat (for which privilege you pay EUR 10) or pay nothing and select the Seat Joker (not kidding - that was the name) option. I read this as, "If you don't want to be in a middle seat for 3.5 hours, you'll need to pay EUR 10." Of course, I wondered what would happen if you paid the EUR 10 for a seat, only to discover that only middle seats were available. That would really stink.
It was more or less all economy class with two rows in the front that were some kind of premium only in that the middle seat was left empty (kind of like Lufthansa's new continental Europe cabins) but without that pleated separation curtain between those rows and the rest of us commoners. There was a hot meal for all of us (no selection - you will just enjoy what is given to you or not eat) and several beverage services, which is much more than you would get on any US carrier that I know of on a 3.5 hour flight in economy.
The arrival was nothing terribly exciting, other than the distraction of the beautiful sea outside the huge plate glass window walls. I don't think I have ever had such a nice view from baggage claim. There were a few more scrawny Santas (maybe just because there aren't as many portly European men than there may be in the US?) in the airport including some passengers, but otherwise just a bunch of other people trying to get out of the airport and enjoy the sea that we'd been seeing through the windows.
When my taxi pulled up to my hotel I had to do a double-take. In addition to the flags of Spain and the European Union and a new one that I later learned was the flag of the Canary Islands, also flying high was a certain black, red and yellow flag. And I don't mean Belgium. Ummm.....
Now, I had heard a joke that Mallorca was the 13th Bundesland/state of Germany, but I hadn't thought the joke extended to all islands of Spain. But perhaps it does or should, because I was quite astonished to learn that staff at the front desk not only spoke very good English, but most also spoke some German and a few were much more fluent than me (which admittedly isn't saying a lot, but still....). I thought flying the flag was a bit much, though apparently they must fly them based on the mix of people staying there because I noticed when I left a few days later that they were also flying the Union Jack and there were indeed quite a few Brits around. But with a welcome glass of champagne for guests like me, they can fly whatever flags they want....
I had arrived around noon and the weather was even then not hot. It was probably in the high 70s with a really nice breeze and, from my balcony that was in the shade, actually a bit chilly. The weather remained like this most of the stay - warm enough for the sun worshippers and just perfect for the golfers!
There were two particularly interesting features of the hotel that caught my attention. First, when I was roaming around the property, towards one of the back corners behind the tennis and basketball courts was a walkway besides which was a kind of tent/shelter roughly the shape of an aircraft hangar, but open at the ends. It was covered by a tarp that indicated it was a feeding station for cats and to please leave food for them. Ummm.... Odd, as usually most places would say to not feed the strays. It remains unclear to me whether there is a large rodent problem or something that cats help control or something else. But I found it interesting.
The second interesting feature was the 18 hole miniature golf course that was visible from my balcony. While I think the idea was that children would partake in this activity and pay for the use of a putter and a ball in the children's area, you can imagine how my mind started to work when I saw that there were light poles around the area. There were no barriers to entering the course, so I thought it could be quite relaxing in the evening to take my real putter and some balls down there in the evening and practice my skills. Alas, they didn't actually turn the lights on in the evening. Drat! Soooo disappointed.
My time there basically consisted of enjoying the great breakfast buffet (complete with champagne and some really interesting creations that look like black sausages but that had a mixture of rice, beans and meat in them - I pretended there was no meat because I was so fascinated - so kind of like a burrito in a sausage casing), hopping on the free bus around the area, playing a round of golf, and then reading and relaxing in the late afternoon/evening. Unfortunately, while the hotel has a very nice spa, it wasn't open until 10 AM, which is frustrating if you want to get a workout in before your early morning tee time.
Golf (and events surrounding it) was clearly the highlight of my vacation and one of my reasons for choosing the area, as previously mentioned. I had emailed ahead to get tee times, which was an interesting experience and should have been a heads up on the multilingual capabilities on the island. I emailed the hotel (in English but from my German account) asking whether the concierge could arrange tee times. They responded in German with the email address to which I should address tee time requests. So I emailed that address (also in English), requesting tee times for Sunday and Monday. They responded in German, but with what appeared to be a cut-and-paste from their reservation system, which was in Spanish. Made me smile.
So I showed up for my 8:50 tee time on Christmas morning. At the hotel, I had run into a Brit who said his tee time was at 8:54 and saw him again when I arrived at the course. However, there was no starter in sight. There were two women (also from the UK) near the tee and I started talking with them. They were scheduled to tee off at 8:58. Still no sign of a starter and the group in front of me had cleared the hole, so I just started playing. A few minutes later, a guy on a golf cart caught up with me with a (very faint) hint of authority and asked if I was assigned to play with anyone. I said that the pro shop hadn't mentioned anything to that effect when I had checked in. He then asked if I would consider golfing with the group in front of me. I said that since I had gotten to know the players at 8:54 and 8:58 I would prefer to golf with them. He drove away to go check with them. As I was finishing the hole (a very poor start to the day, I might add), he came by again and said that the two ladies would be joining me and I should just wait for them at the second tee. Fun!
And what a truly fun time it was. The ladies (to protect the names of the innocent, I will call them Lovely and Delightful, though the names would apply equally to either of them) had recently turned their attention to learning golf and our skills were all about on the same level, so it was perfect. The ladies had the good fortune to be spending an entire week there, not only focusing on their golf skills but also to celebrate Lovely's birthday. We had such a fun time, though, laughing at each other, our golf skills (or, rather, lack thereof at times), the various ducks and birds on the path, other players. Just a lot of fun. We decided to grab a beverage (or two) and some lunch at the clubhouse and the laughter continued, including a guy asking where we were from as we were obviously old friends. Well, I guess slogging through 18 holes does make one feel older. Had such a great time we coordinated our tee times for the next day as well. More fun and laughter and we continue to keep in touch. By far the highlight of my trip.
I should also note that during the meals and beverages, there was a little black cat wandering around our feet. He was quite friendly, but not begging for food and appeared to be well fed. I had to wonder whether his state of health was influenced by the little cat feeding shelter like the one at the Sheraton. All in all, though, the perfect host for a perfect couple of days.
No comments:
Post a Comment