Gran Canaria was formed by a volcano that grew out of the sea and continued to spew enough lava onto the surface to break through the ocean and form an island. It is circular in shape with a mountain peak in the middle which separates the island into two distinct sectors, north and south. Viewed from above it looks rather like a beached jellyfish.
Posted in Beaches, Cathedrals, Childhood, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel
Tagged Canary Islands, Culture, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Life, Palmitos Park, Sioux City Gran Canaria, Sioux City Iowa
As a rule when I am on holiday or travelling and reporting back on a place I try and remain positive and upbeat, I try to find the best in a place, I try not to be disappointed.
Today is an exception – I am going to tell you about Popeye Village.
Popeye Village is in Anchor Bay, Malta and it was constructed as a film set for the 1981 film starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. When the film was shot and the actors had all gone home the set became a modest tourist attraction.
I first visited the place in the summer of 1997 and in those days it still looked like a film set. Entrance can’t have been too expensive because in 1997 I wasn’t that keen on parting with unnecessary cash (still not actually). The buildings were much as they would have been for the shooting of the film, a lot of timber and the smell of sawdust. There were a few little embellishments of course to try and amuse visitors but really nothing too dramatic. In fact I think I remember thinking that it was dangerously close to falling down, one Mediterranean storm and it would be surely washed away and gone!
Fast forward twenty years…
Returning to Malta and the Mellieha Bay Hotel it seemed like a good idea to visit again and take my grandchildren. I thought that they might like it there.
Not wishing to rely upon the dreadful bus service I booked a taxi at several times the cost of the bus and it arrived on time and took us to the entrance of what is now marketed as a theme park. I arranged to be picked up in three hours time and the taxi driver gave me a card and a sympathetic look and said if we needed picking up earlier then we should give him a call. There was a message in there which I missed.
The first shock was the entrance fee, I nearly collapsed on the spot and had to be held up while I tapped in my credit card PIN number.
As soon as were inside I knew that it was terrible. The place has been given a gaudy paint makeover, all horrid primary colours; at the centre was a man who was dressed as Popeye but didn’t look anything like Popeye, a man dressed as Bluto but didn’t look anything like Bluto and a woman dressed as Olive Oyl who I have to concede did look a bit like Olive Oyl.
We stayed for about one hour, the children were bored, even they couldn’t find anything to amuse them, the boat ride was late and overcrowded, it wasn’t even a boat, it was a rubber dinghy, the water park was a paddling pool, the free drink (adults only) was barely a thimble full of something cheap and horrid and after sixty minutes or so (less probably) I searched though my pockets for the taxi driver business card.
On the way out Sally set out a list of complaints to the staff – this is usually my job, I am the one to get irritable and argumentative but Sally completely upstaged me today and eventually I had to drag her away from the ticket booth before she trashed the place and thankfully the taxi turned up to take us back to the sanity of the Mellieha Bay Hotel.
As I remember the film wasn’t that good either. Rubbish actually!
I cannot find any single reason to recommend this place, it is expensive, it is amateurish and it is really quite dreadful. It took me a couple of beers to get over the experience. TripAdvisor gives it a rating of Four Stars, I give it minus four!
If you are going to Malta do not waste your money on this so called attraction. If you are determined to see it then walk or drive to it and take a look from the other side of the bay, do not waste your money going inside!
So now I am thinking. Where else have I been that has also been underwhelming and a disappointment.
If Popeye Village is top of the list then second has to be Gatorland in Florida which I had the misfortune to visit in 1990.
And in third place it will have to be the Wild West film set in Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands where I went with my daughter Sally in 1987. She was less than one year old so happily for her she has no recollection of it.
What is the most disappointing place that you have ever visited?
Mid way through the holiday we did hire a car, a little blue Seat with an open top and on the first day set off into the mountains in the interior.
This turned out to be rather hard work as the road swept in extravagant loops around deep valleys and gorges and followed a precarious route to the top. Actually, we didn’t get to the top because after an hour or so we got a puncture and I had to change the wheel at the roadside. We were high up and close to the edge and part way through the process the car started to slide off the jack and I wondered how I was going to explain to the hire company just how the car had fallen off the road and disappeared into a ravine.
Posted in Europe, History, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel
Tagged Canary Islands, Culture, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Life, Palmitos Park, Sioux City Gran Canaria, Sioux City Iowa
One day towards the end of the holiday I walked to Sioux City (not Sioux City in Iowa USA but Sioux City at Canon del Aquila in Gran Canaria) which is an old movie set from the days of the spaghetti westerns which had been transformed into a western theme park with cowboys and Indians, US cavalry and show girls in a succession of staged events and shows that were performed throughout the afternoon.
It was entertaining enough but seemed curiously out of place to me.
Posted in Europe, Food, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel
Tagged Canary Islands, Culture, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Life, Palmitos Park, Sioux City Gran Canaria, Sioux City Iowa, Spaghetti westerns
Having visited Lanzarote in December 1983 I declared the Canary Islands my number one place to go on holiday and so the next time I was booking a summer vacation I choose the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria.
It was May 1986 and this was a special holiday because since the last time that I had been away I had become a father and so this was to be the first of a sequence of holidays to Spanish islands in search of a beach, a swimming pool and a kids’ club.
Unlike Lanzarote, Gran Canaria had been quicker off the mark in terms of developing and encouraging tourism and hadn’t had the benefit of a famous architect like Cesar Manrique to protect it against unsuitable development so here were all of the things that I expected of a Spanish seaside holiday and we were staying in the tourist developed south of the island at the resort of San Agustin, part of the Maspolomas conurbation.
Gran Canaria was formed by a volcano that grew out of the sea and continued to spew enough lava onto the surface to break through the ocean and form an island. It is circular in shape with a mountain peak in the middle which separates the island into two distinct sectors, north and south. Viewed from above it looks rather like a beached starfish. In the north is the capital Las Palmas and there is a wet tropical climate but in the south it is dry, arid and desert like. I didn’t get to visit Las Palmas and I regret that now.
To be honest, it seems to me that there isn’t an awful lot to do in Gran Canaria (except go to Las Palmas) except lie around the pool, occasionally swim in the sea or find a bar or a restaurant for evening meal but perhaps I am being a little unfair.
Mid way through the holiday we did hire a car, a little blue Seat with an open top and on the first day set off into the mountains in the interior. This turned out to be rather hard work as the road swept in extravagant loops around deep valleys and gorges and followed a precarious route to the top. Actually, we didn’t get to the top because after an hour or so we got a puncture and I had to change the wheel at the roadside. We were high up and close to the edge and part way through the process the car started to slide off the jack and I wondered how I was going to explain to the hire company just how the car had fallen off the road and disappeared into a ravine.
That rather put me off driving in Gran Canaria and we sensibly abandoned the journey and returned carefully to the Montenego Apartments with its attractive little garden and swimming pool and we didn’t attempt anything so adventurous again that week and there were places to visit close by so we concentrated on these instead.
Next to San Agustin was the noisy 18-30 holidays resort of Playa del Ingles which was a bit too boisterous for us but just beyond that were the sand dunes of Maspolomas which, although not all that large provide a spacious and, despite the crowds an almost solitary contrast to the over developed promenades of the town and we used to like walking there and watching the camel trains taking people from the town to the lighthouse and return but mindful of how uncomfortable the camel ride had been in Lanzarote we declined to repeat the experience here.
Just around the coast a little, heading west, there was a new purpose built resort of Puerto Rico where layers of concrete rising up the sides of the cliffs like artificial geological strata have permanently disfigured what I imagine was once an attractive landscape.
Back towards the mountains of the centre there was a wildlife and bird park called Palmitos Park and we drove there one day to see the exotic gardens, the birds and the afternoon performing dolphin show but I don’t remember it being especially memorable. A few years ago the park was destroyed by forest fires on the island and a lot of the birds had to be released but I think it has reopened against since.
After the car had been returned without them noticing the punctured tyre in the boot we were once more confined to the resort area but there was one last attraction to go and visit which was quite close to our apartments so one day towards the end of the holiday I walked to Sioux City (not Sioux City in Iowa USA but Sioux City at Canon del Aquila in Gran Canaria) which is an old movie set from the days of the spaghetti westerns which had been transformed into a western theme park with cowboys and Indians, US cavalry and show girls in a succession of staged events and shows that were performed throughout the afternoon. It was entertaining enough but seemed curiously out of place it seemed to me.
And so the holiday came to an end and my assessment at the time was quite firmly that I didn’t like it as much as Lanzarote but having said that it didn’t stop me going back a couple of years later for a week away with my brother.
I am fairly certain that I wouldn’t go back again now.
Posted in Europe, History, Hotels, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel
Tagged Canary Islands, Culture, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Life, Palmitos Park, Sioux City Gran Canaria, Sioux City Iowa
Have Bag, Will Travel 