Lanzarote

Getting to Lanzarote from Seville was literally a trip. We’ve never seen such big, small airports. An early morning cab to Seville’s Airport caught us getting glimpses of the late-night revelers heading home from the Abril Faire. Still dressed in their finest clothes. Security dropped us right into duty-free shopping even if we were not going somewhere that’s duty free. Our first flight was to Madrid, where we connected with the flight to Gran Canaria. On the same airline, but in two different terminals, almost end-to-end walking. Our second flight dropped us into Gran Canaria where we changed airlines and terminals. We had to go out, get our luggage, recheck it, and go back through security. Our third flight brought us to the small airport in Lanzarote where we got our rental car. You guessed it, in a different terminal. Once we got the keys they told us the car was parked at the other terminal out in the parking lot. So we once again had to retrace our steps. We did no major site sightseeing that day other than seeing the complete interior and exterior of three airports. Yet, we still managed to get over 10,000 steps. And a lot of it included hauling luggage. We said it was a trip! Sorry we don't have pictures to share.

We’ve described the magic and majesty of Timanfaya National Parque in a different post. We would be remiss if we did not talk about this island’s other features. One of the most enjoyable for us was just the relaxation that came from being and not doing. We’ve been on the road for almost 4 weeks and have been on the go most of the time. Now, with a pool and beach view, we were enjoying just sitting on the patio, or as they say in the Caribbean, just liming! Indeed, we did some liming. Listening to the songs of the small birds and the cooing of the doves. Susanne happily noticed the absence of pigeons. But there were doves, so many doves. The peaceful cooing added to our relaxation. We watched sunrises and sunsets. The boring daily low of 65^o to a daily high of 73^o. Day after day. We lime well!

Having rented a car for the four days we were there, for €42 for the stay, we did get out and about some. We visited the House of César Manrique. Manrique was an artist and architect who was born and raised in Lanzarote. He spent his early years in Paris and later New York City where he was a contemporary of Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Walter Maures and others who were there at the time. But he loved the island and came back and became a major visionary of how the island should develop. He was great at art but not so much at advocacy in the political world. But he sustained and today the island shows it. There are few high-rises that cover the tourist coasts of Gran Canaria. No more than four stories and no blocking the views of existing properties. Almost all of the buildings on the island are painted white, reminiscent of the Greek Island of Santorini sans blue roofs. If there is such a thing as a saint without the papal canonizing, then Manrique is the Patron Saint of Lanzarote.

We will try to describe his home and hope this comes across. Start by imagining an air bubble in a piece of lava rock. As the rock cooled, there was a pocket of air that kept the lava from flowing into one solid piece leaving a hole in the rock. You would not know it is there without some part of it being exposed. Now imagine that the air bubble was the size of your living room. Still underground but huge. Let's test that imagination and say there were five of these giant bubble almost, but not quite adjacent to each other. All you have to do is open up a passage way between the bubbles and you have a five-room house. The bubble had open ceilings. It is unbelievable what he created out of what the earth gave him in his native Lanzarote. Take a look at these pictures. It's a crazy world with ingenious people in it.

The scale of this may be lost. There is a full size spiral staircase on the right. On the lower left is a 'sofa.' The sofa is created by the white plaster applied to the ragged stone and then a cushion put on top with pillows about. The pillow you see is the size of a normal sofa pillow.

The other thing we enjoyed was a visit to a winery and vineyard. Unlike any other vineyard we have seen, these grape vines are planted in volcanic soil and surrounded by small, porous, semicircle walls built of lava rocks. They are not strung up on trellis structures or lines, but rather just grow close to the ground. We would not pretend to understand the viticulture of the wine making here. The wines were good, but a little too acidic for our taste. Maybe these pictures will give you an idea of what we saw. Since we’re here in the spring, we can’t really tell the density of the grapes on the vines, but we can tell you that the number of vines is amazing and we can only imagine the hand work that went into planting these vineyards.