Our last day in Lanzarote and the forecast was lousy. Even stronger winds, but the possibility of rain had been reduced from 75% to 45%. We packed our flying stuff away and walked out of the apartment into a gorgeous hot and sunny day. Rain seemed nowhere on the horizon. Any thoughts of trying for a quick morning flight on the off-chance were soon dashed when we realised how windy it really was. Instead we went Costa Teguise to find a non-fried breakfast and failed miserably. We didn’t think anything of the place, so on to the last must-see thing on our list for the week: César Manrique’s house. Manrique was the artist who designed most of the amazing places we visited during the week, like the cactus garden, Jameos del Agua and the many kinetic sculptures that dot the island. He laid down the strict architectural and planning rules that have stopped Lanzarote becoming some trashed and trashy tourist resort.

His house is built in a lava field and incorporates a number of lava bubbles or jameos, where the roof has caved in, so you have an indoor/outdoor space, complete with trees growing in the centre of the room. The rest of the house is fascinating too. I loved it.

Next we drove to Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote, and the only place where Manrique’s town planning guidelines don’t apply (although I think he’s spinning in his grave about the new settlements in Playa Blanca).  Arrecife in general is a bit of a dump, but the sea front was nice. By the time we got there the wind had increased even more and swimming was out of the question. I can’t believe I went to Lanzarote and didn’t swim once (actually, that’s the same as last time!). I did get a paddle, a bounce on the beach trampoline and then we walked to the raised park which has a sea wall. The waves were breaking on it so hard that the spray was sometimes 20m high. Geoff let himself get drenched.

Then more walking round the sea front to the old fort and through the old town until it was time to go to the airport. Luckily, we arrived in plenty of time, since there were twice as many people than normal there, with all the backlog of people still waiting to get onto their flights. We ended up leaving an hour late and were greeted by a lovely young stewardess called Vanessa, who sent us greetings from Roger. She had been stranded with him in Marseille the previous day. Once we were airborne, and before the trolley came round, she brought us two complimentary beers. Not compliments of Ryanair, obviously! Roger had asked her to give them to us as a present. It’s the nearest I’ll ever come to feeling like I’m travelling first class on Ryanair. We were really, really touched by his kind thought.

See photos of today.

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