View from room 2047

How we will miss the view from our hotel room in Cape Verde! We have had a wonderful time on holiday here. 

We took our ‘flight and flop’ plans very seriously to guarantee a proper relaxing break. This meant that I decided not to blip while away. Instead, now that we are back in Manchester staying with the Foxes, I am backblipping my holiday pictures. They start on 12th February.

We established a very gentle routine while here. Our days started with a wander over to the hotel gym. Here I rode for an hour on an exercise bike while Mr hazelh lifted weights and rowed. After post-exercise showers we headed to the main hotel dining room for a (rather large) buffet breakfast. Then it was time to take position on our sunbeds to read* for most of the rest of the day, with occasional dips in the pool.  Every afternoon at about 3pm we shared an ice cream in the little bar by the hotel pool, and returned there for Happy Hour at 5pm for a cocktail each. Then it was time for Mr hazelh to thrash me at Scrabble (I only won one game all week), followed by dinner.

On a couple of days we wandered down to the beach to play for a while in the big waves. We also walked into the small town of Santa Maria on two days. Here it was very interesting to watch the fishermen bring in their catch, and the women on the pier gutting the fish.

*I read the huge biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow as prep for our forthcoming theatre visit to see Hamilton (the musical) on 7th March, then Entitled by Chris Bryant. The former is an excellent book and well worth reading. My only complaint is that more care should have been taken over the use of the words English and British, and England and Britain. Entitled, however, did not impress me. It’s supposed to be a ‘critical’ history, but reads more like an extended rant. It also includes some mistakes that really should not have been made it into print, including reference to Bannockburn (rather than Culloden) in 1745.

My backblips are:

Monday 12th February: Grounds of the Hilton Hotel, Sal, Cape Verde
Tuesday 13th February: Hotel pool
Wednesday 14th February: Cape Verde pool lizard
Thursday 15th February: Street art, Santa Maria, Cape Verde
Friday 16th February: Holiday reading
Saturday 17th February: 3pm ice cream 
Sunday 18th February: Boat on the beach, Sal, Cape Verde