More Photos Taken From Around The Hotel

I guess like a lot of people with digital cameras and large memory cards, I take countless (?) uninteresting photographs with no real value. However sometimes seeing them back at home can provoke the occasional memory of a place or of an incident. All of these images come into that category, some of the memories may be personal or some are after all of a little more general interest.

The hotel we stayed in, see photos in my last post, was The Princessa Yaiza in Lanzarote. More than we can really afford but holidays are supposed to be special!

Let me show a few of these memorable images anad maybe try to explain their significance to us. BTW all photos are taken wwith ambient light, no flash was used.

This is the reception area. Your taxi arrives at the hotel and you are beset by porters who take your bags and guide you through this massively high reception area with hanging vines around the top balconies. Oh and don't forget the champagne as you are seated at the reception desk.

We have been back to this hotel a couple of times and generally go after the high season - fewer kiddies! I don't know if this is the reason but we have generally paid for a room and have been provided with uprated accommodation, usually a (junior) suite. The size and facilities in these rooms are fantastic, the bathroom for instance has "his and hers" washing facilities. There are also two showers; one walk in and one over a bath. BTW, for some reason they see fit to put one of the several phones in to the toilet, see through the open door in the bathroom.

Difficult to show the size of the rooms but this is a shot of the bedroom, a second TV at the bottom of the masive king-size bed. The window opens out on to the incredibly airy corridors mentioned in the last post. Maybe I will include a few images in a later post.

And whilst in the bedroom, this is the scene after the beds have been turned down in the evening. The roooms are cleaned daily and the beds made but every evening the maids return to turn dowwn the corner of the sheets and leave a truffle and a note wishing a good nights sleep. Sometimes, maybe if they have time (?) they also sculpt the nightclothes into these fantsatic shapes. Maybe not necessary but it is indicative of the personal service which makes you feel so very important as a guest in this hotel.

Well there you have a few phots which remind us how marvellous the hotel is and how much we enjoy beinig made to feel special. I have lots more photos but may be persuaded not to post many more, you can try.

Night Shots On Holiday

I know that I need to work on my technique for this type of shot but I thought I would share these anyway. They looked great on the small (2-3inch) screen on my camera bu obviously I need to steady myself against some immovable object for this type of photography.

I did used to do this with my last camera but this new toy has anti-shake and I though it would perform better than it has. So the next time I take anything like this, I will be more careful.

Anyway, here are a few photos from the hotel pool at night:-

One of these is actually taken from the near the hotels back entrance, which opens directly onto the beach - can you tell which one it is, LOL.

I am going to loook carefully at this type of photo which I have taken with my old camera and see if they were any better, I really am sure that they were - watch this space!

Photos from a holiday in Torquay

As promised just a few more photos from the recent break in Torquay. An eclectic collection which I guess shows more about me than it does about Torquay and its environs. I take lots of photos when away from home, well digital is so cheap but many are family shots or simple scenic snapshots. These I think are a little different.

This building with steps on both sides giving it a strange shape was seen above the harbour in Brixham. Very dull day, I had to photoshop a new sky and brighten up the buildings. Very nearly erased the sign as well. Still an option if I use this image again anywhere else.

A sign outside the Camelot medieval restaurant in Torquay. Heavily photoshopped to isolate the sign from the building.

Oh there is a long story to this photo! It is of a slipway in Kingswear, across th estuary to Dartmouth. We took a ferry trip to DArtmouth on one day and I couldn't resist taking this photo to remind (if I needed it) me of a tricky situation we found ourselves in a couple of days earlier. We were visiting Coleton Fishacre, the country home of the D'Oyly Carte family (Gilbert and Sullivan) and took a wrong turning. Finding ourselves on a one way, sinlge track country lane we eventually found ourselves in Kingswear. We had missed another chance to turn off, and ended up at the ferry. Not wanting to use said ferry we carried on but the narrow streets got even narrower and took us to another slipway with virtually no room to manouver. A dead end. I had to drive onto the green slime covered slipway and reverse back up to do a three-point turn. If I had lost traction I could have ended up in the english channel. very scary. That blue vehicle you can see in the photo was there and made the turning very difficult. Eventually found the right road but what a time we had.

A pub sign in nearby Shaldon, close to The Ness beach with its so-called smugglers tunnel. Actually used for commercial purposes serving a lime kiln built into the rocky hillside. A tunnel was cut through the hills to bring goods (lime) from the beach. It was collapsed during the war and a new exit to the beach has been opened for social use as the kiln is long since silent.

A night-time shot from The Strand across Torquay harbour at high-tide. A very pleasant evening after a wonderful meal in a nearby Thai restaurant, The Thai Star.