Honeymoon, part 3 (where we gain insight on Shelli's vacation philosophy)

When we booked our honeymoon trip, we were looking for someplace that was
1. Not a typical honeymoon spot, I guess we just wanted to be unique
2. We sort of leaned toward a beach area
3. We wanted to see something new and hoped to have activities other than just lying on the beach/pool
4. Along the same lines as #3, we were hoping to experience a different culture
5. It had to be close enough to be worth spending just a week there, and not too expensive to get there or stay there

Well... we hit about 3 1/2 of these. We avoided Hawaii, Florida, Cancun, Jamaica, etc because they all seemed like cliche honeymoon spots, although we are still dying to visit Hawaii sometime soon! I didn't research these places very much but my impression of them (except for HI, it seems like there is lots to do there) is that it is mostly about beach and drinking. Which is fine but not exactly what we wanted to spend our time and money on! Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, all seemed like an AWESOME trip but these places are either far away or expensive (or both!). Although Greece is not that unusual of a honeymoon spot, I would have loved to go there - I have this dream of going on boats between the islands, especially some smaller islands, and exploring (like Bob and Renee). But it turned out that October in Greece is not all that warm, so forget about relaxing on the beach.

I thought I had happened upon a hidden gem with the Canary Islands. The photos of the beaches were all beautiful, and the climate was around 80 degrees year round with only rare rain. It is part of Spain but close to Morocco and the guide book I had mentioned multi-cultural influences. At first, I had grand plans of traveling between the islands and spending a day or two in a few different spots, but Chris talked me out of it, and staying in one place for the majority of the trip was sounding pretty good after all the travel leading up to the wedding. (Not having to unpack and repack your suitcase every couple of days?! I have never taken a trip like that before!)

But, as you might know, the area we stayed in was not the multi-cultural, activity-packed haven we had hoped for. Unless you count northern European culture. We stayed on a part of the island that is essentially full of resorts (for miles and miles, as we discovered). The resorts are full of Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, probably also Danes, and the rare Englishman. By the second day, we had realized that our honeymoon was not what we had expected. But we quickly decided there was nothing to be upset about! We had a beautiful beach and pool, awesome weather, a stack of books to read, spanish wine - and best of all, we got to spend ALL DAY EVERY DAY together. For two people who average about 8-12 waking hours a week together, this was pretty much the jackpot. So what could we be upset about?



Just wanted to give a little background! For those of you who are hoping to visit the Islands someday, though, don't despair - there are plenty of different areas to visit! There are several islands, and all are different.

So what did we do? One day, we decided to take the bus into the big city.



Chris waiting for the bus. I have to add that I bought tote bags for all my bridesmaids and I got myself one too. I picked this one not just because it was pink, but because it was pink with orange accents and I liked the contrast. I quickly figured out that the big problem with travelling with this bag is that my hubby is not very willing to carry it for me. This is about as close as he got to it.

There was a local bus that picked us up near the shopping area and took us there. We had a really nice time wandering around Las Palmas.













We had lunch - ceviche!





And of course we had to stop for a beer here and there.





There was a beach we stopped at, although it was pretty much too chilly to swim. We just admired the ocean.









We went to dinner at an Irish themed restaurant.



Chris did not want to go there, but I talked him into it, and we had what might have been one of the more authentic Canarian meals there! They eat lots of potatoes with different sauces.



We tried these. Also had a little peruvian beer.



Then we took the bus back to our little apartment.

Up next: bike adventures!

Honeymoon, part 2 (where we compare the merits of the beach and the pool)

Okay! About time for some more honeymoon recap, since this was almost 2 months ago now! :)

We flew from Madrid to Las Palmas airport, on Gran Canaria, the largest island of the Canary Islands. (Spanish territory, off the coast of Morocco.)

We landed about 11 in the morning. We met the owner of the apartment where we stayed at the airport, where he gave us the key and told us a little bit about the apartment. He suggested we rent a car if we wanted to see more of the island. We had the (mistaken) impression that it would be really easy to rent bikes and we'd just ride them around to see things. Another (mistaken) impression was that the island was so small we would be able to get around the whole thing and explore a lot on the bikes. More about that later. Anyway, we hopped in a cab to see our honeymoon destination! I was really looking forward to the pool at the apartment complex, and I was not disappointed.





Most of our days were some mix of beach and pool.







I like the pool because it was less windy and less crowded, although I missed putting my feet in the sand. I also don't always like swimming in salty water, it stings my eyes and then i get a salty taste in my mouth.







Chris liked the beach because he loves to swim in the waves.



I like to swim but I like to alternate it with a lot of reading. I read 3 books and lots of magazines that week! Nothing work-related! (Well, almost nothing.) It was heaven!



The apartment complex we stayed in was a lot more mellow than some of the big resorts.



The main shopping area was next to that resort and about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. That was where we got groceries, and we also spent one day on the beach chairs there.



You had to pay to rent them, more with an umbrella. (Oh yeah, this is another reason I liked the pool - plenty of umbrellas to protect my fragile, pale skin.)



There were many windsurfers in this area. (I told you it was windy!) They offered lessons, and we considered doing this, but it would have cost us several hundred dollars so we decided that $$ was better spent elsewhere.



There was also a quieter beach area right next to our apartment complex, without chairs or umbrellas. This was nice because we went there on the cloudier days, and we could spend spend a couple hours laying in the sand without harsh sun.



When the sun came out, we just headed back up to the pool. And from the pool, Chris could head down to the beach anytime he wanted to tackle the waves!



Up next - our activities. It wasn't ALL just laying around on the beach.

Honeymoon part 1.5

I came across a few other photos I wanted to share from our honeymoon!

Our first layover, between Denver and Madrid, was in Dallas. Here's my handsome husband chilling at the castle in the airport.



Everywhere we went, I told people it was our honeymoon, in hopes of getting free stuff. Like champagne! It worked on the flight from Denver to Dallas.



And luckily, I had packed a snack for the plane ride.



More to come soon from Canary Islands!

Honeymoon part 1

Chris and I went on our honeymoon to Spain back in October, just after the wedding. There isn't much to tell from this trip, but there are plenty of photos, so I have to split it up into a couple of posts!

My mom gave us a ride to the airport Monday morning. We are all dressed up in our getaway clothes!



We gave ourselves 2 1/2 hours for our international flight but the lines were all short so we had plenty of time to kill. So we took advantage of the time and enjoyed a couple of delicious Colorado beers.





We were both sporting our new rings!





Our first night was spent in Madrid.



We were so busy with the wedding that we barely put any time into planning this trip. We had our lodging all set for Canary Islands, where we spent the bulk of the time, but the night in Madrid was completely unplanned. There was an American couple behind us on the flight that started chatting with us as we were waiting for suitcases. They told us they were staying at Best Western in a neighborhood close to many activities - so we asked if we could share a cab and try to get a room at the hotel, too! This worked out pretty well, except the guy at the desk sort of didn't believe us when we told him it was our honeymoon. "And you didn't even have anything reserved for your honeymoon?!" Unfortunately, the only room they had was one with two twin beds. Not exactly a honeymoon suite, but we did not feel like wandering the city, checking out tons of hotels.



The room was nice though, it had wifi so we got to check our email and facebook.



I had to try out the hotel robes as soon as I found them in the closet. Never mind that I was fully dressed already.



This seems a little contradictory...



The nice people from the plane happened to be going to the Prada museum, so we joined them. We all ended up starting out at the botanical gardens, which was very pretty.







Those are the Americans we tagged along with. They were very nice.









We had lunch together at a place across the street from the museum, but fortunately it did not seem TOO touristy.





We were tired and ready for a siesta, plus the museum was free that evening from 7-8 so Chris and I ended up taking naps and then going to the museum later. We said goodbye to the nice couple. (I forgot their names!)



After our siesta and the museum, we just walked around. Madrid was nice, actually had a similar feel to New York. We had dinner at a neat looking cafe place.



The above photo was taken by one of those statue people, the ones who wear metallic colors and paint their body and stand super still. He was enjoying a post-work (or maybe pre-work, for all I know) beer at the cafe. It was kind of weird to see him just sitting there, moving around like regular people and stuff.







We had egg dishes, which were yummy.





We did stop at one more bar to grab a beer, an English style pub.







Then we just wandered back to our hotel. We only got lost a little bit. We were super tired when we got back to the hotel and both dozed off while playing with our ipods. The next morning, we were on our way to the beach!