Miguel, Alex’s godfather and Alan’s pan-godfather, has a conference where he was invited to give a talk. He’s attended conferences all over the world before, but this time it’s in Tenerife. Nice and close, so it’s perfect for us to make a weekend trip. We’ll take the car and the ferry over on Saturday, and head back Sunday evening. Super easy. The only thing we will miss is Alan’s football match, but I think we can make it up by all the fun activities we planned.
The plan
We will take the ferry so we can take our car on Saturday morning. The plan for Saturday is to visit a fun adventure park. Afterwards, we’ll explore the little village nearby the forest where we booked a room, find a restaurant, and maybe even grab a geocache. On Sunday, if the weather allows, we might go up to the highest point in Spain: El Teide. Then it’s back home again.
The actual adventure
Oh no, a big storm was on its way… Emilia. Many public and semi-public activities were cancelled. The forecast for Saturday was high waves (up to 12 meters!) and strong winds. Not the best situation for a boat trip to Tenerife, but so be it. We had the first boat on Saturday. Also the last, because after that all trips were cancelled. It was an interesting crossing.
The forest adventure was first postponed and then cancelled. Mount Teide was off limits because of some snowfall. So we went for some alternatives: visited a few ancient pyramids, stopped at some viewpoints, found a beautiful geocache, explored the Museum of Science, enjoyed some lovely meals, brought Miguel to the airport, and then took the boat calmly back home. Despite the cancellation of almost all our plans, we fortunately still enjoyed the weekend getaway.
Every year, Sinterklaas visits the 
The English used to send criminals and unwanted individuals to Australia. The Russians sent their troublesome people to Siberia. Spain also had its own place for unwanted residents and they were given a one-way ticket to Fuerteventura. It’s quite understandable that Fuerteventura was chosen as a destination for undesirable individuals. The entire island consists mainly of sand and rocks, with only the occasional plant and a clear lack of water. It’s bone dry everywhere.
Well, my
This month we are going skiing. For me it has been about 15 years since I last went on a ski trip. I’m not sure I remember, but I am sure hopeful I will pick up the pace quickly. Alex has had some indoor practice, and for Alan it will be an all new experience. Ana is like me. She is experienced, but her last trip was also years ago. There was some uncertainty about the availability of snow on the piste. At my work it lead to a couple of laughs and even involved some AI. A couple of days before leaving some snow started to fall, but it was not enough to have white snowy pistes. In the end only some pistes with artificial snow could be used.

After three days spend in the artificial happiness I must conclude we really did have a great time. There were lots of things in Disney that were not very nice, but these are common to all theme parks. Waiting times, broken attractions, commerce overload, masses of people everywhere, conflicts and discussions between parents and kids. Disney is a great park to enjoy and experience, but I was personally very happy to leave the park after three day.
In a couple of weeks the waiting is finally over. We will head over to France, to visit euro Disney and Paris. Alex has been counting down the days for a couple of months already. I must admit I had big doubts. Before planning this trip I was convinced that Disney was a bit of a rip off. A place to avoid. A fake place, with abused workers in suits with a smile painted on it walking around the park. I felt it was a place where ‘undercover’ employees walk around to check on the ‘visible’ minimum wage workers, and where incorrect behaviour will not be tolerated.
I can still remember the situation perfectly. As a little boy I was sitting on the couch, next to my little brother and my family. We were all watching