Ireland day 1463. Tuesday 30 September 2025- Gran Canaria 6

Today’s summary	Went for a pre breakfast swim from the beach then spent the rest of the day based at the hotel. Val did a Tai-Chi class and I swam in the pool and went on a short walk to the supermarket and lighthouse. Snack lunch by the pool then later on beers on the balcony and dinner in the hotel.
Today’s weather	A bit of cloud in the morning but otherwise dry sunny and warm all day. Moderate southerly wind. Appx 26c

Today’s overview location (The orange mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Short walk to Shop and Lighthouse

Commentary

Sadly today was our last day in Gran Canaria. We decided we’d make the most of it and enjoy the warmth, sun and blue skies as much as we could, before returning to cloudier climes tomorrow. And for us, that meant having a very leisurely hotel-based day; a last chance to recharge the batteries.

We started as we have a couple of times recently – with a pre-breakfast sea swim from the nearby beach, enjoying the cool of the dawn before it started to warm up in the mid morning. It truly is a fantastic way to start the day – for me it’s been one of the best aspects of the whole holiday, in fact.

Once we had indulged our aquatic selves, we headed off for breakfast which was, like almost all of the rest of the day, very relaxed.

After we’d eaten, we retreated to our room to get showers and to start thinking about packing for tomorrow’s journey (we didn’t get very far). Then we picked up the newspaper (El Mundo today – it’s really exposing just how limited my Spanish is!), gathered our stuff and headed down to the poolside.

I’m generally not very good at relaxing and doing not a lot – I tend to find it a bit stressful. But today I made a determined effort to enjoy it and actually I did, very much. I was amazed at just how quickly the time passed, just reading the paper and taking the occasional dip in the pool. Val, meanwhile, scored slightly higher on the activity scale by doing a Tai-Chi class around noon, which looked quite fun but rather strenuous.

It was soon mid-afternoon and time for something to eat. So I headed out of the hotel complex and walked round to the local HiperDino by the lighthouse to get some snacks and beers for later. While I was out I went into the Tourism Information Office at the bottom of the lighthouse, to ask about Spanish classes in the area. If we ever come back for a longer stay, maybe I’ll give them a try.

After my successful shopping and fact finding mission, I returned to the hotel complete with unhealthy snacks and sugary cans of coffee which we enjoyed under our parasol. The afternoon was rounded off with a couple more swims and a sauna, then as the shadows were starting to get longer, it was time to retreat to our hotel room once again.

This evening, like so many before it, we enjoyed a couple of beers on the balcony as we watched the sun set behind the lighthouse. It is an unbelievably sublime experience, trust me, and one I shall miss greatly over the coming winter months.

But just to make sure we didn’t get goo carried away with the magic of it all, we also had another go at our packing, a bit more successfully this time. We’ve got a relatively early departure in the morning, and wanted to make it as slick as possible.

All that remains now is to finish off our beers and then repair to the restaurant where a Mexican barbecue awaits us. I think we will really miss having all our meals made for us when we get back! Still, the more you put into life, the more you get out. And I guess that included making meals and doing the washing up.

(PS if you are ever thinking of coming to the Seaside Palm Beach hotel in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, room 707 is the one to ask for!).

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Spot the man in the tree – he was pruning off dead palm tree leaves with a machete and seemed to be held on my nothing more than a loop of rope round the tree trunk. Possibly one of the world’s more hazardous occupations	*This plant growing by the hotel entrance is apparently a Natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa). The fruits are edible and the flowers smell like jasmine. Quite a plant!*

The Grand Hotel Resididencia. We almost stayed there but it was very expensive and it’s hard to see how it could have been much better than the hotel we eventually chose	Bougainvilleas absolutely everywhere on this island. I love it!

Down at the lighthouse. The tourism office is on the ground floor of the square building at its base. There is also a museum and exhibition on the upper floor, but it was closed today	Hiperdino! It should really have been Microdino, as there was barely room to swing a cat inside

Maspalomas beach and the numerous bars lining the boardwalk. The beach is actually some 5km long and stretches all the way to San Agustin, beyond Playa de las Ingles