Slow day people watching

We didn't get off to a flying start again, even though we were up early. Claire really likes the boiled eggs here so she started with them again. Also I had trouble with the blog again; it crashed literally as I pressed the post blog option and although it was still in the drafts there was a problem that I couldn't solve. I ended up going back to reception later and doing it all again minus a few of the pictures so we were late starting. The traffic was awful and we had to queue up to get onto the motorway for ages. We had intended going to Las Americas and Los Cristianos for the morning and spending the rest of the day by the pool. We arrived in Americas but drove around for ages looking for a parking space before parking miles out. We started to walk back into town and I realized that I hadn't brought any money or credit cards.

By the time we had walked back to the car, driven home, picked up my money, queued up to get on the motorway again and this time found somewhere to park in Los Cristianos it was lunchtime. I knew I wouldn't like these two places. Why does one start with a “Los” and the other “Las”? I guess that one would be female and one male, but which way around? The Scottish use the word “Lass” for a girl so you would expect that Las was male but I have a feeling that its the other way around.

We walked down to the beach and along the promenade but it was much like any other tourist beach lined with café bars and so called restaurants. Each one had its own tout trying to encourage you in for breakfast. What's that about? After mid-day and everyone is still eating breakfast. There was a couple of seats with pedals on by the sea so that people could exercise and pose while people watching. It was a little overcast so nobody was on the beach they were all looking for breakfast I guess. Having got to the end we headed inland a little to see if there were some more local places rather than the tourist ones. After only a little walk our luck was in, we found one called “La Taverna Dorada” which only had a few tables of locals, all of which had a carafe of local wine in the middle. We couldn't understand what the plate of the day was only that it had pork in it but at E7.95 worth a try. Its not the price, its not wanting tourist food all the time; I don't mind grabbing a Burger King when there is no choice but not when we have. I would rather pay twice as much for something decent, its just that locals rarely pay tourist prices and expect more otherwise they move on.

The lady spoke good English which surprised me because most the locals don't. She brought out our carafe of local red wine and we had a lovely time relaxing on the corner watching people walking past. She even brought out some snacky biscuits to nibble on while our lunch was being prepared. It was Pork, a really nice pork steak with vegetables and croquet potatoes. She even brought out the German mustard. It all seamed a little German to me and as she also spoke English I said to Claire my suspicions. She had already sussed that it was actually a Belgian restaurant frequented by locals. How the hell did she know that, she was sat right next to me and I thought that I had been observant. Once we had finished our main the lady cleared away our stuff and we sat and watched people a little more whilst finishing our wine off when she brought us both a slice of German coffee cake. What a bonus, and all in the already low price. She even brought us a peach schnapps each with the bill; you wouldn't get that at the tourist café’s.

There were lots of van parking along the road and delivering stuff on those hand wheely things. Some were going backwards and forwards with a couple of boxes on each time, whilst others just once with a load so large they needed a periscope. It was so relaxing just sitting there watching other people work and criticising them in your head, whilst sipping on your wine. Every now and then you would see some that looked like they had come off the set from 1 million years BC or just got off the boat from Magnetic Island. I took some pictures of these two brothers that looked almost pre-historic. Somehow they looked just a little too familiar!