In which Sid and Doris are reminded about the 5 P’s.
Although many of Sid and Doris’ trips are planned in real-time, a trip to a major tourist destination over both Christmas and New Year with 12 inter-island ferry trips requires a little more Preparation.
The plan for the New Year period was to avoid having to partake in Gala Dinners by hiring a little flat in the old town centre of Las Palmas. There have been a couple of flaws in this plan.
Firstly, Doris has managed, through rare bad judgement or more darkly, deliberately misleading marketing, to book a somewhat suboptimal apartment. The location is fantastic, immediately between the main shopping area and the old town, but the room is somewhat more bijou than in the description although it does feature a large and noisy fridge.
Looking great in the brochure…
… but in real life it looks like this. Not a fantastic arrangement for over £250 per night.
Hmm. Well, we are where we are, as S&D say, and they admire the streetscape from the window before sallying froth to find dinner.
Which, identifying Flaw #2, proves to be dismayingly difficult, even to find a glass of something and a bar snack. The places that are nice are full, and the places that are not full are not nice. The only consolation is that there is a handy 24 hour pharmacy, and armed (eared?) with antibiotic drops, Sid has an early night.
Leaving Doris to doomscroll options for the next four days. As the night grinds slowly onwards it turns out that all the local restaurants are booked up (why didn’t she THINK of that?), and even if the duo wanted to bail out to a hotel there are only a handful of unfilled hotel rooms on the entire island, half of which have reviews mentioning cockroaches and the other half of which are offering 3* packages at over £1,000 per night. Sid tosses and turns and the cheap mattress bounces up and down to a background accompaniment of fridge noises. It’s going to be a long 4 days, probably featuring fast-cooling deliveroo pizzas eaten in a single small room early on New Year’s Eve. Whoopdy doo. (Or home cooking on the two ring hob?)
[Pause for sympathetic murmers from our beloved reader(s)…]
The morning eventually dawns and brings good news. The owners of the little room have offered to refund the rest of the rent if we want to move out. A resort on the south side of the island suddenly has just one nice room available for the next two nights – including New Year’s Eve – for £180 per person per night all inclusive. And the Parador at the very centre of the island has just one remaining room for New Year’s Day. Sorted!
And looking on the bright side (and Sid and Doris always look on the bright side), moving base round the island will be more interesting than shuttle-touring from a single place.
The show is back on the road.