In 2019 number two son paid and booked for me and his mum to stay in an hotel in the Algarve. The taxi from the airport took us to the big hotel overlooking the sea.
We were both in our fifties (I still am) and seemed to be the youngest people staying at the hotel. Apparently Saga Holidays use the hotel for some of their Algarve holidays destinations.
There was even talk of a quiz evening and bingo. I thought:" It will soon be "Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree." They certainly knew how to have a good time. "Any one for a bird watching excursion?"
Next morning we went down for breakfast and there was hot and cold food placed on tables for us to queue up buffet style. We decided to go for a 'full' English breakfast and sat down amongst a lot of very elderly people.
They seemed to be filling their boots before their coach excursions and we (mainly yours truly) began to start our typical Brits/Irish breakfast conversation about the Baked Beans not being Heinz and it wasn't like the "proper" bacon you get at home.
You go abroad for the sun not the food. That's my motto. Perhaps my next holiday will be in Benidorm? Apparently it's like Blackpool in the sun!
What's a Blackpool donkey get for its dinner? Half an hour!😊
We went out for a stroll and a couple/few of sherbet dabs and returned later that day. We walked round the grounds of the hotel and there was a young man wearing shorts and a woman in the swimming pool dressed in a bikini. She was rather scrumptious and about 25 and I realised that we weren't the youngest people staying in the hotel.
We decided to take the lift and Bikini Lady and her partner got in the same lift. She was about two feet from me. I didn't know where to look. Well apart from the obvious.
The lift journey must have took a few minutes at the most. Throughout the lift journey Bikini Lady just stared me in my eyes. She was like Raquel Welch in A Million Years BC and she knew it.
I bet they thought they had just shared the lift with two people old enough to be their parents. We had shared the same thoughts at breakfast.
Have you ever been to Benidorm?
A Saga holiday sounds right up my street. I wonder where I put my fur bikini?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind going on a 18-30s holiday for people who are our age group. That fur bikini sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI, the Tigger have a fur bikini - it was particularly evident when the V-E-T shaved my tummy for an ultrasound. Not entirely a good look I felt. Isn't saga some sort of Norse legend? You would need horns on your hat, not a fur bikini. xxx Mr T
ReplyDeleteHi Tigger. Our Tiger Kitty had a similar shaved tummy and soluble stitches the other week. Yes saga is a long list of Norse achievements. Saga Holidays are aimed at older people. It felt good to be one of the youngest in the hotel.
ReplyDeleteMy friend and her husband, in their 50s at the time, once booked a coach holiday to the Lakes for Christmas. The coach wound its way across the country picking up people as it went. Each time someone got on my friends thought whatever had they done because the people getting on were folk clearly the wrong side of 70. Once at the hotel they started to worry that it was going to be the worst Christmas ever. You can guess what I am going to say can't you. It turned out to be the BEST ever Christmas and they had never laughed so much. It seems that the older people get the less bothered they are about appearances and what people might think. They just let their hair down and get on with it. I have never been to Benidorm but feel sure I could enjoy it. I have come across situations like the bikini clad girl that you describe and again, no problem, just chatted normally with me, my fully clothed self covered up to the chin. I think people just like being able to be themselves.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel. We once went on a coach holiday to Cornwall. Full of characters like the girl with a Brummie accent asking "Does anyone want a Burn nana" (banana), the same couple who were late every time to get on the coach and the coach driver who drank like a fish and was always still in the bar at two in the morning. You meet some characters when you go on a coach trip or stay in an hotel.
ReplyDeleteYou should have said to the young lady in the lift... "Excuse me - I do realise that I am rather handsome and that you would love to take me back to your room for a workout but I am happily married so I am sorry to have to disappoint you. I am afraid you'll have to stick with your monkey boy!"
ReplyDeleteNo I have never been to Benidorm.
Bikini Lady knew she was the bees knees. I wasn't in her league. Thanks YP.
DeleteSometimes bikini ladies like "a bit of rough" Dave. By the way, which league are you in? National League North? Perhaps you are Scarborough Athletic?
DeleteShe had the livery of a Porsche or a Ferrari. Which ever club that serves the best pies would be the team I would follow YP.
DeleteRoss-on-Pie?
DeleteHay-On-Pie. A town full of pie books.
DeleteAnd pie charts to work out which one has the most generous filling.
DeleteI have not been to Benidorm and suspect I never will. The idea of a coach trip or cruise does not appeal. My partner and I joined a tour in China in 1990 and that was enough of tours for us. At that time solo travel in China was too complicated and expensive. It was a relief to leave the group behind and board the train in Beijing for our onward journey to Moscow.
ReplyDeleteThanks Traveller. That sounds an incredible adventure travelling to Russia and China.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite an adventure. Flew from Sydney to Singapore and then overland to Norway. The only tour bit was China. The rest we did on our own and this was pre internet and cell phones. Also, unfortunately, pre digital cameras.
DeleteIt sounds like the adventure and journey of a lifetime Traveller. Thanks for telling us about your trip.
DeleteNo - not been to Benidorm. But going on a coach trip to London thsis weekend. Bet it's full of folk older than us - and I bet too that we have great laugh with all of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Mark. Hope you have a great coach trip to London and have lots of laughs along the way. You meet some real characters on buses.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe a Wigan kebab-8 pies on a stick.
ReplyDeleteWould that be good for one's cholesterol levels?
DeleteProbably not. What time is it when there's a pie on top of the townhall clock? Summat to ate!
ReplyDelete