We start our trip early and head to the airport. We have 3 flights on this journey. Connecting in Charlotte, NC / Madrid, Spain / and our final destination of Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.
Lanzarote is located off the coast of Morocco, which is western Africa. 80 miles to be exact! We are beyond excited to check it out. Ed and I had looked at this destination for years but it never seemed feasible with our kids ages at the time. The stars aligned, airfare and hotel were extremely affordable…so why not?
Lanzarote has sandy beaches, a volcano, and the remainder is rocky. It also has mountain ranges and even desert. It now it does have some greenery, but not a lot. It is also called the "Island of Eternal Spring" with temps in the 70’s and nights in the 60’s, BUT it’s tropical being close to the equator so like we’re gonna burn because the UV rating is like a 10.
Today is off to a great start <insert sarcasm here>. Ed and Annicakes were annoying each other so it’s fun to run interference between them. 🙄. The airport was dead for the day after a holiday. Really surprising. We have TSA pre ✔️ but still there was no line even for regular security. We had plenty of time to relax before our flight. First stop: Charlotte!
The first flight was pretty uneventful. It was just long enough to get through Talladega Nights-one of my fave movies. We had a brief layover then boarded the 8 hour flight to Madrid.
We flew American and honestly their service was good and the food wasn’t horrible. I watched A Man Called Otto and Step Brothers. Both awesome movies. I tried to sleep. I took meds that knock me out any other night. Not this flight. Annicakes pulled a Dubai flight again. She’d steal my water and then put her trash on my table.
We landed in Madrid with plenty of time to relax, dine and shop. Lex literally passed out on the floor. Annicakes and I hit up the Duty Free Shop. It was interesting to go through security and get yelled at in Spanish. I feel for people from other countries that come to the US and get treated poorly because “dammit we speak American here”. 🙄
I’ve been calling my girls my little ducklings. I make sure Ed leads and I take up the rear and make sure I don’t lose a duckling. I WILL NOT LOSE ANNICAKES IN EUROPE…A SECOND TIME.
One final flight into Lanzarote. Thankfully we all slept on the flight. We finally made it! So did our bags! Always a concern when switching airlines.
Next we had to find our ground transportation to the resort. It was not very easy to find, and after a very sketchy elevator ride to floor “ -1 “, we found our bus.
There’s just something…romantic and exciting about traveling internationally. Our hotel, the Riu resort, is primarily catered towards folks from the UK, then German, then other nationalities. Americans are like 1% of the guest population. In fact, walking in I overheard a guy do a head nod and tell his wife about the Americans lol.
Our room is nice. We’re basically in a 2 bedroom apartment with one bathroom. It’s about 76 degrees in the room and I’m pretty sure my face is melting off. Lex passed out as soon as she laid down to relax.
Oh Lex…wants to drink so bad. Can’t force herself to drink it. I’m like, it’s an acquired taste. No pain no gain. I just said try with light alcohol and if not then maybe it’s not for her, as I pound back a drink in both hands. We don’t waste alcohol!
Buffet dinner and we were all asleep by 9pm. Hoping to wake up and start the day early tomorrow.
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